The world could be an extremely cold place for those of us who are born different. Children who are born with physical challenges yearn for acceptance from their pears and deeply look for success stories from others alike. Ice skater, Christi Yamaguchi, has been an inspiration to disabled children everywhere, specially the ones who were born with clubfeet. This ice princess has an even more remarkable story than becoming an ice skater in the United States Olympic team.
The incidence of clubfoot is approximately 1 case per 1000 live births in the United States. Not so long ago growing up with such a deformity made doctors, teachers, and even parents almost directly discourage children from physical sports, mostly a decision made to shield children from disappointing outcomes, and ridicules from their fellow athletes. Much like other children alike, Yamaguchi was faced with physical challenges from day one but with severe perseverance, and pure belief in herself made her triumph in the face of challenge.
Christi Yamaguchi native of California was born on July 12, 1971. Although being born beautiful and otherwise a pretty healthy little girl, when she was born her parents immediately noticed something wrong with her feet – they were deformed, pointing inward and curling under. She was made to wear casts and foot braces for the first two years of her young life in order to correct the problem. Her casts were changed every twoweeks and as she got older special shoes were bought to help aide in her condition.
Not wanting her child to be any different than the others Carole, her mother, encouraged Kristi to take up dancing and skating to strengthen her legs. Limitation was never part of her vocabulary and her future became clear to her when a 5 year old Kristi watched Dorothy Hamill’s golden showing in the 1976 Olympics setting her dreams at one day being one of the most famous and unforgettable ice skaters/performers of our time.
Christy Yamaguchi, a perfect example of how our hopes and dreams have no limits and boundaries, so why should we let our bodies have that option. Clubfeet a deformity of the foot was once treated as a physical challenge, keeping graceful sports like ice skating out of the reach of our children sport options, but now the only challenge related to this deformity is how far can you push yourself to succeed against your own odds?
