Tag Archive for: Nam Nguyen

Sky is the limit for newly-crowned world junior champion Nam Nguyen

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As far as fleeting moments go, Nam Nguyen’s first – and to date, only – encounter with three-time world champion Patrick Chan was about as brief as they come.

Two years have passed since Nguyen, then a pint-sized 13-year-old competing as a senior for the first time at the national championships in Moncton, N.B., had a chance encounter with Chan in a hallway following practice.

“He asked me where the clock was,” the newly-crowned world junior men’s champion told reporters this week.

Cue the laughter.

“It was around the corner.”

With a world junior title now in his back pocket, thanks to a pair of dazzling programs in Sofia, Bulgaria, the skating prodigy – also the youngest Canadian to win national titles at the juvenile, pre-novice, novice and junior levels – is creating headlines of his own these days. There are even some inevitable whispers, as premature as they may be, that Nguyen could one day be Chan’s heir apparent.

“Some people say I might be the next Patrick Chan, and I think that’s a huge honour,” he adds with a wide smile.

“He’s the three-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist. That’s amazing.”

“When I saw the score, it was unbelievable, that’s the highest score I’ve ever (had) internationally,” said Nam, referring to the 217.06 total score he posted last weekend.

“When I sat down, there were so many things going on in my head. I saw the score and thought, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe it.’”

Less than a week after claiming the world junior title in Bulgaria, Nguyen will be back on a plane Saturday when he makes the trek across the Pacific for next week’s ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo. Making the trip with him will be Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the gold medallist from the Sochi Winter Olympics, and world bronze medallist Javier Fernandez of Spain. Nguyen trains with Hanyu and Fernandez at the Toronto Cricket Club under two-time Olympic silver medallist and 1987 world champion Brian Orser.

If recent history is any indication, Orser is becoming the coach with the Midas touch. Not only does he have Hanyu, Fernandez and Nam in his stable, but Orser also coached Yuna Kim to women’s gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.

Orser’s been around long enough to know with the Sochi Games now in the rear-view mirror, it will likely signal a changing of the guard in men’s skating.

“This is going to be the new guard,” said Orser, referring to the top finishers last weekend in Bulgaria. “The top four or five – these are the guys we’re going to see down the road.

“There is a change now happening and it’s happening sooner than anybody thought.”

In Sofia, Nguyen skated a near-flawless free program punctuated with a pair of double Axels, but when he makes the jump to seniors –whenever that may be – Orser and Nguyen know they will have to up the ante. In the coming months, they plan on working on the quad before rolling it out next season.

But Nguyen’s handlers insist he isn’t on any sort of fast track.

“Winning a junior world title is not the end – it’s the start,” reasons Skate Canada High Performance Director Mike Slipchuk.

“I think this is a big building block for Nam.”

Stealing the show seems to be in the kid’s DNA. Four years later, and people are still talking about Nguyen’s memorable cameo in the gala at the Vancouver Olympics. At recent national championships, Nguyen has won over the crowd with his ear-to-ear grin and infectious enthusiasm.

But Orser says that persona needed a makeover to introduce a big-boy image, and not only because Nguyen has grown almost a foot, give or take, in the past year and a half.

“I told him ‘OK, enough of the cute factor’,” reasons Orser.

“It was fun and it was cute, and everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, he’s so cute.’ But now you’ve got to be a big boy and you’ve got to skate like that. There has to be maturity.’”

Nguyen says Orser helps keep his feet planted firmly on the ground, and that isn’t going to change with the world junior title.

But 15-year-olds are allowed to dream, and this kid isn’t any different.

“I want to be the Olympic champion, 2018,” he says, eyes lighting up. “I want to be the first Canadian men’s champion for the Olympics.

“That would be cool.”
Marty Henwood

Canada’s Nam Nguyen wins world junior figure skating title

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SOFIA, Bulgaria -Nam Nguyen of Toronto landed two triple Axels and won the gold medal Saturday in men’s competition at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

Nguyen posted the top score in both the short and free programs to finish with 217.06 points.

“That was the best free skate I have ever had,” said Nguyen. “It was the first time I’ve ever done two triple axels in one program and I hope to continue to do that.”

Adian Pitkeev of Russia was second at 212.51 and Nathan Chen of the U.S., third at 212.03.

Performing to music by Bach, Nguyen produced a triple Axel-double toe, another triple Axel as well as six more triples including a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination. The 15-year-old collected a level four for the footwork and the three spins and with 144.19 points improved his seasons best by almost eight points.

“I just told myself to take one element at a time,” said Nguyen about his approach to Saturday’s free skate. “Just before I went into my starting position I told myself just to have fun. This was my third junior worlds so I really didn’t have anything to lose. I enjoyed it very much.”

Nguyen is coached by two-time Canadian Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser.

“Nam really skated for it,” said Orser.  “Doing Four Continents (in January) was one of the best things for him. That was his first senior international competition and first time competing against the senior men. He stepped it up getting ready for that event. ”

Nguyen, 12th at last year’s world juniors, now heads to Japan for the senior worlds later this month.

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., was 13th.

Nguyen’s win was Canada’s second medal of the competition. On Friday Madeline Edwards of Port Moody, B.C., and ZhaoKai Pang of Burnaby, B.C., won the bronze in ice dancing.

Competition ends Sunday with the women’s free skate.

Full results at: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wjc2014/index.htm

Canada’s Nam Nguyen first after short program at world juniors

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SOFIA, Bulgaria – Nam Nguyen of Toronto is in first place in men’s competition after Thursday’s short program at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

Nguyen, 15, earned 72.87 points with Jin Boyang of China second at 71.51 and Uno Shoma of Japan third at 70.67.

“The short program felt awesome,” said Nguyen, who is coached by Brian Orser.  “I was feeling very relaxed throughout the whole program. I took one element at a time and that really paid off.”

The highlight was landing the triple Axel.

“The triple Axel felt really big,” he said. “I think it was one of the best ones I’ve ever done, especially in competition. So it was really good that I was able to deliver it out here.”

Nguyen won’t change a thing for the free skate.

“I’m looking forward to delivering the same performance and to just keep doing what I do in practice,” he said.

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., had a personal best short program and sits 14th.

In pairs, Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin of China won the gold medal.

Mary Orr of Brantford, Ont., and Phelan Simpson of Lunenburg, Sask., were sixth and Tara Hancherow Tisdale, Sask., and Wesley Killing of Woodstock, Ont., seventh.

In Wednesday’s short dance, Madeline Edwards of Port Moody, B.C., and ZhaoKai Pang of Burnaby, B.C., are fifth less than a point from third.

Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen of Oshawa, Ont., are ninth.

Competition continues Friday with the free dance and the women’s short program.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wjc2014/index.htm

 

Impressive performance in Ottawa earns Nam Nguyen a ticket to Taipei City

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This week, many of the top Olympic contenders are giving the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships a miss, coming so close to the Sochi Games. But for rising Canadian star, Nam Nguyen, the event in Taipei City is his Olympic Games.

Nguyen is only 15 years old, and the Four Continents event represents his first major senior international competition. It’s a heady beginning to a career full of promise.

Nguyen found his way to Taipei by virtue of his fifth-place finish at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships (which puts him on the senior national team). He climbed to fifth by virtue of a fourth-place finish in the long program, ahead of such veterans as Elladj Balde, Jeremy Ten and Andrei Rogozine. When he finished, he exuded joy – and he got a standing ovation.

“I’ve had standing ovations before, but that was nothing compared to this, because I did a clean program,” he said. “The audience understood it and I was able to show it to them.”

Nguyen very quietly slipped into fourth place. Under the format used at this event, the final groups of skaters in each discipline skated late in the day at a “superfinal”-like setup, made for television. Nguyen, who skated in the next-to-last group, competed earlier in the day, quite under the radar. Incredibly, as his older peers skated after him, Nguyen’s score held up.

His big accomplishment was to land a triple Axel at the beginning of his program. He felt relief, he said. “Then I had to remember that I had seven more jumps and three spins.” Near the end of his routine, as he rocketed past the end boards, he could hear his coach, Brian Orser, telling him to keep pushing.

His previous best (international) free skate score had been 119.15, set at the 2013 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships, when he was 12th. At the national championship, he blasted it, finishing with 147.46 points, for a final score of 218.43. (His personal best total, set in Mexico, is 181.04). It made his trials of the early season all worth it.

His triple Axel hasn’t been consistent all season. He started landing them right from his first competition in Thornhill in August. But during his Junior Grand Prix events, the jump seemed to evaporate.

Earlier in the season at a Junior Grand Prix in Gdansk, Poland, he had finished only 16th. Ask him about it and his voice catches in his throat, still hurting from the memory. “I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “The practices were all right, but practices don’t count. It’s what you do in the actual part of it. I was not able to show the judges what I was capable of doing. I learned a lot from Poland.”

His other Junior Grand Prix event in Mexico City resulted in a fourth-place finish, but he admitted he wasn’t fully prepared for that event. “People around me were saying that the altitude was bad, but I didn’t really listen to them,” he said. “So I didn’t train as hard as I needed to. I learned the hard way. My legs were dead.”

Afterward, he competed at Oktoberfest in Barrie and the triple Axel came back strong and became more consistent afterwards. And with it, his confidence grew too. At Skate Canada Challenge, his nerves got the better of him, so with a month to go before Canadians, he ramped up his training. He’s increasing his repetitions.

Last season, Orser said that Nguyen took himself a little too seriously and needed to dial things back somewhat. “He’s a really intense little character,” Orser said. “He skates well and he’s happy and he’s funny and he’s silly and all those things, but he’s extremely intense, almost to a fault. So needs to lighten up a little bit, I think.”

He needed to do what his training mates – two-time European champion Javier Fernandez and Grand Prix Final champ Yuzuru Hanyu – do. They step onto the ice, and get the job done in a relaxed way, Orser said. “We’re kind of working through that,” he said. “He actually over trains, so I need to scale that back a little bit and just work out how much he’s on the ice. He actually needs to do more off ice than on ice, just to get that balance.”

Nguyen said it himself last year at the national championships: “The criteria for myself this year is to have fun,” he said. “And most importantly, I need to bring the audience in with me. It would be really boring to skate by yourself. It’s much more fun to have them skate with you.”

Skating with the likes of Fernandez and Hanyu has pushed Nguyen into wanting to land quads, too. So a couple of weeks before Canadians, he started trying quad Salchow, because his Salchow jump is so strong. Next year, he may try a quad Salchow in a competition.

And he’s grown too. He doesn’t know by how much, but it’s visible. “I kind of feel it,” he said. “I’m fighting against it.” Obviously, he’s not losing his jumps. In Ottawa, Nguyen landed a triple Axel, triple Lutz – triple toe loop, triple flip, a triple loop, a triple Lutz with an edge call, a triple Salchow – double toe loop, a triple flip – double toe loop – double loop combo, and a double Axel. He also showed off one level four and two level three spins.

The competition at Four Continents will be stiffer than anything Nguyen has ever seen: He’ll be in against world silver medalist Denis Ten of Kazakhstan (season’s best of 224.80); Takahiko Kozuka of Japan (230.95), 2010 Four Continents Champion Adam Rippon (241.24), Richard Dornbush (218.57) and junior world champion Joshua Farris of the United States. It’s a big step. Against this crew, he finished 10th in the short program with a good skate. It’s the first step.

Beverley Smith