With grace and skill, Kristi Yamaguchi skated circles around the competition to strike gold
by E.M. Swift Issue date: March 2, 1992
For the first time all week, she looked nervous. As Kristi
Yamaguchi waited off-ice while the medals podium was erected and the
flags were furled in place, the 20-year-old from Fremont, Calif., was
wringing her hands like a schoolgirl. ''Do I have to say anything?''
she asked the smiling, beatific Nancy Kerrigan, her roommate of the
past two weeks. Kerrigan shrugged. It was her first Olympics, too.
Who knew? Who cared? Enjoy. Peeking around the screen that shielded
the skaters from the spectators, Midori Ito located the Japanese
cheering section, each of its members carrying a small flag
emblazoned with the rising sun. Ito waved at them excitedly, the
happiest she had looked since arriving in Albertville. A weight had
been lifted from her shoulders.
Then a voice thundered through the arena, signaling the moment
that Yamaguchi had been waiting for, dreaming about, since she was a
five-year-old carrying a certain special doll with her everywhere—a Dorothy Hamill doll, if you can believe that, a miniature replica
of the last American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure
skating, in 1976.
''La medaille d'or. . . .''
Yamaguchi, trepidation and hesitation in her face, turned to
Kerrigan standing behind her. Was this really happening? Laughing,
Kerrigan gave her the go-ahead nod and nudged her toward the ice.
Yamaguchi had not expected to win the gold, if at all, until the
Lillehammer Games, in 1994. This time she was supposed to enjoy her
first Olympics, skate well and collect whatever medal the gals with
the triple Axels left behind. Kristi and her parents were adamant
that she attend the opening ceremony, which was held 11 days before
she would compete. If she burned out from too many days in the
Olympic Village, training under a media microscope, so be it. ''But
if she misses the opening ceremony and skates badly,'' asked Ness,
''what are you left with for your Olympic experience?''
So Yamaguchi had it both ways—enjoying the Games and skating
beautifully to boot—and completed a whirlwind 11 months, in which
she won her first world championship, her first U.S. national title
and the Olympic gold medal. The gals with the triple Axels turfed, as
the ski jumpers in the athletes' village like to say when a
competitor wipes out, and the medal they left behind was gold.
photograph by Mike Powell/Allsport
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Nearby, Yamaguchi's coach, Christy Ness, also was beaming, and
tears were overfilling her eyes. She saw a friend in the crowd and
mouthed, ''No triple Axel!'' He answered by giving the thumb like a
baseball umpire: Triple Axel! Yerrrr out!