Most high school kids are over scheduled – trying to get into college, have some friends and maybe score a hot date to the prom is more than enough to keep kids, and their parents, busy. Next time your teenager complains about not having enough time to harvest their crops on Farmville because they’ve got that Chemistry exam – tell them to look up Mirai Nagasu’s schedule.
Mirai is one of two high school students in competition for one of only two spots on the US Olympic Figure Skating Team for the Vancouver Olympics. Mirai (16) and her under aged competition, Rachel Flatt (17), both manage to go to high school, keep up their Twitter accounts and be in hot pursuit of Olympic Gold at the same time.
Every weekday this fall Flatt has gotten up at 5:30 a.m. to arrive at school early for AP English and Physics. Then she leaves school again for a skating session, a ballet class and another skating session before dashing back to school for two more AP classes, Calculus and French. Oh yeah, and did we mention that she’s a straight A student? Parental guilt tripping may commence… now. There is one thing Flatt insists on every week – a half hour off to watch “The Office.”
Nagasu is already coming back from her first rebellious phase. A child protege skater who was National Champion in 2008 – Mirai was on the cover of Sports Illustrated Kids and featured on “The Today Show” at age 14. The fame, and the bruising schedule that got her there, led to a phase when she “let it go to [her] head and didn’t practice hard enough.” That phase is over now though, she hasn’t given up on her “Harry Potter” obsession or her favorite pass time “wasting time on YouTube” but with home schooling and hard work (five hours a day in the rink, minimum) she’s right on Flatt’s heels for the coveted Olympic spot.
Who will get a chance at Olympic Gold? It’s hard to say. But we can say that who ever she is, she’ll have earned it.
UPDATE: Rachael won the gold medal and Mirai took the silver medal at the U.S. Championships and both girls have been awarded places on the Team USA for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which began Friday in Vancouver.
