Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi born July 12, is an American former competitive figure skater , author and philanthropist. A former competitor in women's singles, Yamaguchi is the Olympic champion , a two-time World champion and , and the U.
In , she became the first Asian American to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympic competition. After Yamaguchi retired from competition in , she performed in shows and participated in the professional competition circuit. She won the World Professional Figure Skating Championships four times in her career , , and In , Yamaguchi was inducted into the U. Olympic Hall of Fame , and in , 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! Yamaguchi is Sansei a third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants. Her maternal grandfather, George A. Doi, was in the U. 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.
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.
From sixth grade on, Yamaguchi practiced from 5 a. Her mother would drive her to the rink every morning at 4 a. She would also accompany Yamaguchi to competitions a couple of times a month. In , Yamaguchi won the junior title at the U. In Yamaguchi and Galindo won the senior pairs title at the U. They won the title again in 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.
