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Looking Ahead Nam, Leftheris aim for another 'huge accomplishment' Skate America bronze medalists hope to add trip to Tokyo to already successful season
(January 23, 2007) — Minutes before Naomi Nari Nam and Themistocles Leftheris stepped onto the ice for their free skate at the 2006 U.S. Championships in St. Louis, Mo., their first nationals together, they did something unusual. They cheered. The couple screamed when Rena Inoue and John Baldwin landed their historic throw triple Axel. Nam even jumped up and down clapping for her rink mates, even though a berth on the Olympic team was on the line, and Inoue and Baldwin were narrowly trailing them after the short. "I was so excited for them," she said. Placements did not matter much Nam that night. Although she dreamed of the Olympics, she was happy just to be at the U.S. Championships, where she had claimed a spot as the next American ice queen by finishing second to two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan in 1999. Injuries ended Nam's short time in the spotlight. By the 2002 Olympics, she was living the life of a normal high school student, not knowing she would rejuvenate her Olympic dreams four years later with a shot in pairs skating. "We worked really, really hard in the eight or nine months that we had," Nam said about their third place short program in St. Louis. "We definitely pulled it together tonight and did the same thing that we do in practice." "We were both very excited, but wanted to maintain our focus going into the long program," Leftheris wrote in their online journal. "I think it would have been easy for us to get overly excited about the fact that we had a very close shot at making Olympic team our first year." Nam and Leftheris finished fifth overall at their first U.S. Championships. "Regardless if we had placed first or last, just skating well was a huge accomplishment," Leftheris wrote. More accomplishments followed for the pair—a trip to South Korea for the Hyundai SuperMatch exhibition performances, a trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Campbell's Cup competition, a trip to Hartford, Conn., for Skate America, where they won the bronze. "Even though we didn't skate our best in the long, we were very proud of ourselves for improving with every competition," Leftheris wrote about Skate America, the pairs first experience on the Grand Prix. "And we were even more excited for medaling." Nam and Leftheris hope to add two more accomplishments, including a medal, to that list this week—a top two finish at the U.S. Championships and a trip to the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in March. ____________________________________ For more information on Naomi Nari Nam and Themi Leftheris, visit their official Web site Nam and Leftheris Online at www.naominarinamthemileftheris.com. [TOP] |
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