2018 Olympics Figure Skating Recap
If you’ve followed the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, then you can probably relate to scurrying out into the cold to buy a bag of Hot Cheetos and hunching over your desk to type up that paper before NBC’s 8 p.m. primetime streaming. With every crunch of ice under a boot, there was something about being in Chicago that made me feel like I was right there next to those bundled-up athletes. It helped that every time I opened social media, I saw Instagram stories from my favorite skaters, and news updates on medals and world records – a lot of smiles, talent, and glory.
If you would like to catch up on some of the most exciting and iconic moments of these past weeks, here's a figure-skating-centric recap of the Olympics at your service. To see some of these moments for yourself, you can always watch videos of individual skates on YouTube. Ready, set, sending some Olympic spirit your way just in time for finals:
5 quotes to help you get up for an 8:30 A.M. class
“(Smiling) I like to win with some drama.” – Yuzuru Hanyu (JAPAN), on comments of his resemblance in appearance to a heroic animated character.
“I’d get up at 6 to go to first period, then go to the rink to skate for two hours, then back to school for [two more periods], then I’d eat lunch on my way back to the rink to skate for another two hours, and then I’d have workout or physical therapy after that!” – Vincent Zhou (USA), on attending high school as an athlete.
“I’m definitely going for it: no guts no glory. If I fall, I’ll take the fall and get up and keep going.” – Mirai Nagasu (USA), on anticipating the triple axel.
“For me, my mom followed me wherever I went—for me she even left her job. She always covered the costs for everything alone. I really care for her very much. And then, sometimes (tearing up), she probably can’t eat well, [but travels] just to be in the same city with me.” – Boyang Jin (CHINA), on his first thoughts upon viewing his free skate score. (Quotation is translated from Chinese.)
“You know, you always need to be thinking a step ahead. If you put a ceiling above you too quickly, you're blocked, and it's not good!” – Javier Fernández (SPAIN), on whether he will continue to skate after the 2018 Olympics.
Fast Facts
RUSSIA: Well, this year Russian athletes weren’t competing as “Russian athletes.” Because of a doping scandal during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian athletes were not allowed to represent their country in the 2018 games, and competed under the name “Olympic athletes from Russia.” The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also banned athletes from marching under the Russian flag or wearing their national colors, so you’ll find a band of Olympians wearing neutral gray parkas walking behind an Olympic logo flag.
FIRST US TRIPLE AXEL: This year, Mirai Nagasu became the first US female skater to land a triple axel in the Olympics. The jump is a buzz-generating big deal in the figure skating community, and skaters and coaches had an eye out for Nagasu going into the program. The Axel is the only figure skating jump that takes off facing forward, requiring three-and-a-half rotations in the air. Before Nagasu, Midori Ito and Mao Asada from Japan were the only women to land triple axels in Olympic competition.
FIVE QUADS: This year, Nathan Chen (USA) landed five quads in his free skate program. The quadruple jumps come in six varieties: the quad loop, toeloop, flip, Salchow, Lutz, and Axel. After the 2010 ISU score change and the 2014 Sochi Olympics, a quad is now a seasonal must-have if one wants a chance at the men’s podium. Quads carry whopping base values of 9.8-13.3 points. Skaters rely on fast-twitch Type 2 muscles to snap into the air, and usually skilled contenders may pack one to three quads in their programs. But Chen was running on a self-described burst of anger from his disappointing short program on Friday, and eager for redemption. He decided on Friday night that he would go for six quads the next day. The decision translated to him performing quad after quad in the following long program, and we just watched the score go up and up, in huge blocks of tens.
NORTH KOREA: This year, North Korea sent an athletic delegation amid international tensions regarding its nuclear weapons program. Nuclear tensions have been so high, that early this year the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists organization redialed its notorious Doomsday Clock, which is a public symbol that analyzes the political and scientific climate to illustrate the proximity of a catastrophic nuclear war. It is now "two minutes to midnight," where "midnight" denotes disaster, and the closest the clock has been since 1953, during the crux of the Cold War.
ASIAN-AMERICAN REPRESENTATION: This year, a record amount of seven Asian-Americans represented the Olympic U.S. Figure Skating Team. Twenty years ago, Olympic medalists Kristi Yamaguchi (1992 gold) and Michelle Kwan (1998, 2002 silvers) were forerunners of Asian-American representation in U.S. figure skating. Today, this 2018 team will continue to pave the way for a younger generation of Asian-American athletes who seek role models for inspiration and achievement.
YUZURU HANYU: This year, after executing two precise and moving routines, the men's singles figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu defended his Sochi gold. His victory came off a recent serious ankle injury in November 2017, with the setback leaving him a mere three-week window to practice his triple axels, and only two weeks to practice his quads. Off-ice, Hanyu is enrolled in Waseda University's e-School, studying Human Informatics and Cognitive Sciences. He harbors a multitude of academic interests, including psychology, statistics, and mathematics. Hanyu says that knowledge in the social sciences greatly enables examinations of his skating technique and artistic expression from a scientific standpoint.
An Olympic Story
Mirai Nagasu is the first US ladies figure skater to complete the triple axel in the Olympics. On ice, she is serious and composed, drawing the audience into her world in the rink. Off ice, she is her energetic, smiley self—a girl who at first glance appears too excited for the things she finds special in life. She is 24-years-old and hails from hometown Arcadia—a sunshine suburb near Los Angeles, California—the daughter of Japanese parents who own a restaurant. On a rainy day at the local rink, a five-year-old Nagasu first stepped into a pair of ice skates, because it was too wet to play golf outside. She would be skating for years to come, spilling emotion on the ice, growing up in the public eye, and conditioning her body and mentality to the combination of technical precision and expressive theatrics that make up a good figure skater.
At 14-years-old, she was waking up at 4:40 a.m., and at the rink by 5:45. She would skate for two hours, go to school for six hours, then return to her family’s restaurant, where her mom or dad would make her dinner. Her favorite food from those days was umeboshi, a dried pickled plum. After dinner, Nagasu would take ballet, return to the restaurant to do homework, and sleep on a yoga mat in the back-storage room. When the restaurant closed, her dad drove her back home while she was asleep, and put her to bed.
It was also at 14-years-old, when she won the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She was the second youngest skater to claim that title. But very soon, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics held disappointment in store; she placed fourth. Then, in a publicized controversy, she was not selected for the 2014 Sochi Olympics team despite placing third in the U.S. Nationals that year. The fourth place skater went instead, when precedence had followed that every year the top three finishers in the U.S. Nationals were guaranteed Olympic entry.
It was quite a perfect storm that threatened to wash away everything she had been building towards since that first rainy day at five. Nagasu cried during her gala performance the next day, and almost every day for months after. She bought In-N-Out hamburgers, and sat on the roof of her house with her friend Adam Rippon, who also did not make the team. There, she thought about how far she’d come—a life on ice—and how it was coming to an end almost overnight, with no Olympic medal to show for. She understood that figure skaters are typically young, and most just “fade away” one day. She would be 24-years-old for the next Olympics in 2018, an old skater in a girls’ event. How many four years does one have, to train outside public expectation and wait by the sidelines? An athletic career doesn't afford many four years.
“But I’m not a fade-away kind of person,” she said during an interview with New York Times.
She stepped into her skates, determined to fill bigger shoes. She would add the triple axel to her repertoire, a jump no other female athlete in the world was attempting in competition. Nagasu left home for Colorado Springs to train, learning to cook and working part-time to pay the bills. The double axels were coming in high and solid; she needed the fitness and timing for a triple. The summer of 2017, she started landing them, half a year before the Olympics. Everything began to happen for her again: the second place at U.S. Nationals, the sponsors and media coverage, the social media followers and interviews, the ticket to the Olympics.
After an eight-year drought, Nagasu was back on Olympic ice. Yes, she delivered the triple axel to the judges, audience, her coach, everyone who knew her back home, and her country. She also created an hour of Olympic history that was genuinely her very own, that she could look back upon whenever she wanted to and see the loved daughter that her family is so proud of. Although Nagasu did not complete the triple axels in the individual event, she has a bronze medal from the team event tucked away safely in her pocket.
“So to become the first American to land a triple axel at the Olympic Games is historical, and no one can take that away from me,” she said in an interview.
While Nagasu’s story is a unique athletic journey to achievement, it is an experience shared by many immigrant families in the U.S., where the individual's dream becomes a collective family undertaking, and the child’s talent is bolstered by parents willing to make every end meet for their child to be happy and fulfill his or her passion. Nagasu has ascribed her work ethic to watching her parents work in the restaurant. Her teammate Vincent Zhou described Nagasu as “the hardest worker I know,” doing triple axel after triple axel until the coach insisted she leave the ice. Through Nagasu's story, we find that despite the somewhat unlucky deck of cards one is dealt with, one can trust that passion and strength may bring good things sometime later on.
“U.S. Stars on Ice 2018”
Pamper yourself to this "double Lutz-xurious" figure skating celebration. The tour comes to Chicago’s Allstate Arena on Apr. 29, 2018. Skaters let loose of their classical competition routines, shake off their ice princess and prince personas, and skate/dance to an energetic evening of upbeat music. It’s fun for the skaters and for the audience! The $25 tickets have just sold out, and currently prices range from $50 to $170. There’s also a post-show Meet & Greet for $100 that's sold out for Chicago, but they are still available in many other cities. All the skaters in the show table individual booths, and you can mingle, take pictures, and get autographs! Here’s more show info and where to get tickets.
“U.S. Stars on Ice 2018” skaters: Nathan Chen (United States Champion), Meryl Davis & Charlie White (Olympic Gold Medalists), Maia & Alex Shibutani (Olympic Bronze Medalists), Ashley Wagner (World Silver Medalist), Jason Brown (United States Champion), Mirai Nagasu (United States Champion), Adam Rippon (United States Champion), Karen Chen (United States Champion), Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue (United States Champions), Bradie Tennell (United States Champion)
Feature image via
