FIGURE SKATING / U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Yamaguchi Getting More for Less

As the only person competing in pairs and singles at figure skating’s highest level, Kristi Yamaguchi’s schedule was so frantic during major competitions that, by the end of the week, she literally could not stay on her feet.

Her determination resulted in remarkable achievements, particularly in pairs. She and partner Rudy Galindo, both from the Bay Area, won the world junior championship in 1988 and national senior championships in 1989 and 1990.

Almost as accomplished in singles, she won the world junior championship in 1988 and finished a close second to Olympian Jill Trenary a year later at the national senior championships. Before the 1990 nationals at Salt Lake City, Yamaguchi was no less than a co-favorite.

Trenary skated brilliantly, but Yamaguchi fell twice in her long program and finished second again. Trenary went on to win the world championship a month later at Halifax, Canada; Yamaguchi again fell twice in her long program and finished fourth.

Afterward, Galindo tried to console his tearful partner, but he said he also was in pain because he sensed his partnership with Yamaguchi was over.

In three competitions since deciding last spring to quit pairs, she has had nothing but first-place finishes. And her conquests were impressive. She beat Trenary, 1989 world champion Midori Ito of Japan and current European champion Surya Bonaly of France.

With Trenary expected to watch from the television booth this week at the Target Center while recovering from ankle surgery, Yamaguchi, 19, is a clear favorite to win the national championship.

In a field so deep that Holly Cook, third in last year’s World Championships, finished fourth in Thursday’s original program, Yamaguchi was the class.

If she skates as stylishly in Saturday’s freestyle program, which counts toward two-thirds of the final score, she could emerge as the favorite for next month’s World Championships. Trenary already has withdrawn. Ito might follow after undergoing recent jaw surgery.

“My schedule is so much easier this year,” Yamaguchi said, pointing out that, besides competing only in singles, time-consuming compulsory figures have been eliminated. “Looking back, I had five practices a day. It just seems outrageous.”

Outrageous is the only word for her travel itinerary. In the months before last year’s World Championships, she commuted from her singles practices in Edmonton, Canada, to her pairs practices in Costa Mesa to her parents’ home in Fremont, Calif.

Her schedule was considerably less complicated when her singles and pairs coaches were in the Bay Area. But her singles coach, Christy Ness, moved to Edmonton in 1989. Not long afterward, her pairs coach, Jim Hulick, died of cancer.

She now lives in Edmonton, sharing a practice rink with men’s world champion Kurt Browning of Canada. Although still only 5 feet tall and 90 pounds, she is stronger. For the first time, she has had time to lift weights. More than that, she appears fresher.

“After the World Championships last year, I knew a decision had to be made,” she said. “There was a lot of talk about it for a year and a half. People would say, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’ But I’d been doing it for seven years. I’d tell them that I was used to it. I guess it was more obvious to other people that I couldn’t handle it.”

She said she gave up pairs because she believed she and Galindo, fifth at last year’s World Championships, were less likely to win a medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics than she was in singles.

“Everyone seemed to think dropping pairs was the best decision to make, except for Rudy,” she said.

Yamaguchi has since thrived, but Galindo’s pain lingers.

Although they were not romantically involved, Galindo, 21, never tried to hide his infatuation with Yamaguchi. He not only interrupted his promising singles career for two years--he had won the world junior championship in 1987--but changed the spelling of his first name so that it, too, would end with an I.

Since the separation, he has returned his name to its original spelling and begun skating again in singles, training at a rink near his home in San Jose. He is not considered among the favorites in the men’s competition, which begins tonight.

“A few times, I’ve gone to grab Kristi’s hand, and it’s not there,” he said.

Asked if they are still friends, Yamaguchi said, “Oh, yeah.”

But Galindo said he is not so sure.

“We’ve gone our own ways,” he said. “We’re not best buddies, but I still support her. I still like to see her do well.”