Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer Thrust onto World Junior Stage Six Months into Partnership

Slightly more than six months ago, Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer were nothing more than friends and training mates in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
 
Williams moved from Boston to Colorado Springs last spring to find a pairs partner while continuing to train in singles skating and Lewer was already partnered up.
 
When Lewer's partnership ended in August, their coaches suggested they team up and give it a go. In a matter of days, Williams and Lewer whipped together a routine from scratch and tested in the same week. Then, they entered their first competition in less than a month. All the while, Williams was brand new to pairs skating and had to learn lifts, twists, throws, death spirals and partnering.
 
"I think that created a bond so quickly because we were both thrown into the deep end," she said. "We sort of had to figure it out ourselves. We leaned on each other and it's just grown ever since."
 
Williams said lifts came "naturally" to her and when she first attempted them with her coaches at the time commenting, "You did that with no fear and that's really not normal, so maybe this is a good idea for you to be a pairs skater."
 
She saw similar success with twists, advancing from single to triple twists in a couple of weeks. However, throw jumps required more of an adjustment for Williams.
 
"Throws and death spirals are the two things that I think are the scary ones," she admitted. "I really like doing triple twists. It's like flying and then all of a sudden Lachlan disappears and then when he catches me, it's like he's there again and I'm on the ground."
 
For their short program, they are skating to a cover of the song "Tiny Dancer" recorded by Florence + The Machine. Williams had selected this piece for a singles routine and when she and Lewer were scrambling for music, she suggested it.
 
"I really like our step sequence in our short program," Lewer said. "I think that's probably our best bit of performance because we can take a breath, we can show off our love for skating."
 
Their coach Drew Meekins recommended selections from the Miss Saigon soundtrack by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for their free skate.
 
"Mirai Nagasu used to skate to it, and Drew I believe did the choreo for her program and he had it in mind as music he really loved," Williams said. "I really like the beginning of our program. I think it's very intense, but also graceful at the same time, so it's good contrast."
 
Accustomed to being alone, Williams is enjoying having Lewer by her side on competition ice. To calm and sooth each other, they exchange words of encouragement and squeeze one another's hands before their music begins.
 
"In our free skate, I'm right against his back and I can hear his heart beating, so it's comforting to hear. I know he's there," Williams said of their opening pose.
 
They remain connected as one throughout their routines. Lewer calls the spins and counts revolutions.
 
"I watch Naomi to make sure that I match her, so it's my job to speed up or slow down," he explained. "There's also a couple of other moments in the program where I say a word or two as a reminder. Something our coach would say like, 'This is the point where we need to focus' or our breathing points."
 
As their rookie season together has progressed, they've added difficulty to the contents of their two routines, including a double Axel-single Axel-double Axel combination.
 
"When we did our first competition, our twist was only a double and our jumps were only doubles, but as we started training more, we got our triple twist and we started doing triple jumps and a more complicated three jump combo," Lewer shared. "Our lifts, while they're still the same type of lift, the entrances and exits changed. I think our patterns into certain other elements changed as well."
 
Given the last-minute nature of their partnership, time didn't allow to design original costumes, so Williams is wearing dresses she previously used for singles skating and their training mate and friend Danny O'Shea is kindly allowing Lewer to borrow two of his old costumes. When they first partnered up, O'Shea helped coach them a bit. They found the tips they received from the 2016 U.S. pairs champion to offer a different perspective than what their coaches Meekins and Natalia Mishkutenok can provide.
 
"There are a lot of athletes here who have a love for the sport and desire to do well. Especially on the pairs side, training with people like Danny O'Shea is great because they always put in 100% and you look up to them and you're like, 'I want to skate just as hard, just as fast as this person,' so you're putting in just as much effort as the other people. The atmosphere is great," Lewer praised.
 
Flash forward to the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January, only five months into their partnership, and they placed second, earning themselves one of two pairs spots alongside Sonia Baram and Daniel Tioumentsev on Team USA for the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2023.
 
As immigrants, representing Team USA has an extra special meaning to Williams and Lewer. Williams was adopted from Seoul, South Korea as a baby at about six months old and spent most of her childhood in Boston. Lewer is originally from Down Under. He relocated from Australia to Colorado Springs in November 2020 when he was matched with his previous pairs partner.
 
"We're just going to go out and try and improve our scores. Hopefully get another personal best, but we want to go out and enjoy it," Lewer said of their goals for Junior Worlds. "There's no time zone change. It's lower in altitude. Training in Colorado Springs, it's about 6,000 feet and in Calgary it's only about 3,000, so I think that'll help us catch our breath halfway through our long program."
 
Williams competed against Baram in singles skating last year, but the two pairs teams have never gone head-to-head. Baram and Tioumentsev are the reigning U.S. pewter medalists on the senior level and won gold at the junior level last season.
 
"I'm excited to skate with them because this season they skated senior domestically, so we didn't get to skate with them or they always had different schedules whenever we went to competitions, but I'm really excited to see them perform live in person and skate alongside them with Team USA on our backs," Lewer said.
 
Don't miss both Team USA pairs teams as they compete at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2023, set for Feb. 27 - March 5 in Calgary, Canada. For more information, visit the event's competition central.