There's... a stigma that says Asian Americans are more the nerdy type, so for me to be a part of this successful sports team... means a lot. - Mirai Nagasu

My parents are super excited that they've produced an Olympian. I don’t think they ever would have imagined this would happen in a million years, so I hope I represent not only Team USA, but the Japanese-American culture and my family as well.

It’s just skating, and I’ll survive, but at the same time, it’s hard because I’ve worked so long for this moment. It’s not the way I wanted it to go, but at the same time I’m telling everybody, you can fall and still get up and keep going.

A long time ago, a sports reporter wrote that I wasn’t strong in the free-skate, that I was more of a short program skater. And that bothered me because I work so hard every day just for a person to judge me on a couple of bad skates and deem me a bad free skater. That's absurd!