Mirai Nagasu Apologizes For Bizarre Comments After Poor Performance

February 26, 2018

Asian American figure skater Mirai Nagasu of Team U.S.A. opened up to People magazine to apologize for her strange interview following her performance in the women’s free skate on Friday.

Nagasu, who finished in 10th place, claimed earlier that the lack of hot water in the showers and waking up too early were partly to blame for her lackluster performance.

“I’m ready to go home,” she said.

“I’d like to point out that Gabrielle Daleman, who is an Olympic gold medalist (for Canada in the team event), also didn’t have a strong outing here in the individual,” Nagasu said.

The two-time Olympian and seven-time U.S. national medalist also hinted that the U.S. won the bronze medal in team skating because of her, saying, “I saved the team a bit.”

She also noted that the Olympics could eventually land her reality show stardom, stating, “I would like to be on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ because I am a star.”

While fans of the popular skater expressed support amid growing criticisms online, Nagasu deemed it necessary to address the backlash with an interview to publicly apologize.

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“I think I’ve literally cried my way through these Olympic Games,” Nagasu told People on Saturday.

“It’s been an experience that I will never forget.

“I feel really, really awful about the things I said. I feel bad that people think that I was throwing my teammates under the bus because I never wanted to come off that way.”

Nagasu acknowledged how her comments failed to represent her country well.

“I don’t know if I can stress enough how mentally exhausting this all is, and to have gone out there and attacked every single element even though it wasn’t enough — I feel especially bad that my comments weren’t a good representation of me and I came off really poorly,” Nagasu was quoted as saying.

“I think above all else our job here is to represent Team USA to the best of our ability, and I didn’t do that yesterday and that’s something I have a lot of regret about.”

For many of her fans, Nagasu’s comments will not eclipse the true highlight of her performance at the Olympic games, when she became the first woman in the U.S. — and only the third woman overall — to perform a triple axel in Olympic history.

Feature Image via Instagram/mirainagasu

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