Nam Nguyen

Nam Nguyen
Nguyen at the 2012 World Junior Championships
Personal information
Country represented	Canada
Born	(1998-05-20) May 20, 1998 Ottawa, Ontario
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Coach	Brian Orser, Ernest Pryhitka, Tracy Wilson
Former coach	Joanne McLeod, Kevin Bursey
Choreographer	Jeffrey Buttle, David Wilson
Former choreographer	Lori Nichol, Joanne McLeod, Aaron Lowe
Skating club	Toronto Cricket Club
Training locations	Toronto, Ontario
Former training locations	Burnaby, B.C.
Began skating	2003
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	242.59 2015 Worlds
Short program	77.73 2015 Worlds
Free skate	164.86 2015 Worlds
Medal record Competitor for  Canada Figure skating: Men's singles World Junior Championships 2014 Sofia Men's singles

Nam Nguyen (born May 20, 1998) is a Canadian figure skater. He is the 2014 World Junior champion, 2014 Skate America bronze medalist and 2015 Canadian national champion.

Personal life

Nam Nguyen was born May 20, 1998 in Ottawa.^[1] Both of his parents are from Vietnam — his father, Sony, moved to Canada in 1988 and sponsored his wife, Thu, in 1994.^[2] His father is an engineer and his mother works for a medical software company.^[2] His sister, Kim, is six years younger and is also a figure skater.^[3] He lived in Richmond, British Columbia and Burnaby, B.C. from 1999 to 2012, and then moved to Toronto, Ontario, so that he and his sister could train under Brian Orser.^[2][3] He is a student at Northview Heights Secondary School.^[3] Growing up, Nguyen's figure skating idols were Evgeni Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, and Jeffrey Buttle. Nguyen also cites his training mates, Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez, as being his inspirations.^[4]

Career

Early career

From 2007 to 2009, Nguyen won three Canadian national men's titles — Juvenile, Pre-Novice, and Novice — each time becoming the youngest skater to do so.^[5][6] In 2010, he won the bronze medal on the junior level at the Canadian Championships. Nguyen performed in the exhibition gala at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.^[2] The following year at the 2011 Canadian Championships, he became the youngest skater to win the junior men's title.^{[7][8][9][10]}

2011–12 season

In the 2011–12 season, Nguyen became age-eligible for international junior competition. He finished 12th in his first Junior Grand Prix (JGP) event in Riga, Latvia and then won the bronze medal in his second event in Brasov, Romania. He placed 7th on the senior level at the 2012 Canadian Championships and was assigned to the 2012 World Junior Championships. Nguyen landed his first triple axel in competition in the preliminary round and qualified for the short program with a first-place finish.^[11] He was 18th in the short program and 11th in the free skate, finishing 13th overall at the event. Joanne McLeod coached him at the BC Centre of Excellence in Burnaby, British Columbia until the end of the season.^[5]

2012–13 season

In the summer of 2012, Nguyen moved to Toronto to work with Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club.^[12] He started the season at the JGP in France where he finished ninth. He did better at his second JGP event, in Turkey, earning the bronze medal. At the Canadian Championships, he placed sixth in the senior division. He finished the season at the World Junior Championships in Milan, Italy, where he placed 12th.

2013–14 season

The next season, he placed fourth and 16th at his two JGP events. Competing at the senior level, he placed fifth at the Canadian Championships. He then competed at his first senior international, the Four Continents Championships, and placed tenth. Afterwards, at the World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, he placed first in both segments and won the gold medal. He finished the season at the senior World Championships, where he placed 12th.

2014–15 season

Nguyen started the 2014–15 season with a silver medal at the inaugural Skate Canada Autumn Classic, an ISU Challenger Series event. He made his senior Grand Prix debut at the Skate America, winning the bronze medal. He continued to his second Grand Prix event, the Cup of China, where he placed fourth. This placed him ninth in the final Grand Prix standings, making him third alternate for the final.^[13] In December, he won the gold medal at the Skate Canada Challenge,^[14] the qualifying event for the Canadian Championships.^[15] He won his first national title at the 2015 Canadian National Figure Skating Championships in an impressive fashion, by more than 30 points than the 2nd-place finisher. After 11th-place finish at the 2015 Four Continents Figure Skating Championship, he skated two clean programs and finished 5th at the 2015 World Figure Skating Championship, recording his personal best scores in both segments.

2015–16 season

For the 2015–16 season, Nguyen was assigned to compete at 2015 Skate Canada International and 2015 Rostelecom Cup.^[16]

He started his season by winning silver at the 2015 Skate Canada Autumn Classic.

Programs

Competitive highlights

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Seasons: 2011–12 to present

Seasons: 2006–07 to 2010–11

Detailed results

(Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships – Worlds, Four Continents, and Junior Worlds.)

• ^Jv. Juvenile skaters have only one program (free skate).
• ^CD Competition dates, not event dates.
• JGP = Junior Grand Prix

References

External links

Media related to Nam Nguyen at Wikimedia Commons

• Nam Nguyen at the International Skating Union