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Everything You Need to Know About Mirai Nagasu, the First American Woman to Land a Triple Axel in the Olympics

Caroline Pirozzolo

On Sunday, 24-year-old Mirai Nagasu proved to the world that passing her over for a spot on the 2014 Olympic figure skating team was a huge mistake — because she became the first American woman to land a triple axel — a jump with *three and a half* rotations — at the Olympics. 

Since then, the world hasn’t been able to stop talking about her, for obvious reasons. Here’s everything you need to know about her after her badass performance on Sunday.

Despite not making the 2014 Olympic team, this isn’t her first time at the Olympics.

Nagasu first competed at the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada — when she was only 16. (Yes, seriously.) In fact, prior to that, she won the United States Figure Skating championship at 14, making her the second-youngest woman ever to win. Knowing this, it’s totally understandable that she was completely heartbroken when she was passed over for the 2014 U.S. Olympic team, despite placing third in the U.S. championships that year.

No, she doesn’t have a ‘USA’ tattoo on her inner thigh.

After millions of viewers caught her free skate routine on TV, many were left wondering whether they’d spotted a giant “USA” tattoo on her inner thigh. Sorry to disappoint (because let’s be honest, that would be amazing), but it turns out that Nagasu was actually just wearing something called KT Tape, which, according to the company, is “a kinesiology tape to help provide pain relief and support.” Go figure.

Her parents are both Japanese immigrants.

In fact, they own a restaurant in Arcadia, Calif. called Restaurant Kiyosuzu — and according to NBC, they were actually so busy with the dinner rush on the night of Nagasu’s program that they missed it — but luckily, they caught it on DVR, and they now have plans to close their restaurant for a whole week for the first time in years to go watch their daughter perform next week.

Only two other women have previously landed her history-making jump in the Olympics.

They include two Japanese Olympians Midori Ito, who sucessfully landed the jump in 1992, and Mao Asada who landed hers in 2010. It’s far more common for male skaters to include the jump in their routines — Canadian Brian Orser was the first to ever land a triple axel at the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984.

She calls her accomplishment “herstory” and we couldn’t agree more.

“This is definitely history, or herstory, whatever way you want to put it,” Nagasu said after her free skate performance Sunday — and considering the triple axel jump has previously been a pretty male-dominated achievement in the past, we couldn’t agree more. Oh, and the videos of her celebrating her historic moment will make you cry.

Caroline is the Evening/Weekend Editor and Style Editor at Her Campus, a senior public relations major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leather jacket enthusiast.  You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @c_pirozzolo.