Forget the gold medal, Mirai Nagasu has now set her sights on the Mirror Ball trophy.
After placing tenth in the women’s individual figure skating event Friday, the 24-year-old Olympian boldly likened her final campaign in PyeongChang to an audition for ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
“I would like to be on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ because I am a star,” Nagasu told USA Today. “I made history here by landing the first triple axel for a U.S. lady at the Olympics so I think that is a big deal. I hope I get more opportunities to let my personality just shine.
“I smiled in the middle of my program. It is really rare for me but I enjoyed myself and I thought of this as my audition [for ‘Dancing with the Stars’].”
Indeed, Nagasu did become the first American woman to hit a triple axel in the Olympics during the team event, giving her instant notoriety.
“It’s been a long three weeks, and we got here and got to walk in the opening ceremonies and then I saved the team event, with Adam (Rippon) and the Shibutanis,” Nagasu said. “We were about to lose our medals so today I put my medal in my pocket and said ‘Mirai you have done your job already and this is all just icing.’
“We did [save bronze]. We were behind Italy for a good little bit.”
The claims that she carried the team to the bronze medal rings hollow, as USA Today pointed out the Americans were well ahead of the fourth-place Italians by the time Nagasu hit the ice.
The U.S. women’s figure skaters presented their worst showing since World War II, with the Russians taking home the gold and the silver while the Americans finished ninth, 10th and 11th. The past three weeks appear to have exhausted the young athletes.
Following her performance, NBC’s Nick McCarvel added Nagasu wanted a warm shower and to see her dogs.
Nagasu wouldn’t be the first skater to trade in the ice for the ballroom, as Meryl Davis and Charlie White have done before her.
The closing ceremonies are set for Sunday, Feb. 25.