Nam Nguyen (born May 20, 1998) is a Canadian retired competitive

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

. He is the 2014 World Junior champion, 2019 Skate Canada silver medallist, and two-time

Canadian national The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

champion (2015, 2019). He has placed as high as fifth at the World Championships, in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Personal life

Nam Nguyen was born May 20, 1998 in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. Both of his parents are from

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

— his father, Sony, moved to Canada in 1988 and sponsored his wife, Thu, in 1994. His father is an engineer and his mother works for a medical software company. His sister, Kim, is six years younger and is also a figure skater. He lived in

Richmond, British Columbia Richmond is a coastal city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough), between the two estuarine distributaries of the Fraser River. Encompassing the ad ...

and

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...

, B.C. from 1999 to 2012, and then moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario, so that he and his sister could train under

Brian Orser Brian Ernest Orser, (born 18 December 1961) is a Canadian former competitive and professional figure skater and coach to Olympic champions. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medallist, 1987 World champion and eight-time (1981–88) Can ...

. Nguyen studied health sciences at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Career

Nguyen began skating in 2003. Growing up, his figure skating idols were

Evgeni Plushenko Evgeni Viktorovich Plushenko (, born 3 November 1982) is a Russian former figure skater. He is a four-time Olympic medalist (2006 gold, 2014 team gold, 2002 & 2010 silver), a three-time World champion (2001, 2003, 2004), a seven-time European ...

Stephane Lambiel Stephane may refer to: * Stéphane, a French given name * Stephane (Ancient Greece) A stephane (''ancient Greek'' στέφανος, from ''στέφω'' (stéphō, “I encircle”), '' Lat.'' Stephanus = wreath, decorative wreath worn on the head ...

, and

Jeffrey Buttle Jeffrey "Jeff" Buttle (born September 1, 1982) is a Canadian figure skater and choreographer. He is the 2006 Winter Olympics bronze medalist, the 2008 World champion, the 2002 and 2004 Four Continents champion and the 2005–2007 Canadian cha ...

. Nguyen also cited his former training mates,

Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese former competitive figure skater. He is a two-time Olympic champion (2014, 2018), a two-time World champion (2014, 2017), a four-time Grand Prix Final champion (2013–2016), the 2020 Four Continents champion, the 2010 World J ...

and Javier Fernandez, as being his inspirations.

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. In 2010, he won the bronze medal on the junior level at the

Canadian Championships Canadian Championships refers to a number of national-level competition in Canada. It may refer to: * Canadian Championship, a soccer tournament * Canadian Figure Skating Championships * Canadian Professional Figure Skating Championships * Canadi ...

. Nguyen performed in the exhibition gala at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

in Vancouver, British Columbia. The following year at the 2011 Canadian Championships, he became the youngest skater to win the junior men's title.

2011–2012 season

In the 2011–2012 season, Nguyen became age-eligible for international junior competition. He finished twelfth in his first

Junior Grand Prix The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (titled the ISU Junior Series in the 1997–98 season) is a series of international junior-level competitions organized by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men ...

(JGP) event in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, Latvia and then won the bronze medal in his second event in Brasov, Romania. He placed seventh 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. He was eighteenth in the short program and eleventh in the free skating, finishing thirteenth overall at the event. Joanne McLeod coached him at the

BC Centre of Excellence The "Champs International Skating Centre of British Columbia" (formerly known as the 'BC Centre of Excellence') is one of two major figure skating training centers in Canada. Located in Burnaby, British Columbia, it is home to many great national a ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

until the end of the season.

2012–2013 season

In the summer of 2012, Nguyen moved to

to work with

at the

Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club The Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club is a private sport and social club located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The club offers a variety of sporting and social programs including aquatics, cricket, croquet, curling, figure skating, fitne ...

. He started the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

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

, he placed sixth in the senior division. He finished the season at the World Junior Championships in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Italy, where he placed twelfth.

2013–2014 season

The next season, he placed fourth and 16th at his two JGP events. Competing at the senior level, he placed fifth at the

. He then competed at his first senior international, the

Four Continents Championships The Four Continents Figure Skating Championships (4CC) is an annual figure skating competition. The International Skating Union established it in 1999 to provide skaters representing non-African and non-European countries with a similar competit ...

, and placed tenth. Afterwards, at the World Junior Championships in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, Bulgaria, he placed first in both segments and won the gold medal. He finished the season at the senior World Championships, where he placed twelfth.

2014–2015 season

Nguyen started the

with a silver medal at the inaugural Skate Canada Autumn Classic, an

ISU Challenger Series The ISU Challenger Series is a series of international figure skating competitions. Established by the International Skating Union in the 2014–15 season, it is a group of senior-level events ranked below the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. E ...

event. He made his senior Grand Prix debut at the

Skate America Skate America is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. It is hosted by U.S. Figure Skating. The location changes yearly. Medals are awarded in four disciplines: m ...

, winning the bronze medal. He continued to his second Grand Prix event, the

Cup of China The Cup of China was one of the series of six senior-level, international figure skating competitions held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. The Cup of China joined the series in 2003, and was cancelled in 2022 as China enforces s ...

, where he placed fourth. This placed him ninth in the final Grand Prix standings, making him third alternate for the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. In December, he won the gold medal at the Skate Canada Challenge, the qualifying event for Canadian Nationals. In January, he won his first senior national title, outscoring the silver medallist by more than 30 points. After placing eleventh at the 2015 Four Continents, he finished fifth at the 2015 World Championships in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, recording his personal best scores in both segments.

2015–2016 season

Nguyen started his season by winning silver at the 2015 Skate Canada Autumn Classic. Turning to the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

series, he placed fifth at the 2015 Skate Canada International and seventh at 2015 Rostelecom Cup. Nguyen finished fourth at the 2016 Canadian Nationals. He was assigned to the 2016 World Championships in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

after

Liam Firus Liam Firus (born July 2, 1992) is a Canadian retired figure skater. He is the 2016 Triglav Trophy champion and a three-time Canadian national medallist (silver in 2016, bronze in 2014–15). He competed at the 2014 Olympic Games. Earlier in his ...

withdrew. He failed to qualify to the free skating. In an interview at the

2016 Team Challenge Cup The 2016 KOSÉ Team Challenge Cup was held April 22–24, 2016 at the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington. Skaters competed as part of Team Asia, Team Europe, or Team North America. The 2016 competition was the first edition of the event. Spokan ...

, he mentioned his planned coaching change to David Glynn.

Skate Canada Skate Canada ( Canadian French: ''Patinage Canada'', lit. "Skating Canada") is the national governing body for figure skating in Canada, recognized by the International Skating Union and the Canadian Olympic Committee. It organizes the annual ...

confirmed the change a few days later, stating that Nguyen would move to San Jose in May.

2016–2017 season

Nguyen placed fifth at the 2016 CS U.S. International Classic. On the Grand Prix series, he placed sixth at the

2016 Skate America The 2016 Skate America was the first event of six in the 2016–17 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois, on October 21–23. Medals we ...

and eighth at the 2016 NHK Trophy. After returning to Ontario in December 2016, he began training at the York Region Skating Academy, coached by

Tracey Wainman Tracey Wainman (born May 27, 1967) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. She is the 1981 Skate Canada International champion and a two-time Canadian national champion (1981 and 1986). Competitive career Early in her career, Tracey W ...

and

Grzegorz Filipowski Grzegorz Filipowski (Polish pronunciation: ; born 28 July 1966) is a former Polish competitive figure skater. He is the 1985 European bronze medalist, the 1989 European silver medalist and the 1989 World bronze medalist. Filipowski competed ...

. He won the bronze medal at the 2017 Canadian Championships and placed 8th at the 2017 Four Continents Championships. Nguyen switched coaches again following continued disappointing results, working instead with Robert Burke in Richmond Hill.

2017–2018 season

Nguyen placed fifth at the 2017 CS Autumn Classic and seventh at the 2017 Rostelecom Cup. At the

2017 NHK Trophy The 2017 NHK Trophy was the 4th event of six in the 2017–18 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held in Osaka on November 10–12. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men ...

in Osaka, Japan, Nam placed tenth overall after disappointing eleventh place in short program. Later in Montreal, Nguyen took the bronze medal at the 2018 Skate Canada Challenge. Nguyen placed third at the 2018 Canadian Championships, behind

Patrick Chan Patrick Lewis Wai–Kuan Chan (born December 31, 1990) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. He is a 2018 Olympic gold medallist in the team event, 2014 Olympic silver medallist in the men's and team events, a three–time World ch ...

and

Keegan Messing Keegan Messing (born January 23, 1992) is a Canadian-American figure skater. Representing Canada, he has competed at two Winter Olympic Games in 2018 and 2022. He has also appeared at three World Championships, placing as high as 6th. He is the ...

, and thus was not picked for the Canadian delegation to the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

. He instead joined Messing on the Canadian team at the 2018 World Championships, where he had a poor showing in the short program and failed to qualify for the free skating.

2018–2019 season

Nguyen opened the new season at the 2018 U.S. Classic, where he placed first in the short program and second in the free skate to win the gold medal, his first international gold at the senior level. He was assigned to two ISU Grand Prix events,

, where he placed sixth, and

, where he placed fifth. In January 2019, Nguyen competed at the 2019 Canadian Championships. He placed third in the short program after doubling the second part of his combination. He then won the free skate, and the overall title, the second of his career. He was subsequently named to the Canadian teams for the

Four Continents Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, a ...

and

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. At the 2019 World Championships, Nguyen placed sixteenth after two error-riddled programs. The placements of Nguyen and Messing meant that Canada would have only one men's berth at the 2020 World Championships. Nguyen concluded the season at the 2019 World Team Trophy, where he placed seventh overall among the twelve men.

2019–2020 season

Nguyen placed fourth at the 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy, finishing ninth in the short program after making severe errors on all his jumping passes and second in the free program after only one fall. Beginning the

at the

2019 Skate Canada International The 2019 Skate Canada International was the second event of the 2019–20 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at Prospera Place in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 25 ...

, Nguyen was third in the short program behind

and

Camden Pulkinen Camden Pulkinen (born March 25, 2000) is an American figure skater. He competed at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics and is the first male figure skater to compete on behalf of Team USA in the men's singles event at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. ...

with a mostly clean skate, but for a minor error on his triple flip. Nguyen performed last in the free skate, immediately after a near-world record performance by Hanyu. He skated with only one minor error, singling a planned double toe loop, and set new personal bests in both the free skate and total score to take the silver medal, his first Grand Prix medal in five years. Nguyen was fifth at his second assignment, the 2019 Rostelecom Cup, his only major error being popping one of his planned quad Salchow jumps in the free skate. Nguyen set out to defend his national title at the 2020 Canadian Championships, placing second in the short program behind Messing. Nguyen fell on both of his quad Salchow attempts in the free skate, and remained in second place overall, behind

Roman Sadovsky Roman Sadovsky (born May 31, 1999) is a Canadian figure skater and YouTuber. Representing Canada, he competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics. He is the 2019 NHK Trophy bronze medallist, the 2018 CS Alpen Trophy silver medallist, the 2022 CS Neb ...

declined to determine who would take the sole men's berth at the World Championships in Montreal, and assigned the entire men's podium to compete at the 2020 Four Continents Championships in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. Nguyen placed sixth at Four Continents, the highest placement among the Canadian men there, with his only error across two programs being a singled attempt at a triple Axel in the free skate. Due to his strong performance at Four Continents, Nguyen was chosen to represent Canada at the World Championships, but these were cancelled as a result of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

2020–2021 season

Nguyen was assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but the event was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. With the pandemic continuing to make it difficult to hold in-person events, Skate Canada held the 2021 Skate Canada Challenge virtually. Nguyen won the silver medal, finishing 5.58 points behind

. Nguyen was named as an alternate to the

2021 World Championships 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, the lone men's berth going to

. With Canada's mandatory two-week quarantine for returning athletes, however, no member of the World team was assigned to the 2021 World Team Trophy, and Nguyen was assigned as one of Canada's two men's entries, alongside Sadovsky. On April 8, he was named as team captain. Nguyen placed eleventh of eleven skaters in both segments of the competition, while Team Canada finished in sixth place.

2021–2022 season

Nguyen was initially assigned to compete at the

2021 CS Autumn Classic International The 2021 CS Autumn Classic International was held on September 16–18, 2021 in Pierrefonds, Quebec. It was part of the 2021–22 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice da ...

, but withdrew shortly before the competition. He subsequently made his competitive debut at the

2021 Skate America The 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America was the first event in the 2021–22 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 22–24. ...

, where he placed eighth. He was tenth at his second Grand Prix, the

2021 NHK Trophy The 2021 NHK Trophy was the fourth event in the 2021–22 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo on November 12–14. Medals were award ...

. He landed a quad Salchow in the free skate, and said afterward that his overall score was "a reflection of how I've been focusing on my training. I recently just got my quad a few weeks ago and I’ve been neglecting the connection between the elements." Nguyen contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

the week before the 2022 Canadian Championships, the last event prior to the selection of the Canadian Olympic team. He was off the ice for five days, returning to the ice four days before the short program. He struggled at the competition, finishing in sixth place, and was not named to the team. Nguyen had earlier said he anticipated this being his final season, but after the championships said that he "wanted to finish on a really high note, however, I did say earlier this season that this could be my last season. However, I was in a different mindset back then and a lot has happened from then to now, so I am not quite sure yet what my future holds." Nguyen subsequently announced on May 20 that he would be retiring as he had originally planned. He said that "after nationals, I was very, very determined to do another season, and we were already in the kind of like planning mode. And then give or take a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, my feeling shifted a lot."

Post-competitive career

Interviewed in September 2022, Nguyen stated, " atching figure skatingjust pushed me away further because I remembered how awful I felt during my warm-up and how nervous I felt, and sitting there in front of the TV, I'm like, 'I'm so glad I'm not doing this anymore.'" Having no desire to work as a figure skating coach, he decided to coach ice hockey players in power skating.

Programs

Competitive highlights

* GP:

; CS: Challenger Series; JGP:

2018 Canadian Nationals - Senior men winners - 1

2011–12 to present

2006–07 to 2010–11

Detailed results

Small medals for short program and free skating awarded only at ISU Championships.

Senior

Junior

* Juvenile skaters have only one program (free skating). * Competition dates, not event dates. * JGP = Junior Grand Prix

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Nam 1998 births Canadian male single skaters Canadian people of Vietnamese descent Living people Sportspeople from Ottawa Sportspeople of Vietnamese descent World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists