He’s won junior figure skating events at the national and international level.

But competing against the best in the world for all age levels presents a whole new challenge to Kazakh figure skater Denis Ten.

Only 16 years old, the five-foot-four Ten is already an Olympian. Understandably, he’s both excited and nervous about competing in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games this month.

“My goal is to do my best,” he said. “I just want to show everything that I trained for the practice.”

Having competed at such a high level already, his visit to Prince George this week may seem unusual. But according to Spruce Capital Figure Skating Club coach Alex Sergeev, who’s been helping Ten train, the city serves as an attractive choice for a pre-Olympics training site.

“He likes it because it’s not so hectic, like in Vancouver now,” Sergeev said. “It’s a quiet place, it’s good for the practicing.”

Ten’s list of achievements include becoming the 2006 Kazakhstan national champion. At the 2008-09 ISU Junior Grant Prix event in Belarus, he became the first skater from his home country to win an International Skating Union competition. He spends about six months a year in Russia competing and practicing, having moved to Moscow to train at the CSKA Moscow when he was 10 years old. He also trains in Sochi, Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

“We want to ensure that when this group thinks about future training needs, they think of Prince George,” CN Centre and Community Arenas Manager Andy Beesley stated in a press release. “We are so thankful to the Spruce City Skating Club and their coach Alex Sergeev, who approached us with this request to accommodate this skater. We see this as an exciting opportunity and are working with this group to ensure this will unfold in a successful manner.”

Ten arrived in Prince George on Sunday after competing at the 2010 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Jeonju, Republic of Korea. He’s visited Canada twice before, coming here for figure skating on both previous occasions – in Kitchener, Ont. in November for the HomeSense Skate Canada International and a year ago in Vancouver for the 2009 Four Continents competition.

Ten was scheduled to hit the ice for two training sessions a day Monday through Thursday. Today, he’s slated to hit the Elksentre, where he’ll return with Sergeev on Saturday to practice with members of Sergeev’s club. Sergeev said he’s encouraged members of the Spruce City club to watch Ten train.

“It’s very exciting for them as well. Monday he did club sessions and the girls were very excited.”

After Saturday’s session, Ten will fly to Vancouver, where he’ll stay and train with the Russian figure skating team prior to the start of the Olympics. The men’s figure skating event at the Games gets underway on Feb. 16.