Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi (born July 12, 1971) is an American former competitive figure skater, author and philanthropist.

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.

Dream Big, Little Pig!, for which she received the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

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.

[11] 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.

[citation needed] They also jumped and spun in opposite directions, Yamaguchi counter-clockwise, and Galindo clockwise, which gave them an unusual look on the ice.

[16] Yamaguchi won her first major international gold medal in figure skating at the 1990 Goodwill Games.

[18] The same year, Yamaguchi placed second to Tonya Harding at the U.S. championships, her third consecutive silver medal at Nationals.

[19][17] That year, the American ladies team, consisting of Yamaguchi, Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, became the only national ladies team to have its members sweep the Worlds podium until the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships, when Anna Shcherbakova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Alexandra Trusova swept the podium representing FSR.

While Harding and Japan's Midori Ito were consistently landing the difficult triple Axel jump in competition, Yamaguchi instead focused on her artistry and her triple-triple combinations in hopes of becoming a more well-rounded skater.

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[21] 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.

[27] 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?

[31] She also collaborated with OPI and General Electric in 2011[27] and appeared in a TV spot for department store retail chain Kohl's in 2012.

She has appeared as herself on shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Fresh Off the Boat,[36] 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.

Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Jose TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics.

[38] She performed in numerous television skating specials, including the Disney special Aladdin on Ice, in which she played Princess Jasmine,[39] 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.

"[41] On May 20, 2008, Yamaguchi became the champion of the sixth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars,[42] where she was paired with Mark Ballas.

The goal of the foundation is to provide funding for after school programs, computers, back-to-school clothes for underprivileged children, and summer camps for kids with disabilities.

This change was inspired by Kristi's role as a mother of two young daughters, as well as her new venture as a children's book author.

In 2012, the foundation forged a partnership with Raising A Reader and the digital children's library myON, to create the Always Reading program, which integrated traditional books with e-books and 21st century technology in both the classroom and home environment.

Two days after her Dancing with the Stars champion crowning, she received the 2008 Sonja Henie Award from the Professional Skaters Association.

[61][62] In April 2024, Yamaguchi attended the state dinner for Japan hosted by Democratic president Joe Biden.

[63] 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.