Revisiting Kristi Yamaguchi & Rudy Galindo

[labgoat]

Recently this version of an old exhibition number to Starlight Express skated by Kristi Yamaguchi & Rudy Galindo was posted.
I hope this brings a smile to your faces today cause it made me smile.

 

[noskates]

I actually saw this program in person. Rudi and Kristi were a cute couple and their programs were always fun. Thanks for posting.

 

[PaulE]

Thanks for the clip @labgoat. I'm curious, has there ever been any other pair that, over their careers, have won gold medals individually and as a pair at the U.S. Championships?

 

[Mathman]

Thanks for the clip @labgoat. I'm curious, has there ever been any other pair that, over their careers, have won gold medals individually and as a pair at the U.S. Championships?

I looked it up. Theresa Weld and Nathaniel Niles won 9 U.S. pairs championships. Weld won U.S. ladies' 6 times and Niles won U.S. men's 3 times.

Wikipedia also credits Niles with 5 ice dancing championships, but the official U.S. ice dancing championships only started in 1936, after Niles and Weld hd retired, so it is not clear what exactly it was that Niles won in this discipline.

Niles was also a tennis player, winning the U.S. championship in mixed doubles in 1908. In singles he won the NCAA collegiate championship and went on to complete in 23 consecutive I.S. championships.

 

[Mathman]

Recently this version of an old exhibition number to Starlight Express skated by Kristi Yamaguchi & Rudy Galindo was posted.
I hope this brings a smile to your faces today cause it made me smile.

Loved the death spiral near the end: why pairs ladies should always do their hair in a pony tail.

Best moment: the extended stationary lift (Detroiter with variations) starting at 1,11.

@4everchan

OK, so this performance is 240 seconds long. The Exposition ends at 90 seconds, when she comes down from the Detroiter, leaving 150 seconds for Development-plus-Recapitulation,

Ratios: 90/240 = 37.5% (should be 38.2 %),150/240 = 62.5% (should be 61.8%, and 90/150 = 60.0 % (should be 61.8%)

Cf. Mozart's piano concerto #1, 1st movement, 38%, 62%, .613%.

(Apology to OP — this continues a discussion from an old thread about the mathematically perfect construction of a figure skating program. )

 

[labgoat]

Thanks for the clip @labgoat. I'm curious, has there ever been any other pair that, over their careers, have won gold medals individually and as a pair at the U.S. Championships?

Ken Shelley won pairs and a U.S. men’s title. Others who did competed, but did not win include Skippy Baxter, Dudley Richards and Robert Wagenhoffer. Kyoko Ina, Ashley Cain, Jenni Meno, Todd Sand, Deanna Stellato-Dudek, Rena Inoue, Naomi Nari Nam among the women.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I actually saw this program in person. Rudi and Kristi were a cute couple and their programs were always fun. Thanks for posting.

Did you ever see their Cats program? Kristi was in fluffy white and played the kitten role so well.

 

[labgoat]

Did you ever see their Cats program? Kristi was in fluffy white and played the kitten role so well.

Another favorite - there used to be a copy from 1987 Junior Worlds, but it seems to have been taken down
It has been posted and taken down so many times now.

 

[Skater Boy]

I always wondered what if... they had continued. They had by far the most difficult individual jumps. And they usually skated fairly clean. Yes, they needed pseed and polish and Rudi maybe needed to be a bit stronger on lifts//twists. But it is understandable Kristi chose singles and as lovely fairytale ending years later Rudi won the men's US championships and world bronze. They almost won a world bronze so this team had talent.

 

[noskates]

There was a lot of controversy around their split up and the rumor was the Yamaguchis wanted Kristi to focus on singles. As for polish, etc. they were both very young and I would like to believe they would have continued progressing had they stayed together. The split was pretty devastating for Rudi and I was very happy when he finally won Nationals and got the attention and kudos he deserved/

 

[Mathman]

As I recall, part of the situation was that Galindo's coach, Jim Hulik, who was also their pairs coach, died of AIDS in 1989. Kristi's coach, Christy Kjarsgaard (later Christy Ness) , whom Yamaguchi had been with since childhood, married in the same year and moved to Canada where her new husband had his medical practice. This created a coaching challenge for the pair.

By the way, Kjarsgaard met her future husband at the 1988 Calgary Olympics when she was there with her skater Pauline Lee and he was the team doctor for the New Zealand team. Pauline Lee was the first skater (then a student at Stanford) to represent Taiwan at the Olympic level. She is now a professor of Chinese religions and culture at Saint Louis University.

Kjarsgaard also coached Lucinda Ruh at the 1987 1nd 1988 worlds championships.

Rudy was no slouch as a singles skater in his own right back then. He won the world junior championship in 1987, following up with the world junior pairs championship (with Yamaguchi) the next year.

 

[Mathman]

It's not easy to find a pairs partner that is a perfect match in every possible way. Rudy and Kristi were opposite direction spinners and jumpers, which somewhat compromised unison. They made a virtue out of necessity by doing a lot of interesting mirror moves.

Prpbably the most popular U.S. pairs skaters of all time, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, were unusual in that he was only a few inches taller than she was. They never really mastered the triple twist for this reason. But they made up for it by being the king and queen of unison.

 

[dorispulaski]

Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner were also king & queen of pull Arabians!