Kristi Yamaguchi
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.[3] As a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo, she is the 1988 World Junior champion and a two-time national champion (1989 and 1990).
Kristi Yamaguchi
July 12, 1971
Always Dream Foundation
Dream Big, Little Pig!
2
St. Moritz ISC
1992
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[edit]
Yamaguchi was born on July 12, 1971,[4] in Hayward, California,[5][3] to Jim Yamaguchi, a dentist, and Carole (née Doi), a medical secretary. Yamaguchi is Sansei (a third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants).[6] Her paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents emigrated to the United States from Japan, originating from Wakayama Prefecture and Saga Prefecture.[7][8] 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.[9] 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.[10]
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.[11]
Competitive skating career[edit]
Early career[edit]
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,[12][13][5] 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.[14]
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.[14]
Pairs career[edit]
In 1986, Yamaguchi won the junior title at the U.S. championships with Rudy Galindo.[1] 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.
Professional skating career[edit]
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[18] 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.[19][20] By the time she stopped competing as a professional, she had become a four-time professional world champion (1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997).[21] She finished second in 1993 behind Midori Ito and in 1995 behind Yuka Sato.[22]
She toured extensively with Stars On Ice for over a decade.[21] 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.[23] 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.[24]
Public life and popular culture[edit]
Endorsements[edit]
In the ensuing months and years after she stood atop the podium in Albertville in 1992, Yamaguchi showed up on cereal boxes like Kellogg's Special K, on Hallmark Christmas ornaments, in ads for Got Milk? and Hoechst Celanese, as well as commercials for brands, fast food chains and department store chains like Mervyn's, Wendy's, DuraSoft and Entenmann's doughnuts.[23][25][26] She was also featured in ads for Campbell Soup, a sponsor of U.S. Figure Skating at the time.[27] In 2010, Yamaguchi was engaged by P&G to help kick off its "Thanks Mom" program in connection with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.[28] She also collaborated with OPI and General Electric in 2011[24] and appeared in a TV spot for department store retail chain Kohl's in 2012.[29] In 2018, Yamaguchi worked with the Milk Life Campaign that aims to explain the significance of milk in a well-balanced, nutritious diet. As part of the campaign, Yamaguchi recreated her "Got Milk?" ad from the 1990s and was photographed by Annie Leibowitz.[30] Yamaguchi has been represented by IMG since 1992.[31]
Television[edit]
Yamaguchi made a fitness video with the California Raisins in 1993 called "Hip to be Fit: The California Raisins and Kristi Yamaguchi." She has appeared as herself on shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Fresh Off the Boat,[32] Hell's Kitchen and Freedom: A History of US as well as in films like D2: The Mighty Ducks, Frosted Pink, and the Disney Channel original movie Go Figure. In 2006, Yamaguchi was the host of WE tv series Skating's Next Star, created and produced by Major League Figure Skating. Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Jose TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics.[33] In 2010, Yamaguchi worked as a daily NBC Olympics skating broadcast analyst on NBC's Universal Sports Network. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Yamaguchi was also a special correspondent for the Today Show.[34]
She performed in numerous television skating specials, including the Disney special Aladdin on Ice, in which she played Princess Jasmine,[35] and in 2016 she hosted the "Colgate Skating Series" on ABC, a show featuring skaters such as Nancy Kerrigan, Paul Wylie, and Todd Eldridge, who performed with their families.[36] In 2023, Yamaguchi made an appearance in Carolyn Taylor's documentary comedy series I Have Nothing that follows Taylor's comical quest to choreograph a pairs skating routine set to Whitney Houston's 1993 hit song "I Have Nothing."[37]
On May 20, 2008, Yamaguchi became the champion of the sixth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars,[38] where she was paired with Mark Ballas. Yamaguchi made a special appearance in the finale of the sixteenth season where she danced alongside Dorothy Hamill, and in November 2017, she returned to Dancing with the Stars' 25th season in week eight[39] to participate in a jazz trio with Lindsey Stirling and Mark Ballas.[40]
Accolades and impact[edit]
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.[18] Yamaguchi was the first Asian American to win gold at a Winter Olympic Games,[23] paving the way for Asian American skaters that came after her like 2-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan, 2022 Olympic champion Nathan Chen, world medalist Alysa Liu and U.S. champion Karen Chen.[18] 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.[18]
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,[51] the Great Sports Legends Award as well as the Jesse Owens Olympic Spirit Award.[52] 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.[53][54]
Politics[edit]
In 2012, Yamaguchi appeared in a campaign advertisement for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.[55] 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.[56] 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.[57][58]
In April 2024, Yamaguchi attended the state dinner for Japan hosted by Democratic president Joe Biden. Yamaguchi backed Biden during the 2020 presidential election.[59]
Personal life[edit]
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[60] in northern California with their two daughters.[61] They also have a summer home on Gull Lake in northern Minnesota.[62][63]