ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mirai Nagasu delighted the crowd — and herself — with a refreshing and entertaining show at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday night. Oh, yeah, the 14-year-old became the second-youngest woman to win the U.S. title, too.
That other mighty mite was Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski.
When her scores were shown, Nagasu looked at the screen with curiosity. When she heard she’d won, she said, “What?” then clapped her hands to her face and broke into a grin. “I am very excited and speechless for words,” she said.
Nagasu is too young to go to the world championships in March; skaters now must be 15 by the previous July 1, and she won’t turn 15 until April. Rachael Flatt, who finished second, missed the cutoff by three weeks and will have to sit worlds out, too. Ashley Wagner finished third and is eligible for worlds.
Nagasu is a breath of fresh air, playing on her youth and size — she’s 4-feet-11. Skating to “Coppelia,” the story of a doll that comes to life, she was charming.
She fell on her opening jump, a double axel, but she quickly regrouped.
“The fall on the double axel was like a kick in the butt,” she said. “After that, I was like, ‘Attack!’ ”
She performed perfectly in character, stiffly holding her arms out to the side like a lifeless doll. As she was wound up, she jerked her arms and her torso, looking like a doll coming to life. She landed six triple jumps, three in combination, and showed great stamina by picking up speed as the program went along.
Earlier, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker got the pairs title while John Baldwin Jr. got the girl, and Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto extended their dominance in ice dance.
McLaughlin and Brubaker, last year’s junior world champions who train in Colorado Springs, won pairs in their second season together. But they also will have to wait to take on the rest of the world because McLaughlin is too young to go to the world championships.
Baldwin surprised partner and girlfriend Rena Inoue after their performance, dropping to his knees to propose to her at center ice. Stunned at first, she tearfully said yes.
Belbin and Agosto won their fifth straight dance title, tying four other couples for most in U.S. history. Skating a beautifully executed performance to music by Chopin, they scored 216.07 points.
