Tangled Pairs : Kuchiki, Alexander Slide Into Role of Opponents

Girl dumps boy. . . .

Two years ago, figure skater Natasha Kuchiki, 12, ends her three-year partnership with Richard Alexander, 19, breaking his heart.

“I loved her,” Alexander says.

Complications get messy.

Natasha’s parents, former professional skaters Denise and Sashi Kuchiki, did not consult the Alexanders about the split.

“Denise did not even have the decency to talk to us,” Richard’s mother says.

Fanning a feud, Denise goes public with her reasons for changing partners. She implies that Natasha’s career was at a dead end with Richard. Richard is devastated.

“Her mom viciously attacked me in the press,” he says. “It made me feel like a total idiot. It was just heartbreaking stuff.”

Girl gets involved with man twice her age. . . .

Natasha, who lives in Canoga Park, teams with 25-year-old Todd Sand of Thousand Oaks. After a rocky start, it’s a match made in heaven. With only nine months of practice, they finish a surprising second in the 1990 U. S. Figure Skating Championships.

Boy finds another girl. . . .

Rebounding, Richard auditions several new partners, clicks with Tristen Vega. Last year, only four months after teaming, they win the national junior title.

“It’s been wonderful so far,” says Tristen, a 16-year-old junior at Torrance High.

Both couples show up for the big dance. . . .

Since breaking up, Alexander has not competed against Kuchiki, but he will get his first chance in the national championships Tuesday through Sunday in Minneapolis.

Revenge, says Tristen, “may be in the back of Rick’s head, but it’s something we’re not thinking about.”

“We wouldn’t do well if I zeroed in” on the rivalry, he says.

With the unexpected retirement of two-time U. S. pairs champions Kristi Yamaguchi and Rudi Galindo as a team, the scramble for No. 1 is expected to involve four or five duos, including Alexander-Vega, but the clear favorites are Kuchiki and Sand.

“I’m pretty sure they’re going to win,” says San Diego’s Richard Callaghan, who coaches Alexander and Vega. “But we have a chance for second and third.”

A strong finish certainly will send a message to the Kuchikis. “What Denise said about my skating ability was not true,” says Alexander, who grew up in Simi Valley and now lives in Torrance. “The whole way they handled the breakup has been a thorn in my side.”

Denise Kuchiki declined to comment.

Diane Alexander, meanwhile, is thrilled with her son’s new partner. “They’re skyrocketing,” she says. Last month in Bountiful, Utah, Alexander-Vega finished second in the Pacific Coast Figure Skating Championships (an event skipped by Kuchiki-Sand). They won the original program but lost out in overall points to Douglas Williams and Sharon Carz, the country’s third-ranked seniors pair.

Actually, Alexander thought he had a new partner before he met Vega. After splitting with Kuchiki, he trained for three months with Dawn Duhamel of Boston, but she decided to give up skating.

Alexander invited several girls to try out with him. Vega, who had never skated pairs, got a call from him in early September of 1989, and they skated together two days later. “You could tell right away what was going to happen,” Callaghan says. “After Rick tried out with Tristen, he didn’t have to try out anybody else.”

Vega “loved” the partnership right away. Alexander, 5-foot-8, 150, found not only a partner but a “best friend. We just get along really well.” Comparing Vega to Kuchiki, he says Vega is “more ballet-like, more petite.” At 4-11 3/4 and 91 pounds, Vega is nearly three inches shorter and about 15 pounds lighter than Kuchiki.

One of the only teams capable of triple jumps, Alexander-Vega has “speed and strength,” Callaghan says. “We’re still working on maturity, but they’re a perfect match.”