Naomi Nari Nam-------what a comeback!

出处（from）http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200609/200609150005.html

When she laughs, she still looks just like a girl. In front of the cameras Naomi Nari Nam (21) puts on a demure pose and smile after asking which pose will be best. She looks just like she did when she placed second in the senior women’s division at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1999. At the time, she was just 14 years old, but she had an amazing ability to communicate with the audience. She was praised as the next Michelle Kwan, and touted as a “Baby Ballerina.”

She gained huge popularity in Korea as well. But soon, adverse fortune had its turn, and the athlete struggled through injury, rehabilitation and surgery. Just when it seemed that she had vanished without a trace, she launched her comeback. And it wasn’t in the singles competition, but in pairs. Nine months after combining forces with Themistocles Leftheris (24), the duo was able to come fifth at the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

So when Nam comes back to Korea after seven years, it is as a new athlete. She will once again meet her Korean fans at the 2006 Hyundai Card Super Match that will see many of figure skating’s biggest names take the ice during its run on Sept. 16-17 at the Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul. Now 21, she has the air of a mature woman.

After hip surgery in February 2001, Nam sank into a period of little progress and was off the ice for a while. “At first I was frustrated. I really wanted to be a part of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. I thought that I would never be able to skate again.” She went back to ordinary life as a student, working at a coffee shop near her house in Irvine. But it didn’t take long for her to grow tired of that life and long once again to feel the wind in her hair and the ice beneath her feet against the roaring backdrop of thousands of cheering fans. Working as a part-time coach of young skaters, Nam decided that once she had fully recovered, she was going to challenge herself by venturing into the doubles world. “Ever since I was young, I always thought that pairs looked like fun. After I gave up singles I wanted to give it a try.” Long-time coach John Nicks said the move would be a waste of her talent, and told her to start up with singles again, but she needed a change that would awaken once again the passion for the sport. After meeting Leftheris in April last year, she promptly became his partner. The two are so close that they even wear the same bracelet on their wrists.

“I’m pretty lucky. I mean, finding an athlete who shares the same goals and passions as I do, and is out there training hard every single day. If life is a book, we’re definitely on the same page.” She says, though, that Leftheris is not her boyfriend. The explanations -- that she is carefully trying to balance training and human relationships -- bursts promptly from her lips.

Nam practices three or four hours a day at the East West Ice Palace in the Los Angeles suburb of Artesia, which is owned by Michelle Kwan and her father. She has stopped attending the area college where she had enrolled. Aside from teaching some 10 young skaters to earn spending money, every remaining moment is focused on her own skating. Four months ago she found a house in Anaheim, near the rink, where she is living with a roommate. Nam and Leftheris have finished putting together their program for this season.

“It’s gotten better technically, but I still think that we are in the preparation stage. Our goal is of course to get to the 2010 Winter Games.” That is in fact the same dream she has held since she was six years old. But there is a wish that has changed: “When I was young, I wanted to become a pediatrician after ending my skating career, but now I want to teach elementary school.”