Mirai Nagasu made history yesterday at the Winter Olympics by becoming the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics.
A lot of the athletes in the Olympics have great stories, often having to work other jobs to support their dreams before they can reach the big stage. For Nagasu, she was able to stay on the ice throughout her life. She was actually already an Olympian once before in 2010 at just 16 years old and as she attended school, she worked with the Avalanche as an ambassador in the community and helped maintain the ice during stoppages in play.
Perhaps she could have been helping the Avs during play, because they were struggling in the year that she was part of the team (2015-16).
Some of the strongest skaters in the NHL credit figure skating as a place where they were able to hone their strength on their blades. Jeff Skinner was actually a competitive figure skater growing up, but players like William Nylander, Sam Reinhart, Tyler Bozak and many others have learned from figure skaters as well.
Perhaps in the future Nagasu can help out the team with some skating lessons as well. It worked for the Mighty Ducks.
