WISH KID LEARNS SKATING

Rachael Wiley gets her first lesson on ice from Kristi Yamaguchi as part of the Make a Wish Foundation's program.

Ten-year-old Rachael Wiley's first ice skating lesson was not from any ordinary teacher, but from Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi.

In mid-January, just three weeks before Yamaguchi performed in Indianapolis, she came to skate with one special child.

And Rachael, who has a condition that prevents her from enjoying many of the things that other children enjoy, got a lesson she won't soon forget.

"It was all exciting to me," Rachael told Children's Express after the lesson at Pan Am Plaza in Downtown Indianapolis. "It's my first time on skates."

Rachael, from Noblesville, is a Wish Kid, a child whose condition prevents him or her from living a normal life. The Make a Wish Foundation granted her wish, to go to Disney World, and also gave her a chance to skate with Yamaguchi.

Besides sharing the ice rink, they both share a determination to meet life's challenges _ Rachael to fight her way back from congenital heart failure, kidney disease and a stroke, and Yamaguchi to be the best skater she can be.

Yamaguchi, 21, has been skating since she was 6 years old. Besides her Olympic victory, she has taken top prize at the national level twice while skating in pairs as well as winning the world championships twice by herself.

Yamaguchi began serious training at age 8, when she would get up each day at 4 a.m. to skate several hours before school.

She believes that, once you know what you want to do, you should dedicate yourself to it.

"If (you) have a dream . . . whether it's school or a sport, put 100 percent into it," she said. "Don't let anything get in your way, and then all the hard work is worth it.

"It's going to take some hard work and some sacrifices," she warned.

Eyes on the prize

For Yamaguchi, her social life took a back seat to her career goals.

"Through junior high and high school, I missed out on some football games and school dances and stuff like that, but skating was so much more important to me that I didn't feel they were sacrifices," she said.

"Instead, I had a chance to travel and meet friends from all over the world, which I cherished a lot. So I thought there's an even trade off there."

The most important thing to remember, Yamaguchi says, is to have fun with it.

Despite her dedication to skating, she didn't let her studies suffer because "school is the door to the world," she said.

For Yamaguchi, the dream of going to the Olympics was her primary motivation for skating. Now that she has reached her Olympic dream, "it's just facing new challenges . . . (which) keeps that motivation up."

One new challenge for Yamaguchi might be going back to the Olympics in 1996. A new rule passed last spring will allow professional skaters to be reinstated as amateurs to compete in the Olympics.

Yamaguchi feels that this rule will require professionals to maintain their skills so that they can compete with the younger amateurs.

"It'll still be the best against the best," she said.

If Yamaguchi could have any wish, she wouldn't wish for another gold medal. She would wish for something most of us take for granted.

"I would (wish to) go on vacation with my family somewhere because, with my career, I've been traveling quite a bit, and I haven't seen too much of my family."