Mirai Nagasu makes figure skating statement in short program

SPOKANE — It's clearly change-of-strategy time for Mirai Nagasu.

"I just want to be the dark horse, and just come up from behind," she said after her short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships Thursday night.

Good luck with that: Thursday's plan won't work for Saturday. Because the 16-year-old former U.S. champion surprised the field with a crisp, lively short program that racked up 70.06 points, leaving her in first place heading into the finale.

Nagasu's performance was good enough to hold off challenges by returning veteran Sasha Cohen, who brought an adoring crowd to its feet with a 69.63-point performance, and the rock-solid Rachael Flatt, who skated a clean, energetic program to score 69.35.

Trailing that group by seven points was Kitsap County-connected Ashley Wagner, 18, who fell when she couldn't hold the landing of a triple lutz, leaving her with 62.55 points — and an uphill climb to claim one of two Olympic spots up for grabs.

Wagner, who has struggled with short programs in major competitions, has made up larger gaps before. After a disastrous short program at last year's nationals, she actually won the free skate, charging all the way back to fourth place.

To vault into an Olympic spot, she'll need some help in the way of mistakes from the leaders. But Wagner said her history gives her confidence.

"It's a lot easier to go from fourth to first than 12th to first," she said.

Cohen's comeback might have been the big news, but the biggest skating statement of the night was made by Nagasu, the 2008 national champion who had been plagued for many months by injuries.

After skating perhaps her best short program ever in a major competition, the soft-spoken Nagasu suggested it was a statement to journalists who essentially had written her off as a contender.

"I'm not in my own personal bubble," she said. "I do have access to the Internet, and I see what people say about me. I'm just here to show myself and everybody else that I'm the future of the sport in the USA."

If she skates just as well Saturday, she might be the future of the sport in as little as three weeks, at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Because of a poor performance by U.S. skaters in last year's nationals, the U.S., for only the second time since 1922, qualified only two female skaters for the Vancouver Games.

Technically, U.S. Figure Skating officials don't have to give them to the top-two finishers here. They could point to previous international results and elevate an experienced skater like Cohen, or even a young skater like Wagner, the only U.S. woman to qualify for this year's Grand Prix final, to one of the positions.

But John Nicks, who coaches Cohen, said that sort of move would be "highly unusual," and Wagner said she'd rather earn a spot on the ice than win one by committee.