Arcadia skater Mirai Nagasu skated her best short program of the season in the biggest spotlight possible Tuesday at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Arcadia's Mirai Nagasu performing short program at Olympics. Photo from Los Angeles Times.
As a result, she wound up in sixth place and only one-point out of fourth place.
Not ranked among the elite skaters of the world coming into Tuesday’s first of two competitions to determine the three winners of Olympics medals, Mirai skated hours before the main contenders. But when it was over (finally, at midnight), Mirai was in position to skate in the final top group of skaters heading into the final long program on Thursday evening.
More than a hundred local fans as well as friends and supporters from Mirai’s former skating club in Pasadena watched and cheered loudly for Mirai at Matt Denny’s Ale House and Restuarant in Arcadia, which arranged to pick up the live feed of the Olympics Tuesday evening, running three hours ahead of the regular broadcast for west coast viewers.
They were able to see Mirai’s nearly flawless performance at 6:15 p.m. instead of 9:15. But most left before the top skaters were done performing at 9 p.m., which meant they left without knowing where Mirai wound up being ranked.
Local news channel 4 reported from Matt Denny's on Monday and Tuesday.
Matt Denny’s owner Matt McSweeny said he expects many of the same customers to return to watch on Thursday, especially since she wound up among the contenders and has an outside chance for a medal. Local NBC affiliate KNBC featured McSweeney and his restaurant on the news after midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning, and came back again to videotape a report of the crowd watching on Tuesday, which was shown after midnight that night.
— By Scott Hettrick