Mirai Nagasu

Mirai Nagasu is a 5-foot, 2-inch female American figure skater who has dual citizenship in Japan and the United States. Nagasu was born in California to parents who had immigrated to the U.S. from Japan. Nagasu speaks fluent Japanese and commented for a Japanese TV Station during the 2009 Ice Skating World Championships.http://figureskating.teamusa.org/athletes/mirai-nagasu

Following the 2010 United States Figure Skating Championships, Nagasu was nominated to represent the USA in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Speaking before the Olympics, Nagasu said: "Congratulations on making it to the Olympics. Are you nervous? I'm not really thinking about having to compete. I'm just going to keep doing my best and take it as it comes. I'm trying to take the stress off by enjoying my life right now—taking walks with my dog and watching TV and doing homework. Normal teenager things."http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-03-26-worlds-nagasu_N.htm

Nagasu competed in the Olympic Ladies Free Skate at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.http://www.vancouver2010.com/pacific-coliseum/ Nagasu finished 4th and said: ""I'm sorry that I wasn't able to keep up the U.S. trend (of winning medals), but I hope I'll be able to make up for it at the next Olympics. I think the timing will be good, because at 16, you don't have the experience and the maturity they skate with, and hopefully by 20, I'll be able to get that."

To date, Nagasu has competed in the following contests:

• 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver
• 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships
• 2008 Junior Grand Prix, Figure Skating
• 2007 U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships

Nagasu's coach is Frank Carroll, a former figure skater himself and a coach who has helped Linda Fratianne, Michelle Kwan and Evan Lysacek win the World Figure Skating Championships. Nagasu's choreographer is Lori Nichol. She trains in the town of Burbank in California.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mirai-Nagasu/23899178002#!/pages/Mirai-Nagasu/23899178002?v=info

Nagasu is starting to win some sponsorship deals and recently signed a lucrative arrangement with Panasonic, who are the official worldwide Olympic Partner for the 2010 Games in the Audio and Visual Equipment category.http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/press-release/pc_panasonic-teams-up-with-us-olympic-figure-skater-mirai-nagasu-773989.html

Mirai Nagasu finished 7th in the ice skating world championships in Turin, Italy on March 26, 2010.http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/03/kim-botches-two-jumps-in-free-skate-leaders-yet-to-skate.html