Olympic madness? For Yamaguchi, it doesn't compare to "Dancing" fanfare
Nobody ever asked Fred Astaire to learn a triple lutz.
Yet in less than three months' time, Kristi Yamaguchi was expected to master the tango. And in front of millions of TV viewers, no less.
Q&A With Mr. Mom
Kristi Yamaguchi has been making headlines lately with her riveting performances on "Dancing with the Stars."
How has she been able to handle dancing and motherhood? Behind this Olympic champion is a Stanley Cup champion: Bret Hedican, a defenseman with the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. Here's what he had to say about his wife's newfound TV stardom:
Question from Amy Rosewater: Your team won the Stanley Cup title two seasons ago. Imagine if you were in the playoffs now with your wife in the finals of "Dancing with the Stars."
Answer from Hedican: It'd be crazy right now. Obviously, the Stanley Cup is the most important thing, but now being out of it, I've been able to look after my two daughters and enjoy this ride with my wife.
Q: What's life like as a Mr. Mom?
A: Actually, it's been a lot of fun. Two years ago, when we were in the Stanley Cup finals, she was Mrs. Mom. I wanted her to do this show. I told her, "Go do something for yourself." But I've really had a chance to bond with my girls. I've taken them to Disneyland and to a breakfast with Ariel (from "The Little Mermaid") in downtown Hollywood. I've had a lot of help, too.
Q: Can you keep things normal for your daughters with all this fanfare?
A: We've tried to make it normal. One thing I love about Kristi is that, even with her Olympic gold medal, she's normal and treats everybody nicely. Hopefully, we'll all remain the same as we were before, and we'll be old and gray and sitting at a beach and laugh about all of this.
Q: What do you make of the media attention with the show?
A: She's had the Olympic Games and skating fans, but this entertainment media is a whole different ball of wax. We've been blown away. I mean, it's everybody, and she's dealing with these people every night.
Q: Has she had a chance to teach you some dance moves?
A: Right now, she's been nonexistent 12 to 15 hours a day, especially the last two weeks. I've barely had a chance to have a conversation with my wife, let alone learn how to dance.
Q: What's your prediction for the other finals -- the Stanley Cup finals?
A: I think in the East, Pittsburgh will be really tough. Last year, I thought they'd do better, but maybe they needed to get defeated in the playoffs so they'd do better this year. In the West, I think I'll go with Detroit. They seemed to be the best team we've played against this year. When we played them, they seemed to be on a whole different level.
-- Amy Rosewater
An Olympic gold-medalist figure skater, Yamaguchi has proven she could take her natural athletic ability and transfer those skills from the ice to the ballroom floor. She will have a final chance to strut her stuff in her dancing shoes when she competes in a two-part finale of the TV megahit, "Dancing with the Stars," Monday and Tuesday night.
Yamaguchi is one of two athletes to make the final. Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins is the other. The other celebrity contestant remaining in the competition is Cristian de la Fuente, a model and actor from Chile.
"I can't believe I've stayed in this long," Yamaguchi said in a telephone interview from the Hollywood dance studio. "The pressure keeps building week by week, and now we have two brand new dances to learn and we have to work on a third. It's overwhelming, but exciting to be in the finals."
Although Yamaguchi was prepped for the amount of hours she'd spend learning ballroom dancing, she's realized you can never really prepare for it. Not only is she spending at least eight hours a day working in the studio, but she's also been spending countless hours with costume fittings and media interviews. Having been in the Olympics and in front of the cameras most of her life, it might be easy to assume she would be used to all this.
But "Dancing with the Stars" has taken everything to a whole new level. The Hollywood media have thrived on this show, and Yamaguchi has been a regular on "Entertainment Tonight" and ''Access Hollywood." She's rubbed elbows with Oprah and even danced for Larry King.
Everything from the stars' love life to their costumes (Yamaguchi had one costume that had more than 15,000 crystals hand-glued on it) has become of critical importance.
"I thought the media attention for the Olympics was intense," Yamaguchi said. "But this whole entertainment side of things has been even more intense."
One night after the show, Yamaguchi had a brief moment of free time, which she spent with her husband, Bret Hedican, and a few friends at a restaurant. As they exited the restaurant, Hedican said about 30 members of the paparazzi were waiting for them.
"Hopefully, this is just short term," Hedican said with a laugh.
Yamaguchi, a mother of two young girls, hasn't given the paparazzi much tabloid material. Other contestants were caught kissing and another has been accused of feigning an arm injury. Yamaguchi, who comes from a world where an infamous whack on a knee created a TV ratings bonanza, has stayed out of that part of the show's spotlight.
Still, the biggest adjustment Yamaguchi has had to make has been in the studio. As a figure skater, she has always worked with choreographers, different music styles and a wide array of costumes. She never really knew how to dance until now.
She said she is still constantly counting out the beats of the music to make sure she is right on cue. In figure skating, she said she would move more to the flow of the music. Ballroom dancing requires an immense amount of precision.
"I have to say that now, about 12 weeks after I started this, my partner will tell me, 'Kristi, you are on the wrong count,"' said Yamaguchi, who dabbled in ballet when she was younger, but didn't really incorporate much formal dance instruction into her figure skating training. "There's definitely been more of a transition and learning curve than most people would have thought."
Yamaguchi credits much of her success to her partner, Mark Ballas.
"He's been an amazing instructor and both of us have a little perfectionist in us," Yamaguchi said.
Yamaguchi attempted to teach Ballas how to skate, but said, "He had a hard time standing up on the ice."
In addition to Ballas, Yamaguchi is also thankful for all of the support she's had from her family and friends. Fortunately for Yamaguchi, her husband is not working much these days. An NHL defenseman, Hedican's team, the Carolina Hurricanes, is done for the season, so he has handled a lot of the child-care duties. So has his sister, mom and Yamaguchi's mom.
Yamaguchi's daughters Keara, 4, and Emma, 2, watched the show regularly before their mom was a contestant and they are tuned in every week now. They even wear T-shirts that read "Vote for Kristi and Mark." The shirts include the phone number to call so fans can dial in their votes. Recently, they gave their mom extra publicity by wearing them during a trip with dad to Disneyland.
Several of Yamaguchi's friends from the skating world have appeared in the audience on the show. Among them: Olympic champions Brian Boitano and Ekaterina Gordeeva and newly crowned skating champion Mirai Nagasu.
Back in Raleigh, N.C., where Yamaguchi makes her home, she's had support from Hedican's teammates. Actually, it was during a party in Raleigh, where Yamaguchi was out with players' wives, that she learned how to country dance. The other wives suggested she become a contestant on the show. Lo, and behold, now she is.
As excited as Yamaguchi is about competing in these finals, there's also a part of her that's ready to return to reality. Her daughters have seen more of her on TV than in person lately.
"Usually, I leave in the morning, and the girls are still asleep," Yamaguchi said. "Then, I come home and they're asleep. They're fine with it. I'm the one who's been having a hard time.
"This experience has been once in a lifetime," she added. "But we have not had a day off in over two months. I'd like to have a day without a schedule."
That might be hard for Yamaguchi to do, especially if she ends up winning it all. Fans have been so engaged with the stars that the aftermath of the show seems to have its own life.
Perhaps Yamaguchi will consider making an Olympic comeback and compete in the 2010 Games in Vancouver in ice dancing. "No," Yamaguchi said with a laugh. "I don't think so. This has been tough enough. I don't think I could translate this to the ice."
Right now, the rink is the furthest thing from her mind. She's busy perfecting the cha-cha.
Amy Rosewater, a freelance writer based in Baltimore and frequent contributor to ESPN.com, balances motherhood and reporting, and says she has no chance of qualifying for the Olympics. Her two daughters are Katie (age 6) and Josie (4).
