A two-time national champion and former World Junior Figure Skating gold medal winner (2014), Nam Nguyen had been to Sudbury already a couple of times, conducting clinics and workshops on behalf of the Sudbury Skating Club.

This time around, he brought a friend.

Raised in Springfield (Missouri), Gracie Gold skated at a club that at one time, to the best of her memory, featured nine total skaters.

Still, she rose to international success, capturing bronze in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the same Games at which she finished fourth in the women's singles event.

In many ways, her background provides part of the motivation for her willingness to head to areas she has never visited before. Areas like Sudbury.

"I love travelling to any place that has skating rinks," said Gold, completing a long day with local talent at the Countryside Sports Complex last month. "There were coaches doing skating seminars when I was young but they wouldn't come (to Springfield) because we were too small."

"I like to specialize now in smaller, more niche markets."

The first American woman to win the NHK Trophy in Japan on the Grand Prix Series circuit, Gold still holds the record for the highest short program score ever recorded by a female skater from the United States (76.43 - 2016 World Championships in Boston).

Quite open about her mental health struggles and author of a memoir that was on the New York Times Bestseller list, Gold is more than comfortable with her ability to provide tangible takeaways to the youngsters attending her clinics.

"I throw a lot of things at them, a lot of information," she said. "I hope that they take what resonates and leave what doesn't. Not every single thing will work with every skater."

"A new perspective, a new point of view can make a world of difference."

Having confirmed via Social Media his current relationship with Gracie Gold earlier this year, Nam Nguyen has spent much of his time focused on developing the skating abilities of elite hockey talent in recent years.

"Edge work is one of the most important aspects in hockey," said Nguyen, a 27 year-old who rose to prominence as a youth in skating in British Columbia but has called Toronto home for the past decade or more.

"You look at the great players today - Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, Sidney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, William Nylander - they all utilize their edges to create plays. We are trying to set players up to match the pace of hockey and control what's happening around them."

"They can dictate what is happening around them by the quality of their edge work. It all starts with skating."

Nguyen attended the World Championships (Senior) five times, named to a sixth that fell victim to the coronavirus pandemic - a clear source of pride upon which he looks back having officially retired from competitive skating in the spring of 2022.

"Being able to represent Canada for so many years on an international stage, wearing the maple leaf on your back and knowing that you are representing a country that is so great, with so many people that are prideful about their country is special," said Nguyen.

And as for that next wave of Canadian figure skating talent, those kids who might well emerge from some of these weekend workshops that he and Gold attend at outposts near and far?

"We are really excited to see the next up and comers in Canada," said Nguyen. "I think we're in good hands, for sure."