The New York Times-20080127-In a Youth Movement- Nagasu Wins the Title

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080127

In a Youth Movement, Nagasu Wins the Title

Full Text (790  words)

The fall on her opening jump of her free skate, a double axel, drained the smile from Mirai Nagasu's face. She skated the rest of the program with efficiency and determination, and left the ice at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday unsure whether that would be good enough to win.

But when the scores went up, and the 14-year-old Nagasu had, indeed, held off Rachael Flatt and Ashley Wagner for her first United States Figure Skating senior women's title, she had to take her coach Charlene Wong's word for it.

I couldn't read it because I didn't have my glasses on, Nagasu said. She said, 'You won,' and I was like, What?

Earlier this month, when Johnny Weir said, Right now, we have babies competing in the ladies division, he had no way of knowing how well those babies would do Saturday night. Nagasu became the second-youngest senior women's winner. She is 34 days older than Tara Lipinski, who was 14 years, 250 days old when she won in 1997.

With Caroline Zhang moving up to fourth from seventh, three of the first four finishers were 15 or younger -- Nagasu; Flatt, 15; and Zhang, 14. Only Wagner, 16, is old enough to qualify for the world championships in March. Everyone's so young, Wagner said. It's insane.

After the competition, United States Figure Skating named Wagner, the fifth-place finisher Beatrisa Liang and the seventh-place finisher Kimmie Meissner to the world championship team, while bypassing Katrina Hacker, who was sixth but lacks Meissner's international experience. Meissner fell three times, on two triple lutzes and a triple flip, to drop from fourth, the worst performance by a defending champion in at least 50 years. Meissner is the first women's singles champion who returned and failed to successfully defend her crown since 1997, when Michelle Kwan fell twice and lost to Lipinski.

Her decision to begin with two triple-triple combinations proved disastrous, as she fell on both opening jumps.

That's a bummer, said Meissner, who also fell three times at the Grand Prix final in December. It's such a shame. I felt I was skating well coming in, but I just lost it.

Meissner's collapse left the medal stand open for Flatt, Wagner and Nagasu. After the short program, Nagasu led Wagner by about 5 points and Flatt by more than 8. The cushion proved critical, because Wagner and Flatt scored better than Nagasu on their free skates.

Flatt hit four early triples, two in combination, and broke into a big smile after landing a triple flip-double toe loop-double loop late in the program. Her 125.82 score in the free skate, the best of the night, put her in the lead at 188.73.

Wagner opened with a triple lutz-triple loop combination, one of seven triples she hit. She made one mistake, two-footing the landing on a triple loop-double loop. It cost her the silver medal, her total of 188.56 leaving her less than two-tenths of a point behind Flatt.

Up next was Nagasu, whose short program had been so marvelous. The stumble out of the axel did not shake her. That fall was like a kick in the butt, Nagasu said. After that, I was like, attack. Nagasu, last year's United States junior champion and world junior silver medalist, landed everything else, including five triples.

I'm very excited and speechless for words, Nagasu said.

Among those rooting for Nagasu was the world silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan, who sent her a fax message featuring two tiny hand-drawn skate boots and a heart-shaped signature to wish her good luck.

Earlier Saturday, ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won a record-tying fifth consecutive national title with a free dance set to a mix of Chopin pieces. Belbin said the enthusiastic crowd pushed them to their eighth national medal in eight tries.

That was a very emotional skate, Belbin said. I told Ben at the end, I thought that was the best we've done in years.

Up-and-comers Keanua McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, the 2007 world junior champions, won their first United States senior pairs title. But because McLaughlin did not turn 15 by July 1, 2007, cutoff point, she and Brubaker are ineligible for the world championships.

Pairs silver medalists John Baldwin and Rena Inoue made their day memorable as well when Baldwin proposed to Inoue, his longtime girlfriend, on the ice after their free skate. Baldwin repeated, Will you marry me? several times before a surprised Inoue said yes. Inoue said she did not need an engagement ring, which was fortunate, because Baldwin did not have one.

Unfortunately, no pockets, he said.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Mirai Nagasu, the women's champion, performing her free skate routine at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC MILLER/REUTERS)