Truly super.. Now coach of US national Senior ladies figure skating champion :o)
The US has a very fine crop of up and comers...
I will likely be cheering GO USA at the next Winter Olympics
The Black Swan
Nagasu, 14, reigns over young challengers
BY KELSIE SMITH
Pioneer Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Launched:01/26/2008 10:01:00 PM PST
The scores coming across the screen put Mirai Nagasu in first place, but as it happened the youngest senior women's national champion since Tara Lipinski in 1997 didn't react.
Finally, after coach Charlene Wong told Nagasu the results, a smile returned to her uncharacteristically straight face.
"Charlene had to tell me because I didn't have my glasses on," Nagasu said. "She was like, 'Oh my God!' And I was like 'What?' And she was like 'You won!' And I was like 'What?' "
Sitting in the kiss-and-cry area, Nagasu knew that the two skaters before her had been close to perfect. For them there had been no falls, just one two-footed landing and high marks for spins and spirals.
The 14-year-old Nagasu had just faced a whole lot of grown-up pressure, and almost immediately she seemed to succumb, falling on her first jump of the program, a double Axel.
"The fall on the double Axel was like a kick in the butt," Nagasu said, "and after that I just attacked and did the rest."
With a score of 190.41, Nagasu, 34 days older than Lipinski was when she won in 1997, became the second-youngest U.S. champion in history. Just 1.68 points behind her was 15-year-old Rachael Flatt. Ashley Wagner, 16, finished third, and 14-year-old Caroline Zhang moved up from seventh after the short program to finish fourth.
The youth movement is certainly promising for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, but also means that for the first time three of the top four finishers are not age-eligible for the 2008 world team, which requires that the skater turned 15 by July 1, 2007. Flatt missed the deadline by 20 days.
Nagasu's win marks the first time the U.S. champion is ineligible for the world team, and because of the age restrictions, the 2008 squad will be made up of Wagner, Bebe Liang, who finished fifth, and Kimmie Meissner, the 2007 national champ who finished a disappointing seventh after falling three times in her long program.
The senior women's world team could be, it seems, quite weak. Expect Nagasu, Flatt and Zhang, who each said they would accept an invitation to the junior world team, to dominate on their own stage.
Skating in the first senior event of her career, Nagasu showed a kind of innocence that put her beyond the pressure and beyond the nerves. But standing in the concourse before her free skate, Nagasu heard the crowd of 13,000 erupt twice, once for Flatt and then for Wagner.
Nagasu's fall came quickly, and the next planned jump was a triple-Lutz, triple-toe combination. How Nagasu handled that - meaning she decided against opting for an easier double-toe - was telling, Wong said.
"I had no idea what she was going to do," Wong said, "but I knew that whatever she went for was going to be a defining moment in her career. Either she was going to be a fighter or she was going to buckle."
Nagasu went for the triple, though she was downgraded for under-rotating.
"When I fell on the double Axel, I was like, 'What I am doing? I have to get myself back under control,' " Nagasu said. "After that it was a lot easier for me."
Of the three youngest girls - Nagasu, Flatt and Zhang - in the senior division this week, Zhang was the favorite, with Nagasu the second-most talked about and Flatt quite a ways behind.
Flatt placed second at the junior grand prix final, fifth at last year's senior nationals, and skated two technically sound programs in St. Paul. On Saturday she landed seven triple jumps, including one triple-triple combination and one triple-double-double combination.
Her underdog status, she said, suited her fine.
"I think what Rachael and I talked about is that she has the ability to be a great skater and develop into a great athlete," said her coach, Tom Zakrajsek. "If it takes a little time and some of the other girls in the sport get a little attention along the way, it's just fine. She'll have her attention, and she'll get the attention when she reaches her goals."
Nagasu, Flatt and Wagner mark a complete turnover from last year's podium at nationals, when Meissner was first, Emily Hughes second and Alissa Czisny (who finished ninth) was third. Goals are one thing, but it seems unlikely that the teenagers on the medal stand Saturday night could have guessed this outcome.
Then again, Wong said, perhaps this is just how they imagined it.
"We're coming off a time of excellent skating," Wong said. "The Michelle Kwans, the Sasha Cohens and even the Kimmie Meissners, they showed us what's possible, so these girls aren't afraid to dream big."
Kelsie Smith can be reached at ksmith@pioneerpress.com.
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