Yamaguchi hopes to keep ice show popular

Imagine preparing to step out onto the ice and perform the same routine for the 54th time in the past three months. Now imagine being just as excited as the first time you ever did it.

Welcome to the world of figure skating star Kristi Yamaguchi.

"It gets hard, but once you get to the arena, you create off the audience," Yamaguchi says about keeping each performance exciting.

As a member of the popular figure skating show, Target Stars On Ice, Yamaguchi will be performing at the North Charleston Coliseum Friday night.

The show was created by figure skating great Scott Hamilton, and this will be his last year performing with Target Stars On Ice. He is planning to move on to new avenues of skating.

"To me, he is Stars On Ice," says Yamaguchi in a telephone interview with The Post and Courier. "He's such a good friend, and he's done so much for me. I can't imagine the tour without him. I'm still in denial."

Since Hamilton has always been the leader for the troupe, next year will be tough, she says. "He's really irreplaceable. Either Kurt (Browning) or I will try to take his place. We're the show's veterans."

As Scott's final show approaches, a terrible thought may cross the cast members' minds. Will the show's popularity decline?

"We hope it doesn't," says Yamaguchi. "Scott's an American icon. He shares so much with the audience, and no one can replace him. Hopefully the true skating fans will acknowledge the good skating we offer."

Target Stars On Ice is bringing up a younger generation of skaters. Two of the youngest and brightest stars, Tara Lipinski and Ilia Kulik, are adding a younger and fresher side to the tour.

"It's been fun. Tara's like a breath of fresh air," says Yamaguchi. "The tour needs new blood."

When Yamaguchi was Tara's age, "I had no idea where I'd be. I always wanted to tour the world. I'm still loving and enjoying it."

Most people believe that Yamaguchi never experienced nerves or had a difficult time with skating. Most people are wrong. It was the compulsory moves and figures at competitions that would get to her.

"I'd get so nervous that I wouldn't be able to perform them as well as I knew I could," she says.

In the middle of her amateur skating career, the compulsory moves were removed from competition. "Ultimately it helped me. I went on to win Worlds the next year," she says. Although the removal of figures helped Yamaguchi win, it left a gap in the sport. "I miss what they had to offer. It needs concentration and discipline," Yamaguchi says about the figures.

After a long amateur and professional career, Yamaguchi has had some remarkable experiences on the ice. "My best moment, aside from receiving the gold medal, was receiving my first 6.0 at the 1991 Worlds."

But even an Olympic gold medalist can have an embarrassing incident on the ice. "I was skating with Rudy (Galindo), and I stopped in the middle of the routine because I thought my skate was untied," she says. After discovering her skate was still tied, she had to talk to the judges about why she stopped and deal with an angry and confused partner. Events like that can break skaters' concentration and they may not perform as well, along with thoroughly embarrassing the skater, says Yamaguchi.

A bit more mature and wiser, she recently married Bret Hedican, a professional hockey player for the Florida Panthers. They don't get to spend much time with each other because of their hectic work schedules.

"Summers are great, but it's really tough when the season starts," says Yamaguchi. "It's only for another year or two. We know we have the rest of our lives to spend together."

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