My Bao Nguyen, commonly known as Alex Nguyen, is a black belt in jiu-jitsu under Greg Souders who is widely regarded as one of the top no-gi / submission-grappling competitors of her generation. A reputation earned through her wins at important events such as the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) Pan American No-Gi Championships and other events, particularly under the submission-only ruleset. Alex Nguyen was born on January 17, 2000, in Vietnam but moved to the United States with her family in 2002, settling in Maryland where she grew up. Encouraged by her parents to try as many extra-curricular activities as she could, Nguyen went through an array of hobbies from arts to soccer, judo, and jiu-jitsu, which she picked up in 2009, around the same time, she joined her school's wrestling team. From the get-go Alex's father was very involved in her sporting life, often in a - now understood to be - overly intense manner. According to Nguyen in an interview given to BJJ Heroes in November 2022, her father asked 9-year-old Alex "Do you want to do this recreationally or be elite?" when she first started training jiu-jitsu. Being young and wanting to make her father proud, Alex chose the latter option which resulted in years of an intense training schedule programed by the patriarch, consisting of weight lifting, scholastic wrestling, and jiu-jitsu, often for 32 hours per week, outside her academic duties. The intensity of the schedule demanded by her father eventually dried out her love for the sport and damaged Alex's relationship with her dad. In 2018 she decided to break the cycle and started practicing jiu-jitsu merely as a hobbyist. This lasted up until her black belt promotion which took place on December 2020, a ceremony led by Nguyen's long-standing coach, Greg Souders, who took Alex from white to black belt. After earning her black belt, Alex became more invested in the sport once again, opting to give her competitive career a second chance. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );