Young Skaters Take to Rink in Hopes of Matching Kristi

Dreamy-eyed but determined, 7-year-old Brianna Colone set off across the ice, oblivious to the crowd around her. Within seconds, the tiny blades of her skates were airborne and she was spinning. And then she fell.

Neither embarrassed nor daunted, the cherub-faced youngster pushed herself up off her bottom and glided across the rink, her smile brilliant.

“Every skater falls,” Brianna said seconds later. “It’s when you fall and you pick yourself up and start skating again that you know you’ve done something good. That’s what Kristi did.”

Brianna was one of hundreds of inspired, if not graceful, youngsters who filled Southern California ice rinks on the day after Kristi Yamaguchi became the first U. S. woman in 16 years to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

At Iceland in Paramount--where another gold medalist, Peggy Fleming, once trained--Brianna was in the company of numerous young figure skaters who had come to train and swap visions of glory.

Scootie Paulsen, director of Iceland’s skating school, said she noticed a heightened “sense of excitement” at the rink Saturday as youngsters attempted the more difficult jumps and spins.

“This is where dreams of the gold and ribbons first start,” Paulsen said. “They skate, and when the Olympics come around their imagination takes flight.”

On Saturday, their imaginations were filled with Yamaguchi, the 20-year-old skater from Fremont. Still a little unsteady on their skates, they found hope and comfort in the fact that the gold medalist managed to win after she tripped during a triple loop that she had executed hundreds of times before.

During their practice, they tried harder than ever to make their twirls graceful, their jumps powerful and their landings clean.

“I watched everything Kristi did (Friday) night,” 7-year-old Tessa Stoothoff of Torrance said as she slowly skated backward in the middle of the rink, where budding figure skaters congregate to show their fancy footsteps. “Today, I’m copying what I remember she did. My jumps aren’t great yet, though.”

Neither were 9-year-old Skye Wheeler’s. But she was not worried as she scrambled up from a spill. A second-grader from Los Alamitos who has been skating for more than two years, Skye said she fell in love with Yamaguchi’s grace and style last year during the world championships.

“I watched her throughout the Olympics and when she won I just knew I wanted to compete against the world and be the next Kristi Yamaguchi,” Skye said.

Eight-year-old Raianna Barrows of Long Beach counts herself as a veteran because she has been figure skating for three years.

“It doesn’t get any easier,” she said wisely. “But it has always been fun and now it’s glamorous.”

Although Raianna is a self-proclaimed “experienced” skater, 10-year-old Dylana Foy began taking skating classes just a year ago. But, the fifth-grader said, “it’s never too late when you’re young to want to be in the Olympics.”

“I want to try to get to the top because Kristi is my hero,” said Dylana, who sports a Dorothy Hamill hairstyle. “In four years, I’ll still be too young, but in eight, maybe I’ll be somebody’s hero.”