Mirai Nagasu Regrets Her Controversial Olympics Comments

Mirai Nagasu addresses her comments on 'Dancing With the Stars' and more.

Mirai Nagasu on day fourteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics
Getty

Image via Getty/Amin Mohammad Jamali

Mirai Nagasu on day fourteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics

Mirai Nagasu experienced a series of highs and lows at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The 24-year-old became the first American woman to successfully land a triple axel jump at the Olympics in a stunning moment that helped the American figure skating team earn a bronze medal. 

About a week after the team event, Nagasu disappointingly finished 10th in the women's individual figure skating event. At the Winter Olympics eight years ago, Nagasu finished fourth in the individual. While Nagasu was disappointed in her finish, she held out hope to be featured in another competition: Dancing With the Stars. 

After the individual competition, Nagasu told reporters, “I smiled in the middle of my program, which is really rare for me. So I enjoyed myself and I thought of this as my audition for Dancing with the Stars.” Nagasu also failed to recognize the work of her teammates and claimed that she helped “save” America’s medal in the team figure skating event.

Nagasu has since apologized for this statement and the comments against her teammates. “I feel really, really awful about the things I said,” Nagasu told People on Saturday. “I feel bad that people think that I was throwing my teammates under the bus because I never wanted to come off that way.”

The figure skater also said, "I had my dream Olympic skate and to me, I’ve been dreaming of that moment for such a long time, it made me feel like a superhero and superheroes save the day. And I wish I had said that we were all superheroes during the team event. To watch Chris and Alexa [Knierim], I train with them, to see the way they competed, to see Bradie [Tennell] put out a great performance, and Nathan [Chen] and Adam [Rippon] and Maia and Alex [Shibutani], everyone did their part, and so I didn’t mean to say that I saved the team by myself.”

On the Dancing With the Stars comment, she said, "I used that as a distraction and I probably should have kept it to myself...It didn’t come out the way I wanted it to." Sure.

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