Kristi Yamaguchi
Kristine Tsuya "Kristi" Yamaguchi (born July 12, 1971 in Hayward, California) is a former U.S. figure skater who competed in singles and pairs. She is the 1992 Olympic champion and the 1991 and 1992 world champion.
Yamaguchi is the daughter of dentist Jim Yamaguchi and medical secretary Carole Doi. Her paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Japan. Yamaguchi's grandparents were sent to an internment camp during World War II, where her mother was born. Yamaguchi grew up with her siblings Brett and Lori in Fremont, California. She began skating as a child, as therapy for her club feet.
Kristi Yamaguchi originally started as a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo. They became US junior champions in 1986. But, unusually, she also competed in individual events in addition to her pairs events. In 1988, she won the Junior World Championships in both singles and pairs with Galindo. In 1989 and 1990, Yamaguchi and Galindo also won the Senior World Championships. They finished fifth at both the 1989 and 1990 World Championships. She also competed in singles at the national championships and world championships in both years. She was national runner-up behind Jill Trenary both years and finished sixth, and fourth, respectively, in her first two World Championships.
After the 1990 season ended, Yamaguchi decided to compete only in singles. She moved to Edmonton to train with Christy Ness. This paid off. In 1991 she was again only US runner-up, this time behind Tonya Harding, but became world champion in Munich ahead of her compatriots Harding and Kerrigan. It was the first time in history that all medal winners in the women's competition came from the same country. Yamaguchi experienced total triumph a year later. For the first and only time, she became the U.S. champion in Orlando and thus went to the Olympic Games in Albertville. Unlike her competitors Midori Itō and Tonya Harding, she did not jump a triple Axel, instead focusing on her triple-triple combination and relying on her artistry. Both Itō and Harding fell on the triple axel in the free skate (Ito repeated it successfully, however), and thus Yamaguchi, despite a free skate that was also flawed, won the gold medal. She then defended her world championship title in Oakland and ended her amateur career.
Yamaguchi appeared in ice revues such as Champions on Ice and Stars on Ice for over ten years. In 1998, she was inducted into the Figure Skating Hall of Fame. In 1996, she founded the Always Dream Foundation. The foundation's focus is to promote literacy among underprivileged children. She had met her future husband, hockey player Bret Hedican, at the Albertville Olympics. They married in 2000 and have two daughters.
Results
Single run
|
Pair skating
(with Rudy Galindo)
| Competition / Year | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 |
| World Championships | 5. | 5. | ||||
| World Junior Championships | 5. | 3. | 1. | |||
| US championships | 5. J | 1. J | 5. | 5. | 1. | 1. |
- J = Juniors
Yamaguchi's figure skates on display at the National Museum of American History.
Works
- Kristi Yamaguchi, Christy Kjarsgaard-Ness, Jody Meacham: Figure Skating For Dummies. IDG Books, Foster City 1997, ISBN 0-7645-5084-5.
- Kristi Yamaguchi: Always Dream. Taylor Trade Publishing, Dallas 1998, ISBN 0-87833-996-5.
- Kristi Yamaguchi: Dream Big, Little Pig! Sourcebooks Inc, Naperville 2011, ISBN 978-1-4022-5275-4.
- Kristi Yamaguchi: It's a Big World, Little Pig! Sourcebooks Inc, Naperville 2012, ISBN 978-1-4022-6646-1.
