Winner of Season 6 – Kristi Yamaguchi
Birthday : 7-12-1971
Birthplace : Hayward, California
Birth Name : Kristi Tsuya Yamaguchi
Recent Role : Herself on Live with Regis and Kelly
Gender : Female
Kristine Tsuya “Kristi” Yamaguchi-Hedican (born July 12, 1971) is an American figure skater and the 1992 Olympic Champion in women’s singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two national titles in 1989 and 1990 as a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo. In December 2005, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Francisco TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics. In 2008, Yamaguchi became the celebrity champion in the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars.
Kristi Yamaguchi turned professional after the 1992 competitive season. She toured for many years with Stars on Ice and also participated in the pro competition circuit. Since July 8, 2000 she has been married to Bret Hedican, a retired professional hockey player she met at the 1992 Winter Olympics. Yamaguchi and Hedican reside in Northern California with their two daughters, Keara Kiyomi, born in 2003 and Emma Yoshiko, born in 2005. Hedican is currently a TV analyst who covers the San Jose Sharks.
In 1996, Yamaguchi established the Always Dream Foundation for children.
Yamaguchi is also the author of Always Dream, Pure Gold, and Figure Skating for Dummies. She made a fitness video with the California Raisins in 1993 called, “Hip to be Fit: The California Raisins and Kristi Yamaguchi”.
As an actress, she appeared in the PBS series, Freedom: A History of Us portraying Haruko Obata, one of the first teachers of ikebana in the San Francisco Bay Area. As herself, she appeared on Everybody Loves Raymond, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Frosted Pink, and the Disney Channel original movie Go Figure. Yamaguchi has also appeared in numerous television skating specials including the Disney special Aladdin on Ice, portraying Princess Jasmine.
Kristi Yamaguchi received 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, and the Great Sports Legends Awards. 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.
2010 Yamaguchi worked as a daily NBC Olympics skating broadcast analyst on NBC’s Universal Sports Network.
In politics she supported Mitt Romney for president in 2008.
According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America, her heritage can be traced back to Wakayama and Saga prefectures in Japan, and her paternal grandfather, Tatsuichi Yamaguchi, immigrated to Hawaii in 1899.
On May 20, 2008, Yamaguchi became the celebrity champion on ABC’s reality program Dancing with the Stars 6th season paired with Mark Ballas, defeating finalist couple Jason Taylor and Edyta ?liwi?ska.