Why didnt kristi yamaguchi

Other Athletes in this Section: John L. Printer Friendly. Media Credits Copyright Privacy. The impressions left by Kerrigan and nearly everyone else were made mainly in the ice by their behinds. Louis, where the tour had moved for its next show. Yamaguchi, 21, skipped the nationals after deciding in August to concentrate on a professional career for at least one season.

She left open the possibility of seeking reinstated eligibility to compete in the Olympics. All her recent public utterances had implied she was leaning toward not trying for a second Olympic gold. But that may have changed after what she saw Saturday, when Yamaguchi caught glimpses of the nationals on a backstage TV monitor in Detoit. She was lucky to see only bits and pieces. As for the men, we have a legitimate chance at a medal and possibly even a gold from Nathan Chen.

No, not this year. I will be working with NBC. It was terrifying! Right before the first short program, it was almost unbearable. This is your moment. Go out and go for it. It really calmed me down. I just let the music carry me. I skated a clean, short program, which is always the goal. That put me in first place after the short because Tonya [Harding] went for the triple axel and missed. That was a costly mistake and Midori [Ito] missed in her short program so I was comfortably in the lead.

But, again, it was just terrifying even though I knew I could compete well in the long program. I was the first of the six skaters to compete, so I had to wait for five more skaters and watch them compete to see how I was going to measure up. I was backstage with my coach, and with Nancy Kerrigan and her two coaches waiting for the last skater to finish. Certain snippets of the skating—the podium, medal ceremony, and, then the Opening Ceremonies.

It was an honor to meet and to march with them and to be a collective team. I think that was probably the most special moment. So we met the team and she introduced me to some of the players and we took pictures. That was about it. We ended up keeping in touch when he came to the Bay Area [he was playing for Vancouver at the time]. That connection of the Olympics is what sparked our friendship.

It was fairly normal. Nancy and I experienced our first national competition together. I was 14, I think. Not a coupon. A check. And I would like companies everywhere to note that I much prefer a sawbuck in my pocket to an endorsement by Kristi Yamaguchi, Bo Jackson or anybody else.

To her credit, Yamaguchi is not making a big deal of all these charges of racism, although I am sure she is under pressure to do so. To racists, this would not matter. And I have no doubt that some Japan bashing is due to racism.

And, yes, Americans are mad at Japan right now. Japan is beating us economically and we are not used to that. And some Japanese politicians have said nasty things about American workers. They want to beat it fair and square by building and selling better products.