Female Athletes and Boot Month - Ice Skating Week:
Kristi Yamaguchi
Kristi Yamaguchi was born in Hayward, California on July 12, 1971. She is forth generation Japanese-American. Kristi's family endured great hardship during World War II and she herself experienced physical difficulties as a young child. However, Kristi is of Japanese heritage and the Japanese are strong people. Kristi Yamaguchi won the Gold Medal in Women's Figure Skating at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France when she was 21 years old. To the wold's great disappointment, Kristi retired from amateur skating and turned professional. She skated with Stars on Ice for several years and it was a honor to watch her perform.
Kristi is one of the most popular female athletes in American sports history and has maintained her popularity in the 20 years since winning her gold medal. Kristi has had a varied career. She was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a relief pitcher, but had to retire after only one game due to injury. It was a memorable event however because she wore high heel boots during her outing. After baseball, Kristi took up boxing, but had to quit because everyone loved her so much, no one would hit her.
On a serious note, Kristi got married and has two daughters. She also established the Always Dream Foundation for children. Kristi has also written two children's books. Dream Big, Little Pig reached #2 on the New York Times Best Seller list . A sequel, Its a Big World Little Pig was release in March, 2012. Lucky for us, Kristi wore some nice knee high riding boots during her promotional book tour!
Kristi regained national stardom in 2008 when she competed in ABC's hit TV show, Dancing With the Stars. It wasn't a fair competition. As you would expect, the gold medal ice skater won Dancing With the Stars and the hearts of millions of fans all over again.
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