GANGNEUNG, South Korea – Mirai Nagasu’s Olympic destiny was always going to rest on a single jump, on the edge of a blade, in a tiny window of opportunity and time.
So it proved on Wednesday afternoon here, when the American blasted into the air 23 seconds into her short program and attempted to land a jump no other woman in the world is either proficient enough or game enough to try. By 25 seconds she was on her knees, her hands on the ice.
The triple Axel was Nagasu’s only shot at an unlikely medal, had she stuck it Wednesday and again in Friday’s free skate.