USOPC Foundation Ambassador Kristi Yamaguchi Is Paying It Forward

When Kristi Yamaguchi was young, her idol was 1976 Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill. Yamaguchi even had a Dorothy Hamill doll. But when Yamaguchi began competing at a high level in women’s figure skating, Brian Boitano was her mentor. Both figure skaters are from California’s Bay Area and trained at the same rink. Yamaguchi considered the 1988 Olympic gold medalist a role model; he led by example with his focus and power on the ice.

Four years later, as Yamaguchi prepared to compete in the Olympic Winter Games Albertville 1992, Boitano had encouraging words.

“This is your time, this is your Olympics,” he told her.

In Albertville, Yamaguchi remembers Boitano and his Canadian rival, Brian Orser (dubbed as the “Battle of the Brians”), watching her practice session as she skated for the first time over the Olympic rings logo.

“It was a cool moment,” she remembers.

Yamaguchi would go on to win an Olympic gold medal of her own in Albertville — the first Asian American to win a gold medal at an Olympic Winter Games. The awards and accolades she has received since then are countless — from induction into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in December 2005 to receiving the Jesse Owens Olympic Spirit Award in 2018.

Over the past three decades, Yamaguchi has paid it forward, mentoring U.S. figure skaters, starting her own foundation, and most recently, becoming an ambassador for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation.

Knowing how important Boitano’s support was to her as she pursued her figure skating dreams, Yamaguchi has mentored several U.S. figure skaters in the past couple of decades. Most recently, she mentored Karen Chen, who helped Team USA win Olympic gold in the team event at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Yamaguchi first met Chen when the younger skater was 12 years old, back around 2011. Both are from Fremont, California.

“I kept hearing about this phenom skater, so I was like, ‘I’ve got to meet this girl,’” says Yamaguchi.

From the moment she watched a practice session, Yamaguchi knew that Chen had something special. The two kept in touch over the years, with Yamaguchi helping Chen not so much technically as mentally — “navigating the skating world, handling nerves in competitions, trying to help her get consistency within her performances,” says Yamaguchi. They met a couple of times each year before important competitions.

“It was a fun relationship,” says Yamaguchi, “and obviously I was so proud to see her do so well in 2022 and be part of that gold medal-winning team.”

Yamaguchi is now starting to work with reigning world champion Alysa Liu, age 19 and also from northern California. Liu’s coaches have asked the 1992 Olympic gold medalist to watch her train and perhaps offer tips.

“I always have so much joy watching her skate,” says Yamaguchi, who will support Liu as the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 approach.

Beyond the skating world, Yamaguchi has used her platform as an Olympic champion to give back to the community. It started in the early 1990s when Yamaguchi worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a beneficiary of professional tour Stars On Ice. Yamaguchi toured with Stars on Ice from 1992-2002.

“I got to experience first-hand working with the families and kids,” she says. “It opened my eyes up to the power of doing something positive in the community.”

So again Yamaguchi leveraged her platform and in 1996, started her own foundation, Always Dream. She wanted to inspire and support the dreams of children, particularly in underserved communities. The first program, “Fulfilling Dreams,” allowed local children-focused nonprofits to submit their wish lists.

In 2011, Yamaguchi and the foundation’s board decided to narrow the focus to early childhood literacy. This change was inspired by Yamaguchi’s role as a mother of two young daughters, as well as her venture as a children’s book author. Yamaguchi has authored five books, including Dream Big, Little Pig, which came out in 2011, made it to No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, and received the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award.

“I chose early childhood literacy knowing that education and particularly building that love of reading, that love of books is truly the foundation to build your dreams on,” she explains.

Between 2012 and 2018, the foundation’s Always Reading program served more than 10,000 students and families at 24 Title 1 schools in California, Hawaii, and Arizona.

In 2020, Always Dream dropped the name “Foundation” to reflect the organization’s work as a direct service nonprofit and was renamed Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream. The organization now provides literacy resources, like age-appropriate books, and support to families and primary caregivers “to set up reading routines at home and help them realize how critical their role is in their child’s learning,” says Yamaguchi.

“You could say we’re really a family engagement program focusing on the lens of literacy,” she adds.

The organization’s goal is to serve 10,000 individuals annually by the end of 2027.

Yamaguchi’s philanthropy is now extending to the Olympic and Paralympic community — officially, that is. In 2025, she was appointed an ambassador of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Team USA athletes on and off the field of play.

“I always felt like an ambassador for not just figure skating but the Olympic movement here in the United States,” she says. “Once you’re an Olympian, you just take some pride in representing that way. Now it’s just official.”

“There are so many ways” that the foundation supports athletes, says Yamaguchi, who particularly admires the programs that help Olympians and Paralympians transition to life after sport.

“Sometimes athletes really struggle to find a place in their post-Olympic competitive days,” she says.

Yamaguchi hopes that her affiliation with the USOPF will help increase support for the organization.“I’m grateful and thankful for all the supporters who are really investing in the dreams of these Olympians and Paralympians and the Olympic and Paralympic movements,” she says. “You don’t have to be an athlete to be inspired by what you see out on the playing field.”