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Yamaguchi plays host to in-line skating event for charity
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Kristi Yamaguchi is lacin up a different kind of skate this weekend.The Olympic gold medal-winner is playing host to Skates in the Park, an in-line skating charity fund-raiser, at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara on Sunday.
Other athletes donning in-line skates for the event include professional figure skaters Brian Boitano and Scott Hamilton, hockey players Cammi Granato, a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. women's Olympic team, and her brother Tony, a forward for the NHL's San Jose Sharks, and former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott.
The proceeds go to Yamaguchi's Always Dream Foundation, which benefits organizations that have a positive influence on children.
"Originally, I worked with children from the Make-A-Wish Foundation," she said. "It really inspired me, I saw how much there could be done."
The event's beneficiaries include: SportsBridge, a San Francisco group that works with girls, Hope Rehabilitation, a Santa Clara organization for people with developmental disabilities, and SAVE, which helps abused children in Yamaguchi's hometown, Fremont.
The charitable foundation is just one of the many projects Yamaguchi has taken on outside of professional competition. The 26-year-old also serves as the spokeswoman for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and has worked on two new books, "Figure Skating for Dummies," and "Always Dream," an autobiography.
Yamaguchi, who was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in January, won the gold medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Since then, she has been active -- and successful -- on the pro circuit.
Her "Skates in the Park," is in its third year. Last year the event drew 2,400 participants to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park -- a mecca for weekend in-line skaters.
"We decided to move it to Great America because it would be more family oriented," she said. "If you can't in-line skate, you can go to the rides, or have a picnic."
Because she liked to in-line skate in her free time, Yamaguchi thought she could use her hobby to somehow help children.
"In-line skating was something I enjoyed doing anyway from the ice, and it was such a growing sport," she said. "There wasn't anybody else doing any thing like this."