clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Mirai Nagasu is now the first US woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics

Why Nagasu’s triple axel is such a big deal.

Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 3 Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at the Atlantic.

Before this weekend, there were only two women figure skaters in the world who had successfully landed a triple axel in Olympic competition: Japanese skaters Midori Ito (in 1992) and Mao Asada (in 2010 and 2014). But now there’s a new name on that very short list: At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, American skater Mirai Nagasu made history by becoming the third woman ever — and the first American woman ever — to land a triple axel at the Olympics.

Nagasu landed the jump during the opening jumping pass of her free skate in the figure skating team competition, which took place Sunday night (morning/early afternoon in South Korea). Her performance helped the American team win the bronze medal. (The gold medal went to Canada, with Russia — a.k.a. OAR, or the Olympic Athletes from Russia — taking the silver.)

Out of the six jumps recognized in competitive figure skating, the axel is considered the most difficult because its forward-facing takeoff means it requires a skater to complete three and a half revolutions before landing, whereas all the other jumps require only three revolutions. Here’s Nagasu’s Olympic triple axel slowed down:

Mirai Nagasu becomes the first American woman to land a triple axel in the Olympics.
NBC

As seen in the GIF above, Nagasu completed those three and a half revolutions without under-rotating and landed the jump pretty cleanly. But according to the judges, there was still some room for improvement — possibly in the smoothness and flow of her landing.

Triple axels have a base value of 8.5 points in figure skating, but Nagasu earned 10.07 points for the jump, meaning she received an extra 1.57 points (out of three) on her grade of execution score, which reflects how well judges believed she performed the jump:

Nagasu’s Olympic scoresheet.
ISU/Olympics

The triple axel is a rarity in women’s figure skating, specifically because its extra half rotation makes the jump more difficult. While it’s much more common for male skaters to perform triple axels, that extra half rotation is also the reason no one has ever landed a quadruple axel in competition.

For Nagasu, hitting the axel and helping the US take home the bronze medal is the first step in her Olympic comeback after not competing at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Heading into Sochi, she was left off the US Olympic figure skating team when she was passed over for Ashley Wagner, whom she placed ahead of at the US Figure Skating Championships. Nagasu, who placed fourth at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, then added the triple axel to her arsenal to make her program more competitive and get back on the Olympic team.

Nagasu will next compete in the Olympic individual women’s figure skating event on February 21.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.