Kristi Yamaguchi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kristi Yamaguchi
Yamaguchi in 2016
Born	(1971-07-12) July 12, 1971 (age 53) Fremont, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Alberta (BA)
Occupation	Figure skater Author Philanthropist
Organization	Always Dream Foundation
Notable work	Dream Big, Little Pig!
Spouse(s)	Bret Hedican ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	2
Kristi Yamaguchi Personal information Height 4 ft 11.5 in Former partner Rudy Galindo Former coach Christy Ness Former choreographer Sandra Bezic Skating club St. Moritz ISC Retired 1992 Medal record Representing the  United States Ladies' figure skating Olympic Games Gold 1992 Albertville Ladies' singles World Championships Gold 1991 Munich Ladies' singles Gold 1992 Oakland Ladies' singles World Junior Championships Gold 1988 Brisbane Ladies' singles Pairs' figure skating World Junior Championships Gold 1988 Brisbane Pairs Bronze 1987 Kitchener Pairs

Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi (born July 12, 1971) is an American former competitive figure skater, author and philanthropist. A former competitor in women's singles, Yamaguchi is the 1992 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1991 and 1992), and the 1992 U.S. champion. In 1992, she became the first Asian American to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympic competition. As a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo, she is the 1988 World Junior champion and a two-time national champion (1989 and 1990).

After Yamaguchi retired from competition in 1992, she performed in shows and participated in the professional competition circuit. She won the World Professional Figure Skating Championships four times in her career (1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997). In 2005, Yamaguchi was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, and in 2008, she became the celebrity champion in the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars.

Yamaguchi is an author and has published five books. Dream Big, Little Pig!, for which she received the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Early life

Yamaguchi was born on July 12, 1971, in Hayward, California, to Jim Yamaguchi, a dentist, and Carole (née Doi), a medical secretary. Yamaguchi is Sansei (a third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants). Her paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents emigrated to the United States from Japan, originating from Wakayama Prefecture and Saga Prefecture. Yamaguchi's grandparents were sent to an internment camp during World War II, where her mother was born. Her maternal grandfather, George A. Doi, was in the U.S. Army and fought in Germany and France during World War II during the time his family was interned at the Heart Mountain and Amache camps. Research done in 2010 by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for the PBS series Faces of America showed that Yamaguchi's heritage can be traced back to Wakayama and Saga prefectures in Japan and that her paternal grandfather, Tatsuichi Yamaguchi, emigrated to Hawaii in 1899.

Yamaguchi and her siblings, Brett and Lori, grew up in Fremont, California. In order to accommodate her training schedule, Yamaguchi was home-schooled for her first two years of high school, but attended Mission San Jose High School for her junior and senior years, where she graduated.

Competitive skating career

Early career

Yamaguchi was born with bi-lateral clubfoot, resulting in serial leg casting for most of the first year of her life followed by corrective shoes and bracing, and began skating as physical therapy when she was 4 or 5 after seeing Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill in the Ice Follies and Ice Capades.

From sixth grade on, Yamaguchi practiced from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. before school and sometimes after school. Her mother would drive her to the rink every morning at 4 a.m. and wait for her to finish. She would also accompany Yamaguchi to competitions a couple of times a month.

Pairs career

In 1986, Yamaguchi won the junior title at the U.S. championships with Rudy Galindo. Two years later, Yamaguchi won the singles and, with Galindo, the pairs titles at the 1988 World Junior Championships; Galindo had won the 1987 World Junior Championship in singles. In 1989 Yamaguchi and Galindo won the senior pairs title at the U.S. Championships. They won the title again in 1990.

As a pairs team, Yamaguchi and Galindo were unusual in that they were both accomplished singles skaters, which allowed them to consistently perform difficult elements like side by side triple flip jumps, which are still more difficult than side by side jumps performed by current top international pairs teams. They also jumped and spun in opposite directions, Yamaguchi counter-clockwise, and Galindo clockwise, which gave them an unusual look on the ice. In 1990, Yamaguchi decided to focus solely on singles. Galindo went on to have a successful singles career as well, winning the 1996 U.S. championships and the 1996 World bronze medal.

Singles career

Yamaguchi on an Azerbaijani postage stamp

1989–90 season: Goodwill Games gold

Yamaguchi won her first major international gold medal in figure skating at the 1990 Goodwill Games.

1990–91 season: First world title

In 1991, Yamaguchi moved to Edmonton, Alberta, to train with coach Christy Ness. There, she took psychology courses at the University of Alberta. The same year, Yamaguchi placed second to Tonya Harding at the U.S. championships, her third consecutive silver medal at Nationals. The following month in Munich, Germany, Yamaguchi won the 1991 World Championships. That year, the American ladies team, consisting of Yamaguchi, Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, became the only national ladies team to have its members sweep the Worlds podium until the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships, when Anna Shcherbakova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Alexandra Trusova swept the podium representing FSR.

1991–92 season: Olympic gold and second world title

In 1992, Yamaguchi won her first U.S. title and gained a spot to the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Joining her on the U.S. team were again Kerrigan and Harding. While Harding and Japan's Midori Ito were consistently landing the difficult triple Axel jump in competition, Yamaguchi instead focused on her artistry and her triple-triple combinations in hopes of becoming a more well-rounded skater. Both Harding and Ito fell on their triple Axels at the Olympics (though Ito successfully landed the jump later on in her long program after missing the first time), allowing Yamaguchi to win the gold, despite errors in her free program, including putting a hand to the ice on a triple loop and a double salchow instead of a planned triple. She later explained her mindset during the long program: "You just do your best and forget the rest." Yamaguchi went on to successfully defend her World title that same year.

Professional skating career

Yamaguchi planned to start the 1992-93 competitive season at Prague Skate in Czechoslovakia in November but U.S Figure Skating insisted that all its skaters compete at Skate America, which was due to take place a month earlier in October. Skate America became a source of contention between the federation and Yamaguchi, who was unable to be ready in time due to a busy schedule with commercial appearances and speaking engagements following her wins at the 1992 Winter Olympics and 1992 World Championships. As a result, Yamaguchi decided to turn professional after the 1991–92 competitive season and immediately started competing on the pro competition circuit, starting with the World Professional Figure Skating Championships in December 1992 where she captured her first world pro gold. By the time she stopped competing as a professional, she had become a four-time professional world champion (1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997). She finished second in 1993 behind Midori Ito and in 1995 behind Yuka Sato.

She toured extensively with Stars On Ice for over a decade. Originally, Stars On Ice was a 30-city tour, but when Yamaguchi joined, it quickly became a 60-city tour due to her ability to captivate an audience. She collaborated with a variety of choreographers to create diverse programs. "A lot of us on the Stars on Ice tour took pride in trying to stay innovative and bring something new to the ice every year," Yamaguchi noted.

Accolades and impact

Figure skating had long been the domain of white Americans and Europeans. Yamaguchi finished ahead of two Japanese skaters at a competition in 1988 but the medal ceremony was delayed while organizers tried to track down a Japanese flag for Yamaguchi, unaware that she was American. Yamaguchi was the first Asian American to win gold at a Winter Olympic Games, paving the way for Asian American skaters that came after her like two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan, two-time Olympic champion Nathan Chen, Olympic gold medalist Karen Chen, and World medalist Alysa Liu. Five of the sixteen athletes on the U.S. team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were of Asian descent. Four years earlier at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, there were seven with ice dance siblings Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani.

Yamaguchi has received numerous awards in recognition of her achievements and impact. She was the recipient of the Inspiration Award at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards. Two days after her Dancing with the Stars champion crowning, she received the 2008 Sonja Henie Award from the Professional Skaters Association. Among her other awards are the Thurman Munson Award, Women's Sports Foundation Flo Hyman Award, the Heisman Humanitarian Award, the Great Sports Legends Award as well as the Jesse Owens Olympic Spirit Award. She is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Olympic Hall of Fame, World Skating Hall of Fame, and the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Politics

In 2012, Yamaguchi appeared in a campaign advertisement for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. She endorsed the politician in both of his presidential bids, donating the legal maximum of $2,300 to Romney's 2008 presidential campaign, and $2,500 to his 2012 presidential campaign. Yamaguchi identifies as a conservative Republican; yet, she stated in 2009 that she appreciated then-president Barack Obama as a "decision-maker", nonetheless criticizing in the same interview the state of the economy under his leadership.

In April 2024, Yamaguchi attended the state dinner for Japan hosted by Democratic president Joe Biden. Yamaguchi backed Biden during the 2020 presidential election.

Personal life

On July 8, 2000, she married Bret Hedican, a professional ice hockey player she met at the 1992 Winter Olympics when he played for Team USA. After their wedding, Yamaguchi and Hedican resided in Raleigh, North Carolina where Hedican played for the Carolina Hurricanes NHL team and won the Stanley Cup in 2006. He also played for one year with the Anaheim Ducks. They now live in Alamo in northern California with their two daughters. They also have a summer home on Gull Lake in northern Minnesota.

Programs

Singles

Competition and exhibition programs by season 

Season	Short program	Free skate program	Exhibition program
1987–88	Malagueña Composed by Ernesto Lecuona	Madam Butterfly Composed by Giacomo Puccini	N/A
1988–89	A Chorus Line Composed by Marvin Hamlisch	Jacques Offenbach Medley La Vie parisienne (operetta) The Tales of Hoffmann Orpheus in the Underworld Composed by Jacques Offenbach	One Moment in Time Composed by Albert Hammond Performed by Whitney Houston
1989–90	A Chorus Line	Swan Lake Composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky	N/A
1990–91	La Bamba (film) Composed by Miles Goodman	Samson and Delilah (opera) Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns	O mio babbino caro Composed by Giacomo Puccini Performed by Kiri Te Kanawa
			The Yankee Doodle Boy Performed by George M. Cohan
1991–92	The Blue Danube Composed by Johann Strauss II Choreo. by Sandra Bezic	Malagueña Choreo. by Sandra Bezic	Milord Performed by Édith Piaf
			The Yankee Doodle Boy

Pairs

(With Rudy Galindo)

Competitive highlights

Yamaguchi's figure skates at the Museum of American History

Singles career

Professional career

Pair skating with Rudy Galindo

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Kristi Yamaguchi para niños