Canada's
Young Stays Close to Top
Nicholas
Young
November
28, 2004
Article and Photo © Barry
Mittan
Canada's Nicholas Young has big aspirations for the
2004-2005 season. He said his goals are to "medal
at every competition I do and long term to medal at
Worlds and the Olympics." The 2000 Canadian junior
men's champion made the senior international team
for the second straight year by finishing fifth at
the 2004 Canadian Nationals. He was also fifth in
2003 and finished seventh in both 2001 and 2002. Last
season, he also won the Nebelhorn Trophy, took the
bronze at the Karl Schaefer Memorial in Vienna, finished
fourth at the World University Games and placed seventh
at the Cup of China, his first senior Grand Prix event.
This season, Young finished seventh at Skate America
and sixth at the NHK Trophy in Japan.
Young
started skating when he was about five. "I started
skating so I could play hockey," he said. "My
dad played hockey. I didn't start actual figure skating
until I was nine." As a result, he was 16 before
he landed a clean triple, but then he landed all of
them except the axel the same year. But no jump is
his favorite. "I don't care what jump it is,"
he said. "I like them all. Each jump has it challenges
but finding a common ground with each, makes it a
lot easier to jump."
He moved on to trying quadruple jumps when he was
17. "I've tried quad salchow, toe, flip and lutz,"
he said. "I've landed a toe. I have also landed
a lutz but tore my thumb ligament when I had an accident
landing it last summer. So I trained with a bright
orange cast for three weeks and got it taken off two
days before Minto. What made things worse is that
I was throwing the opening pitch at an Ottawa Lynx's
game after Minto for Skate Canada Day at the ball
park."
Young
enjoys sports. He participated in soccer, baseball,
tae kwon do, and swimming and ran cross country in
school. He's still involved in other sports, noting,
"I play the odd pick up hockey game in the winter
and shoot some hoops and some soccer from time to
time." He also likes car racing, snowboarding,
rollerblading, shooting pool and playing golf.
Other
off ice interests include going out with friends and
watching comedy and action movies. He said he'll read
"anything that catches my eye." He doesn't
have any collections but does have one dog, a Pomeranian
named JT Kool. Young also said, "I love traveling.
I can't really say that one place was better than
another, but I can tell that each adventure I've had
in each country was worth it." He hopes to see
Hawaii and Australia.
The
talented 21-year-old has trained with Josee Normand
And Sebastien Britten for the last year. He works
for about three to four hours on ice every day and
puts in another eight hours of off ice work weekly.
Last
season, Young used his martial arts moves in his programs
as he skated to Duel by Bond for the short and Kodo
and Cherry Blossom by Hugo Chouinard for the long.
This year, Young will debut two new programs. Britten
choreographed his short program to Dueling Banjos
and Help, Help, while David Wilson choreographed
his long program to the soundtrack of Peter Gunn
with music by Henry Mancini.
Young
doesn't have any particular process for choosing his
music for each season. "Usually it happens by
accident," he said, "but this year there
were suggestions by my coaches that I accepted. I'll
skate to anything as long as I like it and can connect
to it." As for off ice music, he said, "I
like everything but mostly listen to hip-hop right
now but that could change at any moment."
Although
Young hasn't decided on a future career, he's currently
studying political science at Concordia University.
For now, he's just enjoying his chosen sport. "I
like skating because when I'm doing it, nothing else
matters," he said. "It's just me and the
ice. It's a very peaceful experience.
Visit
Nicholas Young's Official Web Site at: www.geocities.com/nicholas_young82.
