Mirai Nagasu: Of watching the worlds and cheering on her rivals

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Editor’s note: Ticket to Vancouver, in honor of the world championships being here in L.A., has been featuring some guest bloggers this week who know the sport inside-out. Mirai Nagasu is from Arcadia and, at age 14, became the 2008 U.S. women’s figure skating champion. She competed most of this season on an injured right foot and finished fifth at the U.S. championships. She withdrew from the world junior championships to allow her foot to heal, but she is watching the worlds.

I hope everyone does their best and and best person wins. For me to watch, it’s drive for me to come back and compete next year. I was watching the men on Wednesday night and I was getting really angry with myself because it could have been me here.

I guess it wasn’t meant for me to be here this year, and since it’s in my hometown I guess I was meant to sit here and watch and learn, and I’m forced to think about my mistakes and learn from them. So hopefully I won’t make these mistakes again and I’ll come back strong next year.

The mistakes are bad decisions I made. I could have taken time off in the summer, but I didn’t, and I think that was a very, very bad decision on my behalf, and so I was forced to skate on the injured foot. It’s just a bad feeling to skate with pain because pain is overpowering, and it didn’t help me fully concentrate on what I fully wanted to do. So the mistakes are in there.

It’s really hard to balance it out between what I want and what my body needs. This year I was too greedy for what I want, but I didn’t get what I wanted, so I want to listen to both of my needs.

My foot is definitely getting better because I took four weeks off, and I’m just starting to get my skating feet back under me. So we’ll see how this year goes. I’m going to Canada in two weeks to work with Lori Nichol again. I really like working with her, even though she has us on the ice for a ridiculous amount of time. But I really enjoy it, so I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve got to say she has a God-given talent because she works so well with everybody and creates such unique programs. And I just love working with her. She just teaches me so much, and I really appreciate her. She gives everyone the opportunity to learn from her.

She’s opened up my art. Not only that — she helps me with jumps sometimes, so it’s definitely really helpful. She teaches me the meaning of the music, the motivation behind the movements that she creates for me. It’s not just skating; it’s telling a story when she creates it, so it’s just enjoyable to skate every day.

I watched some of the men’s short program after school. I saw the last few skaters in the second-to-last warmup group and then the best of the best. I really enjoyed Patrick Chan’s performance — and he also works with Lori, so I was glad to see that he did good. And Evan [Lysacek]. And Brian [Joubert].

What makes Patrick Chan so good is his body movement. It’s like when he skated to ‘Tango de Roxanne’ [last season] it was like he was telling that story.

His movements are like big. . . . Even though I was watching from upstairs in one of the top seats, I could see everything so clearly. And I really understand that, as a skater, I can’t just portray to the audience around you. You have to portray also to the people above because they came to watch us skate, and we have to be grateful for them to come. I have to start learning how to project.

And his triple axel, it was almost like he touched the ceiling!

Evan, his artistic skills are just out-of-the-window great. I wasn’t a fan of ‘Bolero’ until he skated to ‘Bolero.’ I really liked Michelle Kwan’s ‘Bolero’ as well and a pair a long time ago which I watched — [Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the 1984 Olympic ice dance gold medalists].

I really liked it, but there are a few people who skate it at my rink, but the way Evan skated it is a whole different story. It’s just watching him skate and practice is a learning experience for me. It just makes me want to improve my work habits a lot more. And Brian Joubert just connects with the audience, and his jumps are superb.

Being here is really motivation for me to try harder to make the Olympic team, especially since Rachael [Flatt] is the same age as me. Just to know it could have been me out there if I had made the right decisions. That really makes me kind of mad and just drive to do well for next year. I definitely think she deserved it this year because she skated her best this year. So hopefully she skates as well here at worlds and she and Alissa [Czisny] get us three spots.

— Mirai Nagasu