And what of Mirai Nagasu? | Golden Skate

And what of Mirai Nagasu?

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
How is she doing? I will never forget her Olympic skate, nor her youthful charm. Simply adorable. What is Mirai up to? Competitions? Any links?
 

icellist

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Mirai has a lovely SP and exhibition this season: The Man I Love by Gershwin (choreo Cindy Stuart) and On Golden Pond (choreo Adam Rippon) respectively.
Her FS is an 007 James Bond Medley (choreo Cindy Stuart) that starts off good but has confusing music cuts after 1:46 of the video. I sincerely hope, her team fix that before her GPs

SP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJPTTRin2A
FS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVIufDAjIgc
EX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAJ0hMV_PsQ

She competed in Glacier Falls about a month ago and placed 3rd behind Courtney Hicks and Polina Edmunds. I wouldn't fret though because she was never much of a summer skater. Interesting to note that she is attempting a 3F-3T, 3Lz, 2A SP. Her FS includes a 2A-3T, two 3F (one in combo), 2 3L (one in combo), 3Lz, and 2A [I still think has the best axel out of any US lady]. She just competed at West Coast Championship in Valencia, CA and won the event. She is going to Finland this week to compete at Finlandia Trophy along with Vanessa Lam. Her main competition there are Akiko Suzuki and the Russians: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Julia Lipnitskaia, and Nikol Gosviani. [jw, why are Finlandia and Ondrej Nepela the same week? The field at Finlandia is packed while the US skaters at ON get easy ranking points]

Mirai is slated to compete at NHK Trophy and Rostelecom Cup. These two GP events should give her a bye to nationals. After the withdrawal of Yuna Kim and Kiira Korpi, Mirai has the hardest mountain to climb to get to the GPF of the US ladies. I hope she medals at least at one of her events and skates good, clean performances. I think the only lady locked for the Olympics is Ashley Wagner at this point. I hope the next two berths are given fairly between Christina Gao, Gracie Gold, Courtney Hicks, and Mirai Nagasu. [Agnes hasn't proven that she can skate a good sp and lp back to back yet as a senior] But I'd always be rooting for Mirai~~~
 

Nadia01

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
I sort of feel sorry for Mirai. All that potential & talent, and she sort of fizzled out after Vancouver. I have no idea what happened, but I think it's going to be VERY difficult for her to get a spot on the Oly Team.

I actually think that Gracie Gold has a good chance, provided she doesn't totally implode this season. I don't think federation's going to forget the fact that it's her & Ashley who brought home the 3 spots.
 

kalle

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
Mirai has a lovely SP and exhibition this season: The Man I Love by Gershwin (choreo Cindy Stuart) and On Golden Pond (choreo Adam Rippon) respectively.
Her FS is an 007 James Bond Medley (choreo Cindy Stuart) that starts off good but has confusing music cuts after 1:46 of the video. I sincerely hope, her team fix that before her GPs

SP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJPTTRin2A
FS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVIufDAjIgc
EX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAJ0hMV_PsQ

She competed in Glacier Falls about a month ago and placed 3rd behind Courtney Hicks and Polina Edmunds. I wouldn't fret though because she was never much of a summer skater. Interesting to note that she is attempting a 3F-3T, 3Lz, 2A SP. Her FS includes a 2A-3T, two 3F (one in combo), 2 3L (one in combo), 3Lz, and 2A [I still think has the best axel out of any US lady]. She just competed at West Coast Championship in Valencia, CA and won the event. She is going to Finland this week to compete at Finlandia Trophy along with Vanessa Lam. Her main competition there are Akiko Suzuki and the Russians: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Julia Lipnitskaia, and Nikol Gosviani. [jw, why are Finlandia and Ondrej Nepela the same week? The field at Finlandia is packed while the US skaters at ON get easy ranking points]

Mirai is slated to compete at NHK Trophy and Rostelecom Cup. These two GP events should give her a bye to nationals. After the withdrawal of Yuna Kim and Kiira Korpi, Mirai has the hardest mountain to climb to get to the GPF of the US ladies. I hope she medals at least at one of her events and skates good, clean performances. I think the only lady locked for the Olympics is Ashley Wagner at this point. I hope the next two berths are given fairly between Christina Gao, Gracie Gold, Courtney Hicks, and Mirai Nagasu. [Agnes hasn't proven that she can skate a good sp and lp back to back yet as a senior] But I'd always be rooting for Mirai~~~


I am really curious to know how she did point wise at this competition..hopefully a step up from the Glacier Falls?
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I sort of feel sorry for Mirai. All that potential & talent, and she sort of fizzled out after Vancouver. I have no idea what happened, but I think it's going to be VERY difficult for her to get a spot on the Oly Team.

I think she, like many women, struggled with her changing body. If you watch her videos from 2010 and see her now, you can see noticeable differences in her figure. (She is in shape now, just built more like a woman than a girl.) I also think she has had problems selecting the right programs. Those "cutesy" programs she did when she was younger worked quite well for her, but she hasn't had as much success with more mature, lyrical programs. I agree that it is unlikely that she will make the Olympic team, and I think it is due primarily to her problems rotating jumps in high-pressure situations like Nationals.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I sort of feel sorry for Mirai. All that potential & talent, and she sort of fizzled out after Vancouver. I have no idea what happened, but I think it's going to be VERY difficult for her to get a spot on the Oly Team.


I think Mirai's problem is the weight of all those expectations along with a couple of injuries. At both World's and Olympics, she was in a position to win after the short program and then she had awful free skates. She started thinking about winning too much vs skating well IMHO. Then she had injuries and a changing body that just brought her 'down' and she hasn't found 'eye of the tiger' again to bounce back into contention.

I also agree that she hasn't found the right music that helps her skate well. The fun bubbly stuff matched her personality vs what she has skated to more recently.
 

TheCzar

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
I think Mirai's problem is the weight of all those expectations along with a couple of injuries. At both World's and Olympics, she was in a position to win after the short program and then she had awful free skates. She started thinking about winning too much vs skating well IMHO. Then she had injuries and a changing body that just brought her 'down' and she hasn't found 'eye of the tiger' again to bounce back into contention.

I also agree that she hasn't found the right music that helps her skate well. The fun bubbly stuff matched her personality vs what she has skated to more recently.

I don't know...I think she was poised to win bronze at Vancouver. She had a better skate than Rochette for me, and I'd hate to sound like a ***** but couple with more maturity in her style, I think Rochette won that bronze with a generous slice of condolence. But then again, at the Games, medals will always be given to those who take the crowd with them.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Mirai. If not now, she always has 2018 as a final resort- especially if these Russian wunderbabies fail to reach their potential post-puberty? Should give Mirai enough time to bow out, hopefully in the way Shizuka did.
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
I think Mirai's problem is the weight of all those expectations along with a couple of injuries. At both World's and Olympics, she was in a position to win after the short program and then she had awful free skates. She started thinking about winning too much vs skating well IMHO.

I don't think she really had any shot at WINNING in Vancouver. Yuna Kim was running away with it after SP. Maybe, maybe a bronze if she'd brought the 3+3 in the SP.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Mirai. If not now, she always has 2018 as a final resort- especially if these Russian wunderbabies fail to reach their potential post-puberty? Should give Mirai enough time to bow out, hopefully in the way Shizuka did.

I think this year is her last shot. If she hasn't been able to get her act together the last few years, how would 2018 be any different?
 

Nadia01

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
I think Mirai's problem is the weight of all those expectations along with a couple of injuries. At both World's and Olympics, she was in a position to win after the short program and then she had awful free skates.

Huh?

I don't think she was in any position to win in Vancouver, and I didn't think her free skate there was that awful. Am I missing something?

I thought she sort of blew it away in Torino, but I blamed it on the long season & fatigue.
 

Jammers

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Country
United-States
Huh?

I don't think she was in any position to win in Vancouver, and I didn't think her free skate there was that awful. Am I missing something?

I thought she sort of blew it away in Torino, but I blamed it on the long season & fatigue.
You could tell just by the look on her face at Worlds before the LP that Mirai was not going to skate well. She let the moment get to her and she's done it more then once. Just look at Nationals 2011 when she was leading after the SP. After Alissa skated lights out Mirai looked nervous and beaten and didn't skate with any attack and instead made silly mistakes which is why Frank was so furious with her.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
Mirai was in medal position in Torino, but she'd been in medal position many times before and got spooked just the same way. It seems as if she is terrified of winning and becoming the chased instead of the chaser.
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Mirai was in medal position in Torino, but she'd been in medal position many times before and got spooked just the same way. It seems as if she is terrified of winning and becoming the chased instead of the chaser.

Honestly I think it's impossible to know if she still struggles with this or not. I think her current 'main problem' is an inability to fully rotate jumps pure and simple. It's been years since she was in a position to become the chased (and this is from a huge Mirai fan).

I think her main issues are (in no order)

1. The USFSA gave up on her after World's when she fell to 7th instead of brushing it off and throwing full support behind her for the next season. I think her career may have gone slightly differently otherwise (but only slightly because of 2 and 3).

2. Her body has changed since 2010. At times it seemed (and I think) she wasn't in ideal shape. However, now (as someone else said) she is in shape. Despite this, she has a woman's body and there's no way she is going to get rid of it without starving herself. Those are the breaks.

3. Partly (I think) due to her body, and partly due to other issues she's had since pre-2010 really, she has a hard time consistently rotating her jumps. I think it is partly a technique issue (ironically, some of it 'good' technique- she reaches for the ice with her toe pick and thus comes down more quickly than if she did not) maybe partly a mental issue, probably partly a just having done it wrong for too long issue.

4. In addition to all this, there is her problem with nerves, but at this point, I don't think that's what's killing her.
 

Jammers

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Country
United-States
Yes we don't know how her nerves are now since she doesn't get a lead after the SP. We would know if she went into the LP with a lead but it's been a long time since she had a lead after the SP.
 

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Mirai is afraid of success in some ways, it seems

WTH? Let's not go Sigmund Freud on the girl. She was just inconsistent, and her technique was never good. That's all. No running away from success because her daddy told her she didn't deserve it.
I'm not a fan of Mirai, but this kind of statement is just mind blowing.
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
Times when she's had leads (or a very good chance of making the World Team), she's gotten that deer in the headlights look and skated way below her abilities. This is why I said IT SEEMS as if she is afraid of success.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Times when she's had leads (or a very good chance of making the World Team), she's gotten that deer in the headlights look and skated way below her abilities. This is why I said IT SEEMS as if she is afraid of success.

I think she is just afraid to attack her programs when there's something important on the line. She skates relatively well in her GP events, but when she gets to Nationals she is too conservative and jumps intending not to fall, which means she comes out short on the rotation. I don't think it is a fear of success as much as a fear of making major mistakes.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
You don't become a champion by skating not to lose. A champion skates to win.
 
Top