Nam Nguyen

Personal life

Nam Nguyen was born May 20, 1998 in Ottawa. Both of his parents are from Vietnam — 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 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. He is a student at Northview Heights Secondary School.

Career

Nguyen began skating in 2003. Growing up, his figure skating idols were Evgeni Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, and Jeffrey Buttle. Nguyen also cited his former training mates, Yuzuru Hanyu 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. Nguyen performed in the exhibition gala at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. The following year at the 2011 Canadian Championships, he became the youngest skater to win the junior men's title.

2011–12 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. 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.

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. 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. 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 medalist by more than 30 points. After placing 11th at the 2015 Four Continents, he finished 5th at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, recording his personal best scores in both segments.

2015–16 season

Nguyen started his season by winning silver at the 2015 Skate Canada Autumn Classic. Turning to the Grand Prix series, he placed 5th at the 2015 Skate Canada International and 7th at 2015 Rostelecom Cup.

Nguyen finished fourth at the 2016 Canadian Nationals. He was assigned to the 2016 World Championships in Boston after Liam Firus withdrew, where he failed to qualify to the free skate. At the 2016 Team Challenge Cup, he mentioned in an interview that he would change his coach to David Glynn. Skate Canada confirmed the coaching change a few days later, stating Nguyen will move to San Jose in May.

Competitive highlights

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

Detailed results

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