Mirai Nagasu Cheer thread: Return to Olympus

[Sylvia]

For those who can watch via NBC Olympics, Mirai is warming up right now on the main rink before the SP.

ETA: Camera is alternating between her, Karen and Gabby D.

 

[Sasha'sSpins]

I love that Mirai, Adam, Nathan and the Shibs became break out stars of the Olympics! I hope that all of this attention brings more fans into the sport - the Stars On Ice tour will likely sell out if it hasn't already! Everyone's going to want to see Team USA especially Mirai, Adam, the Shibs and Quad King Nathan! This has truly been a Dream Team for me! All of my favorite skaters are in it! Mirai, Adam, Nathan, the ShibSibs and the Knierims! And they're all going home with Olympic medals! My cup runneth over!

Tonight's the night! Mirai has her Olympic medal so anything else should be for the joy of it and who knows?? Maybe she can sneak in there for a bronze!

GO FOR IT MIRAI!! SLAY!!

 

[Allskate]

I was a little bit worried when I saw her in the warmup. She left looking unhappy, but intense.

I'm so proud of her for going for the triple axel even after a rough warmup. And I'm even prouder of her for not letting the fall affect the rest of her program. I hope she's proud of herself.

 

[MIsty Blades/Skate Mom]

Overall, a nice skate. She went super hard with the Triple Axel and she moved ahead of Bradie.

 

[NinjaTurtles]

Enjoy Gabby’s contour. Do not enjoy her subtle leg wrap on the jumps.

 

[coppertop1]

So close!!!! Really good recovery though

 

[Sasha'sSpins]

I'm so proud of Mirai! Went for that 3A like a Boss! She nailed her combo and kept it together even after the mistake! And WOW a SB even with such a big mistake! Makes me wonder what she would've scored with a perfect skate!

Oh my ((U.S. Ladies)). <3 Be kind Phil Hersh and the rest of the press!

Did all 3 girls get a SB in spite of the mistakes?

I wish they could have a do over! All have done so much better! Mirai top American woman (I thought it'd be Bradie)!

None are going to make the final group but I hope they all keep fighting! I remember the words, per Tara, of Aliona and Bruno after their Pair's SP - 'It's not the end, we won't give up, we'll fight till the end'. Or something along those lines. And they won the gold!

Ok, time for redemption! If I were Mirai, I'd pull a Nathan and go for everything in my arsenal. Meaning TWO 3A's in the FS, one in combo. Maybe something crazy like that 3A-3T-2T that she posted on her IG some time ago! Nothing to lose!

 

[GullyGirl84]

Still a history maker, still an Olympic medalist, still the top finishing American in the sp, still the only one going for a triple axel and not getting rewarded at all for attempting such difficult content There's always worlds.

 

[chapis]

I thought that the fall would distract her but it was not like that. She did a good job .

 

[Allskate]

Do you think that maybe she was a little emotional today?

https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/966138525363023872/video/1



Maybe she poured all that emotion into the triple axel and that's why she overrotated it.

 

[Frida80]

Well... I’m about 50% ready to post a picture of all the cranes I folded to cheer her up. I can’t bear to hear her so sad! Everyone send lots of tweets of support and messages to her Instagram!

 

[Sasha'sSpins]

Do you think that maybe she was a little emotional today?

https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/966138525363023872/video/1



Maybe she poured all that emotion into the triple axel and that's why she overrotated it.

Could I heart Mirai any more? That was beautiful!

Hopefully the media will stop going on and on about the triple axel now and Mirai can relax and have the skate of her life in the FS! Like Nathan, I'd like her last time on Olympic ice to be something to remember!

 

[GullyGirl84]

Figure skater Mirai Nagasu showed her bravery by doing something no other Olympian does
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...g-something-no-other-olympian-does/357743002/

I know that it doesn't matter in the scheme of things, but I think that Mirai was robbed by about two placements. I think that it was tough for her having such a long time between events, her back was taped too I believe. But in the end, falling on a rotated triple axel is nothing to be ashamed of, even if I wish that the sp had its original choreography. Who would have thought that Bradie would have fallen on her lutz toe? Who would have thought that Nathan would mess up in both his sps? It seems like there's not much incentive for women to go for the triple axel these days honestly.

Here's another post-SP interview with Mirai, she's really upset. This past week has probably just been a roller coaster of emotions for her, and I think she put a lot of pressure on herself after how she performed in the team event.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/emotional-mirai-nagasu-disappointed-after-axel-fall

 

[ToFarAwayTimes]

Well Mirai, you have a lot of guts. I admire that. I hope you have a better free skate and I am very confident you will.

 

[Spun Silver]

Oh man. That interview. I just want to send her all the love and rainbows and unicorns in the universe. Where is that Indian hugging saint when you need her?

I think she is experiencing the negative side of that immense wave of media attention she got after the team bronze. It's fabulous... when things are going great.

Can't help thinking the recent arrival of her parents, esp her father coming to see her compete for the first time, may have thrown her off too. I just read this line in a Henry James novel: "[T]he shade of discomfort that Strether drew from [never mind] resembled not a little the embarrassment he had known, at school, as a boy, when members of his family had been present at exhibitions. He could perform before strangers, but relatives were fatal...."

I said a rosary for her tonight. Praying she has a free skate to be proud of so she won't leave feeling like she let America down.

 

[ToFarAwayTimes]

One thing I'm sure of, it was not the pressure. Even after she fell she was strong the rest of the program, never a wilt as Dick Button used to say. The problem was she is just not consistent with the 3A. What does she land it, 10% of the time? Asking her to land it twice or more in the Olympics, there's like a 1% chance. And I was sure she would hold onto it, just that last slip of the blade.

She had a low chance of success and she went for it anyway and almost pulled it off. Nothing to be ashamed of. She can slay the long program for sure.

 

[aftershocks]

They could have given Mirai more points. She was good on everything except 3-axel which she over-rotated and that's saying something! I don't think Dabin Choi should be in front of Mirai.

Mirai went for more difficulty, but she's still dumped on because she wasn't successful on the landing. Once again the judges give some competitors a harder time on margin of error. Usually the judges prop up rep skaters who attempt difficulty with falls. So we see the rampant politics at play. Mirai doesn't get the breaks unless she's perfect with a 3-axel. Dabin Choi skated fairly clean but did not have the same difficulty, and there's nothing that special or notable about her skating either. It must just be partly due to Choi being South Korean and the judges being influenced by the crowd's excitement. Choi has apparently never scored that high before. Choi should be in front of Karen Chen perhaps, but not in front of Mirai.

Also Gabby Daleman unfortunately did not land her money combination jump, and 3-toe/ 3-toe is not as difficult a combination, it just covers a lot of ice and gets huge GOE normally. Obviously Daleman did not receive positive GOE for that faulty combo, but they decided to score Daleman higher on PCS than Mirai, which is simply unfair. That again looks like a political score to me. If anything Mirai and Daleman should be practically tied.

 

[Spun Silver]

^ Not quite. Her success rate in practice is 80-90%. Of course in competition it's much harder. But it seems something was already wrong before the competition.

 

[skateboy]

Here's another post-SP interview with Mirai, she's really upset. This past week has probably just been a roller coaster of emotions for her, and I think she put a lot of pressure on herself after how she performed in the team event.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/emotional-mirai-nagasu-disappointed-after-axel-fall

Wow... is there anyone who doesn't want to hug the girl after that? You go, Mirai!

 

[Jarrett]

One thing I'm sure of, it was not the pressure. Even after she fell she was strong the rest of the program, never a wilt as Dick Button used to say. The problem was she is just not consistent with the 3A. What does she land it, 10% of the time? Asking her to land it twice or more in the Olympics, there's like a 1% chance. And I was sure she would hold onto it, just that last slip of the blade.

She had a low chance of success and she went for it anyway and almost pulled it off. Nothing to be ashamed of. She can slay the long program for sure.

Mirai's success rate is much higher than 10%. She landed almost all of the ones she tried in practice at Nationals and the Olympics however today was not a good day and fell on almost all of them. I'm actually very impressed she went for the jump after her struggles in the practice and warm ups. It makes me sad that she felt like she disappointed her country but I know she will receive an outpouring of support. We love you Mirai! Please do you thing in long program.

 

[aftershocks]

I think it's all the media attention and expectations. Mirai needs to remember how it feels to land the 3-axel just right, which is hard to do with everyone buzzing. There needs to be a way to zone out all of that stuff in order to focus. All the requests for interviews is a bit much when athletes still have to go about their business and compete. There's just too much OTT media intrusion IMO. But I guess that's the way of it these days.

Hopefully, Mirai will feel some pressure taken off and just go for it to do her best in the fp for herself. There's no chance for a podium spot here, not with the rampant politics having put the podium out of reach except for a select few. One of the problems is how poorly Mirai is rated on PCS in comparison to Daleman and Sakomoto, which is completely unfair. Mirai should be in the 8s right along with those two skaters, but no, they pushed Mirai down to high 7s. That's inaccurate.
http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1718/owg2018/SEG003.HTM

And look at the 9.71 scores given to Med! And mid 9s also for Zagitova! There's nothing either of them do that justifies such high PCS. Even Kostner and Sakomoto are lower 9s. If those two are lower 9s, then Med and Zag should be rated lower than both of those ladies on PCS. Osmond is rated lower 9s too. I think Osmond should be slightly higher than Med and Zag, and slightly lower than Kostner and Sakomoto on the interpretive categories. SS are a different matter. I do not think that Med or Zag have the best skating skills. They are good and consistent jumpers, not blade wizards. Plus they need to mature before being thrown such marks, as if they are great artists. Where do they have left to go, when they are being told they are so perfect and wonderful?!

There's absolutely no pressure on Med and Zag when they are given scores so far out of reach. If Osmond doesn't tank in the fp, the podium stays the same. If Osmond falters, Miyahara might slip in there with a perfect skate. Sakamoto and Kostner have an outside shot. I really don't think anyone else has a chance realistically, looking at the numbers.

I found it interesting that Eteri looked upset for Medvedeva when Zagitova's scores came up.

With going for a 3-axel and just missing on the landing but doing everything else well, I feel Mirai should be in at least 6th or 7th place. It's purely politics that has Mirai down in 9th, IMHO.

 

[Firedancer]

Here's another post-SP interview with Mirai, she's really upset. This past week has probably just been a roller coaster of emotions for her, and I think she put a lot of pressure on herself after how she performed in the team event.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/emotional-mirai-nagasu-disappointed-after-axel-fall

Aww she didn’t let anyone down! She stuck with the program after the mistake on the 3A and the combo was really nice. I also felt like we saw more emotion from her than we have seen at other times. I hope she can give herself a break, take advantage of the off day and come back with another FS like the team event. She is already an Olympic medalist no matter what!

 

[olympic]

BTW, the 3A w/ the mistake was worth it.

Mirai scored 5.50 w/ the stumble and fall because she rotated. The best scoring 2As were all in the mid-4 range. That is a 1 point difference.

Probably the best 3F-3T I ever saw her do.

Why the -0.3 for the 3L?? And her Layback deserves to be above +1 GOE.

 

[Satellitegirl]

BTW, the 3A w/ the mistake was worth it.

Mirai scored 5.50 w/ the stumble and fall because she rotated. The best scoring 2As were all in the mid-4 range. That is a 1 point difference.

Probably the best 3F-3T I ever saw her do.

Why the -0.3 for the 3L?? And her Layback deserves to be above +1 GOE.

Yep, the scoring for Mirai was garbage overall IMO. (Edit to say, I would have had her probably 2 spots higher after the SP.)

 

[GullyGirl84]

BTW, the 3A w/ the mistake was worth it.

Mirai scored 5.50 w/ the stumble and fall because she rotated. The best scoring 2As were all in the mid-4 range. That is a 1 point difference.

Probably the best 3F-3T I ever saw her do.

Why the -0.3 for the 3L?? And her Layback deserves to be above +1 GOE.

Yet, the media narrative will be that her placement is because she fell on the triple axel, because The Public understands that Falling Is Bad (and that's why they were so confused by Adam being outscored by Kolyada, until it was explained to them that rotating and falling on harder technical elements is better than not attempting them at all).

I was less bothered until I saw Mirai's reaction video where she was giving herself such a hard time for falling on a rotated triple axel....grrrr....now I am retroactively pissed about her score from the team event LP not being higher, even though I know that it did not matter in terms of placements.

 

[Maximillian]

BTW, the 3A w/ the mistake was worth it.

Mirai scored 5.50 w/ the stumble and fall because she rotated. The best scoring 2As were all in the mid-4 range. That is a 1 point difference.

Probably the best 3F-3T I ever saw her do.

Why the -0.3 for the 3L?? And her Layback deserves to be above +1 GOE.

The 3R landing was pretty scratchy...though I don't know if it deserved to be penalized that much.

 

[OnyxRose81]

Mirai is completely a victim of politics and getting punished more severely than others. I cannot understand why. She should have been up there with Daleman and Choi completely underrotated her 3T. I'm proud of Mirai for throwing the 3A and fighting after that mistake. I hope she has a wonderful LP.

 

[giselle23]

The 3R landing was pretty scratchy...though I don't know if it deserved to be penalized that much.

Definitely, it should not have been. Mirai should have been ahead of Choi and Daleman, at least. Why is her PCS 3 points lower than Daleman's? The judges just have her pegged in the 7's/low 8's and there is nothing she can do about it.

 

[giselle23]

One thing I'm sure of, it was not the pressure. Even after she fell she was strong the rest of the program, never a wilt as Dick Button used to say. The problem was she is just not consistent with the 3A. What does she land it, 10% of the time? Asking her to land it twice or more in the Olympics, there's like a 1% chance. And I was sure she would hold onto it, just that last slip of the blade.

She had a low chance of success and she went for it anyway and almost pulled it off. Nothing to be ashamed of. She can slay the long program for sure.

She didn't have a low chance of success. She has landed the jump 75% or higher in practice. She fully rotated it this time, but the problem was the fall. If she had stood up on it, she would have gotten an extra point and probably higher PCS, too.

 

[mag]

Definitely, it should not have been. Mirai should have been ahead of Choi and Daleman, at least. Why is her PCS 3 points lower than Daleman's? The judges just have her pegged in the 7's/low 8's and there is nothing she can do about it.

There has been crazy scoring, but Mirai really should be behind Gabby in PCS. Her choreography and interpretation are not on the same level. That said, Mirai behind Choi is a crime! Kurt mentioned that Mirai had a seriously hard fall on the 3A in warm up. I know she has fallen hard before, but he said that this one was a bad fall - and I suspect he can tell the difference. She definitely earned the respect of the Canadian commentators the way she then just flew into the 3A in the program. Kurt, again, thinks she fell because it was over rotated. He also kept mentioning how fast she was especially into the jumps. That is huge for Mirai! She has clearly got past the crawling carefulness that has held her back in the past. I think her LP is a much better program than the SP so hopefully she can go out there and skate like she did in the team event.