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Mirai Nagasu will attempt triple axel Wednesday

Posted at 2:53 PM, Feb 20, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-20 19:44:54-05

All Olympians are trying to break records but one American figure skater is trying to add to history she created.

 Mirai Nagasu will try a triple-axel in her individual routine.

 Nagasu nailed it in the team competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and joined rare air.

  Only two other American women have landed it.

  Tonya Harding in 1991 and Kimmie Meissner in 2005.  

  Nagasu was the first American woman to land it in the Olympics.

  Two-time gold medalist Evgeny Platov will be watching her individual routine closely.

  "If she lands it in the Olympics it will be basically a revolution," said Platov.

Platov would know, between 1994 and 1998 he didn't lose a single international figure skating competition with Russia.

Platov is now a coach at Palm Beach Ice Works in West Palm Beach.

Just thinking about spinning three and half times in the air and landing on ice can make your head spin.

Platov said, "They can be in control. When they go to the triple axel, they go to nowhere, it's absolutely going to nowhere, and no land and that's why it's so difficult."

 Platov let us into the world of ultra-competitive figure skating that Nagasu will face off against.

 "One little mistake can cost you everything. Mike says, "All that training, that was intense."

Execution, wardrobe choice, even skate size matters for Nagasu.

This almost mythological jump has come a long way since someone perfected the "single" axel in 1882.