What Is Kristi Yamaguchi's Net Worth?
Kristi Yamaguchi is an American former figure skater and author who has a net worth of $8 million. Yamaguchi earned fame and fortune as an Olympic gold medal-winning figure skater and media commentator. She first started to make headlines in 1989, when 17-year-old Kristi defeated rival Jill Trenary at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which subsequently led to snatching a victory in the pairs competition along with her skating partner Rudi Galindo. Since then, she has won the Olympic gold medal in ladies' singles at the 1992 Winter Olympics, a feat that led to her getting inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2005.
Yamaguchi has also won gold medals at the World Figure Skating Championships (1991 and 1992) and World Junior Figure Skating Championships (1988). Kristi hosted WE tv's "Skating's Next Star" in 2006, and she won ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" with partner Mark Ballas in 2008. Yamaguchi has also published several books, including "Figure Skating For Dummies" (1997), "Always Dream" (1998) and "Finding the Edge: My Life on the Ice" (2017) as well as the children's books "Dream Big, Little Pig" (2011), "It's a Big World Little Pig" (2012), and "Cara's Kindness" (2016). "Dream Big, Little Pig" was a "New York Times" bestseller, and it won the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award.
Early Life
Kristi Yamaguchi was born Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi on July 12, 1971, in Hayward, California. Her mother, Carole, worked as a medical secretary, and her father, Jim, is a dentist. Kristi's maternal great-grandparents and paternal grandparents emigrated from Japan to the U.S., and her mother was born in an internment camp during World War II. Yamaguchi's maternal grandfather served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was fighting in France and Germany while his family was being kept at the Amache and Heart Mountain internment camps. Kristi was born with club feet, and the condition was corrected with casts and braces. She began skating at the age of 6 as a form of physical therapy. Yamaguchi grew up in Fremont, California with siblings Lori and Brett, and she was home-schooled during her freshman and sophomore years of high school due to her training schedule. She then attended Mission San Jose High School, graduating in 1989.
Career
In 1986, Kristi and Rudy Galindo competed in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, winning the junior title. In 1988, she won the Gold medal in Ladies' singles at the World Junior Championships in Brisbane, and she and Galindo also took home the gold in Pairs. The previous year, the duo won the bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in Kitchener. Yamaguchi and Galindo won the gold medal in senior pairs at the 1989 and 1990 U.S. Championships, then Kristi decided to switch her focus solely to singles and won a gold medal in figure skating at that year's Goodwill Games. Yamaguchi moved to Edmonton, Alberta, in 1991, and there, she trained with coach Christy Ness and studied psychology at the University of Alberta. She won the silver medal at the 1991 U.S. championships, coming in second to Tonya Harding, then she won the gold at the 1991 World Championships. After winning a gold medal at the 1992 U.S. Championships, Kristi earned a spot on Team USA in the 1992 Winter Olympics alongside Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Yamaguchi won the gold medal in Ladies' singles, then she took home the gold again at the World Championships later that year.
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After the 1991–92 season, Kristi turned professional, and she spent a few years touring with Stars on Ice. After turning pro, she won gold medals at the World Professional Figure Skating Championships during the 1992–93, 1994–95, 1996–97, and 1997–98 seasons and at The Gold Championships during the 1994–95, 1995–96, and 1996–97 seasons. In 1993, Yamaguchi co-starred with the California Raisins in the fitness video "Hip to be Fit: The California Raisins and Kristi Yamaguchi," and she has guest-starred as herself on "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1997) and "Fresh Off the Boat" (2018). She also appeared in the films "D2: The Mighty Ducks" (1994) and "On Edge" (2001) and the TV movie "Go Figure" (2005), and she played Princess Jasmine in the 1995 special "Aladdin on Ice." During the 2006 Winter Olympics, Kristi served as a figure skating commentator for KNTV (NBC 11) in San Jose, and in 2010, she was hired as an NBC Olympics skating broadcast analyst on the Universal Sports Network. She was a special correspondent for NBC's "Today Show" during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and in 2012, she created a line of woman's active wear called Tsu.ya by Kristi Yamaguchi.
Personal Life
Kristi married professional hockey player Bret Hedican on July 8, 2000, eight years after meeting at the Winter Olympics. They welcomed daughter Keara Kiyomi on October 1, 2003, followed by another daughter, Emma Yoshiko, on November 16, 2005. Emma is following in her mother's footsteps, and in 2017, Yamaguchi told "People" magazine that 11-year-old Emma had been skating for five years, adding, "Of course at that age, there's Olympic aspirations. But I'll say, 'Okay, but you don't really understand what goes into it yet!'" Kristi and Bret moved to North Carolina after Hedican was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2002, then he played for the Anaheim Ducks for the 2008–09 season. Bret retired from hockey in September 2009, and the family lives in Alamo, California. In 1996, Yamaguchi launched Kristi Yamaguchi's Always Dream, a literacy foundation that "ensures children from low‑income families have access to high‑quality books in the home environment and extensive family engagement support."
Awards and Achievements
In 2008, Yamaguchi was honored with the Inspiration Award at the Asian Excellence Awards and the Sonja Henie Award from the Professional Skaters Association. She has also received the Heisman Humanitarian Award, Thurman Munson Award, and Flo Hyman Memorial Award (from the Women's Sports Foundation). Kristi has been inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame, World Skating Hall of Fame, U.S. Olympic Committee Olympic Hall of Fame, and California Hall of Fame. In 1996, she won a Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Female Athlete, and in 2008, she earned a Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice TV Female Reality/Variety Star for "Dancing with the Stars."
Real Estate
In 2003, Yamaguchi and Hedican paid $610,000 for a 3,628 square foot home in Raleigh, North Carolina. The couple also purchased a vacation home on Gull Lake in Minnesota.
