Hailey Langland
Jerica Tandiman
Hailing from San Clemente, California, 17-year-old snowboarder Hailey Langland has established herself as a favorite in big air. She nabbed a gold medal at the 2017 X Games after unveiling a double cork 1080, a trick that involves spinning three full times while also inverting twice, becoming the first woman in X Games history to land the trick. Langland’s mother is Filipino-American.
Hailing from Kearns, Utah, long rack speed skater Jerica Tandiman was inspired to skate, at age 7, after the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. They built the Utah Olympic Oval in the field next to her house! She clinched a spot on Team USA after finishing fourth in the 1000m at the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials.
Mirai Nagasu lands triple axel, a first by an American woman at an Olympics
J
apanese-American figure skater Mirai Nagasu is an Olympic veteran. She finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Though she earned a bronze medal at the 2014 U.S. Championships, she was infamously not named to the Olympic team for Sochi. Since then, she has slowly fought her way back to the podium, capturing a silver medal at the 2017 U.S. nationals and earning herself a rightful spot to compete in PyeongChang. She is currently a full-time student of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Nagasu became only the third woman to successfully complete the triple axel at the 2018 Olympics -- the other two being Japanese skaters Midori Ito and Mao Asada. The axel is considered so difficult because it is the only jump in which the skater takes to the air while facing forward. A triple axel requires three-and-a-half rotations before landing. Nagasu finished with a 137.53 overall score, which was second-best of the ladies free skate and helped Team USA win bronze for the team event in figure skating. This is Nagasu’s second Olympics.
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Aaron Tran
Vincent Zhou
21-year-old short track speedskater Aaron Tran was the junior overall national champion in 2015. At the 2017 World Championships, Tran finished seventh with the U.S. men in the 5000m relay. Tran is Vietnamese American and from Federal Way, Washington. He became interested in speed skating after watching the 2006 Torino Olympics, in which U.S. speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno won three medals — a gold and two bronzes.
Vincent Zhou, the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team at 17, became the first figure skater in Olympics history to land a quadruple lutz in the men’s short program. From 2011 to 2013, he won three national titles at three different age levels: novice, intermediate, and junior. He was the 2017 World Junior Champion as well as the silver medalist at the 2017 U.S. Championships. Zhou is Chinese-American and is from San Jose, CA.
March 2018 | Feature