Mirai Nagasu, Nationals in Spokane, January 2010
Mirai Nagasu was born in Montebello, Los Angeles County, California and raised in Arcadia, California. Nagasu’s parents are immigrants from Japan and Nagasu is Japanese American. Her name Mirai is a Japanese word meaning “future.” Her name may be represented in Japanese using the Kanji 長洲未来 or using the Kana ナガス・ミライ, both representations having been used by the Japanese press. These representations are of “Nagasu Mirai,” the name order used in Japanese, and not of “Nagasu Mirai Aileen,” and so are not representations of her full name.
Nagasu was a recipient of a Michael Weiss Foundation scholarship, which is for young American figure skaters.
Nagasu graduated from Foothills Middle School in the spring of 2007 and entered Arcadia High School in the fall of 2007. In 2009, she began attending an online high school.
As Nagasu was born in the United States, but both her parents were born in Japan, she has dual citizenship with the United States and Japan. According to Japanese law, she must choose which citizenship to maintain before her 22nd birthday. She has always competed for the United States.
Her Japanese heritage has inspired considerable publicity for Nagasu in Japan. Beginning with her win at the Junior level at the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Nagasu featured prominently in news stories along with Japanese skaters Mao Asada and Miki Ando, leading to speculation in the Japanese media that Nagasu was being courted by the Japanese Skating Federation to switch countries and skate for Japan. In the summer of 2007, Nagasu performed in ice shows in Japan.
In the fall of 2007, after winning her two Junior Grand Prix events, Nagasu took part in the International Counter Match “made for television” event in Japan. There, Nagasu was part of Team USA and competed against Team Japan. In the promotion and news coverage of the event, Nagasu’s presence and participation were given nearly as much coverage as Ando’s and Asada’s. As far into her career as October 2007, after Nagasu had already qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final for the United States, the Japanese media continued to speculate on the possibility of her skating for Japan. – Wikipedia
“Career Highlights
2008 U.S. Champion, 2-time World Junior Medalist
Looking back: 2009
Mirai let her “stubborn, independent” streak trump the advice of her coaches and doctors, competing through the season despite an injured ankle. “I pushed hardest when my foot was bothering me the most,” Mirai says now, looking back. “I thought that the pain was something I could overcome.” She also dealt with, in her words, “teenage adolescence,” a growth spurt (she’s now 5-foot-3) and increased academic demands as – “some nights I had to go sleepless so I didn’t have energy to skate” All of these challenges culminated into a disappointing season for Mirai, just a year removed from her improbable win at the 2008 Nationals.
The aftermath
Mirai declined to compete at the 2008 World Junior Championships and spent a month completely off the ice. She still tapes her ankle before practice, uses arch supports in her skates and ices it frequently afterwards. She’s also resumed daily ballet class, which she feels enhances her strength and balance. ”Now my ankle doesn’t turn in every time I jump,” Mirai says.
Coaching change
Until May 2009, Mirai had a seven-member coaching staff, with Canadian Olympian Charlene Wong leading the troupe. She’s since switched coaches to Frank Carroll, coach of 2009 world champion Evan Lysacek. Carroll also currently coaches Italy’s Carolina Kostner, a former European champion and coached Michelle Kwan to four of her five world titles (Kwan and Carroll parted ways in 2001).
Coach Carroll on Mirai
“I think that she has great talent. I think discipline right now is a little bit of a problem…I think she’s a lovely, lovely skater. I’d like to get her a little tougher,” Carroll told NBC, adding that he “Demands in practice that she do exactly what I say and do her programs all the way through. No pouting, no whining, no excuses and it is what it is. You work hard and you accept what you’ve done, but you don’t cry over it.”
2008 U.S. Champion
In her first senior nationals Mirai portrayed the story of a doll coming to life set to music from Léo Delibes’ Coppelia, a fitting program for the then-78 lb, 4-foot-11 14-year-old. The performance was marred only by a fall on her opening double Axel. “Honestly, I had no idea what she was going to do,” then-coach 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.” Mirai nailed her second jumping pass, a triple-triple combination and executed the rest of her program without any major mistakes to become the second youngest U.S. champion (Tara Lipinski remains the youngest).
How it all began
Mirai began skating at age five because her parents took her ice skating on a rainy day when she couldn’t play golf. The Nagasus own a small sushi restaurant in Arcadia, Calif., (“The food is just as good as the Beverly Hills restaurants,” says Mirai) and her family has struggled financially. When asked in 2007 what size clothes she wore, Mirai said she didn’t know because most of her clothes were secondhand. Three-time U.S. Michael Weiss and his foundation, which Weiss developed to assist promising skaters with financial need, supported Mirai with a scholarship before she was a well-known skater. The Nagasus are Japanese nationals (Mirai has dual citizenship until she turns 22) and is working on her Japanese. “Hopefully by the time I’m 18 I’ll be fluent and can read and write it too,” she says.”
Nagasu was on the brink of stardom when she won the U.S. title two years ago. Just 14, she was perky and precious and was as entertaining off the ice as she was on it. For as gifted as she is, though, Nagasu is also a very typical teenager. When she struggled last year, part of it was ordinary teenage angst and rebellion.
But she switched coaches last spring and now works with Frank Carroll, and the move has made all the difference. Personality oozes from her programs as she uses every inch of her body – from the top of her head to the very tips of her fingers – to bring characters to life.
Her sexy, saucy and powerful “Carmen” sure proved that. She started with a seductive little dance and flew from there. Her double axel-triple toe combination was so massive it would have gone from blue to blue line had this been a hockey rink. Her spins are fabulous, done with the flexibility of a rubber band.
She also has found a way to blend the artistry and athleticism that makes skating so enticing – a quality many complain has been lost under the current judging system – by linking her jumps and spins with intricate steps and other deceptively difficult maneuvers. Instead of a series of elements, her programs are more like an entire piece of art.
She skates with her heart, too, and everyone in the arena is touched by it. She had the audience clapping in time to her music not even a third of the way into the program, and fans were on their feet when she still had a good 15 seconds to go. “ -NBColympics.com
Some fun facts about Mirai:
♥ Her dad, a Japanese immigrant, is a sushi chef.
♥ Mirai went to her prom in May, wearing a fuschia dress by Japanese designer Tadashi Shoji. (She loves fashion.)
♥ Her lucky charm is a necklace that she never takes off.
♥ She loves her white Chihuahua
Wish me luck !
Nbcolympics.com
Mirainagasu.com
Wikipedia.com
