Mirai Nagasu Apologizes to Teammates, Explains Dancing with the Stars Remark

American figure skater Mirai Nagasu issued an apology Saturday after she made controversial remarks in the wake of her 10th-place finish in the ladies' singles competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics.  

"I feel really, really awful about the things I said," she told People's Adam Carlson. "I feel bad that people think that I was throwing my teammates under the bus because I never wanted to come off that way."

Nagasu, who helped the United States win bronze in the team event, previously made comments that were construed as disparaging toward her American teammates.  

"I saved the team event with Adam [Rippon] and the [ice dancing siblings Alex and Maia] Shibutanis. We were about to lose our medal," she said of her second-place effort in the free skate portion of the team event, per People. 

Nagasu said Saturday that, in retrospect, she should have phrased things differently: "I had my dream Olympic skate [in the team event] and to me, I've been dreaming of that moment for such a long time, it made me feel like a superhero and superheroes save the day. And I wish I had said that we were all superheroes during the team event." 

Nagasu also apologized after she said she viewed her 10th-place skate as an audition for Dancing With the Stars. 

"I used that as a distraction and I probably should have kept it to myself," she told Carlson. "It didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.

"My Olympic moment from the individual event was that I was really able to enjoy my skating, and so that meant a lot to me and I didn’t portray that accurately." 

In addition to capturing bronze in the team event, Nagasu became the first American woman to ever land a triple axel at the Olympics when she put one down successfully in the team event.