AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Mirai Nagasu
Many Asian American athletes shined over the weekend in the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships–including 10-year old prodigy Nathan Chen who won gold in the Novice division, and siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani who won the junior ice dancing competition.
But the country’s attention (and the Championships’ official site) seems focused on the enigmatic Mirai Nagasu, who took home an improbable silver in the women’s competition, falling just short of the solid-but-flairless Rachel Flatt.
Name: Mirai Nagasu
Age: 16
Hails from:
Occupation: Student, American figure skater
Known for: Flash and surprises. Though she didn’t fancy herself an Olympic contender and hoped mostly to show her potential for the future, Nagasu competed beautifully in the Spokane, WA figure skating National Championships last week, nabbing a coveted ticket to the Olympic Games. She may not have bested the gold medal winner with numbers, despite a near-flawless final performance, but Nagasu quickly became a people’s favorite and proved one very important point: The future is now.
See Nagasu’s fire on ice, on display in her free skate performance, below:
[Mirai Nagasu - Official Site]
[Chicago Tribune: Flatt Deserved Systematic Victory, But Fans Deserved An Explanation, And Skating Deserves Better Than Flawed System]
Filed under: 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Amazing Teens, Competitions, Figure Skating, Flair, Mirai Nagasu, Nathan Chen, National Championships, Olympics, Rachel Flatt, Spokane, Teenagers, the Olympics
