Nam finds opportunity with pairs
ST. LOUIS – Naomi Nari Nam just might make it to the Olympics after all – as a pairs skater.
The 1999 women’s silver medalist returned to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships for the first time in six years Wednesday, this time in pairs. But she quickly made herself at home, finishing third in the short program with Themistocles Leftheris.
That’s pretty good for someone who’s only been skating pairs a few months.
“We worked really hard in the nine months we had, and it definitely showed tonight. We pulled it together,” Nam said. “It was familiar (on the ice), but I also had this strapping young gentleman to worry about.”
Another solid effort like this in Friday’s free skate, and Nam could do her worrying at the Turin Olympics. The United States can send two pairs teams. Defending national champions Katie Orscher and Garrett Lucash have a solid lead with 60.65 points, but Nam and Leftheris are less than a point behind Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem.
Hinzmann and Parchem finished with 57.41 points, while Nam and Leftheris scored 56.63.
Former national champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin had a dismal outing, with him botching their side-by-side triple toe loop jumps and her falling on a throw triple loop to drop to fourth.
“We’ve not spoken of their potential or their placement at all,” said Peter Oppegard, Nam and Leftheris’ coach and the 1988 bronze pairs medalist with partner Jill Watson. “I’ve tried to shield them from that.”
Back before Sarah Hughes or Sasha Cohen came on the scene, Nam was supposed to be the one to give Michelle Kwan a run for her medals. She won the novice title in 1997, an 11-year-old who could spin better than most people twice her age.
Two years later, at her first senior nationals, she finished second to Kwan. With the Salt Lake City Olympics three years away, it wasn’t hard to imagine her on the podium.
But her body had different ideas. She missed the 2001 nationals with what she thought was a stress fracture in her hip. As it turned out, she’d popped the hip out of its socket and had torn cartilage – a similar injury to what 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski had.
She eventually had the same surgery as Lipinski had to correct the problem.
“I was on and off for a good three, four years,” Nam said. “That was the most frustrating part. Doctors said, ‘You can skate again. No, you can’t.’ As much as it hurt physically, it hurt more mentally. I didn’t know what I was going to do, especially at such a young age.”
Finally healthy again, Nam wasn’t sure what to do about skating. She still loved the sport, but the thought of the work it would take to get her jumps back to where they’d need to be to compete in singles was simply overwhelming.
She’d always loved pairs skating, though.
She knew of Leftheris, who’d shown potential as a pairs skater but had yet to find the right partner. Leftheris had certainly heard of her.
“Of course I knew about her,” he said. “To be honest, I was a little hesitant because she hadn’t been in the sport for the last couple of years.”
But they quickly realized they had something special, that elusive combination of chemistry and potential that hasn’t been seen in an American pair since Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman retired.
“There’s plenty of room for improvement,” Oppegard said. “They’re already good and getting better.”