Tara Lipinski

Tara Kristen Lipinski (born June 10, 1982) is an American sports commentator and former competitive figure skater. A former competitor in women's singles, she was the 1997 U.S. national champion and world champion, a two-time Champions Series Final champion (1997–1998), and the 1998 Olympic champion. She is the youngest single skater Olympic champion and World champion ever, and until 2019 was the youngest to win the U.S. Nationals. She was the first woman to complete a triple loop–triple loop combination, which became her signature jump element, in competition.

Lipinski retired from competitive figure skating in 1998. She performed in live shows before retiring from figure skating in 2002. In 2014, Lipinski became one of NBC's primary figure skating commentators, alongside sports commentator Terry Gannon and fellow figure skater and good friend Johnny Weir.

Early life Lipinski was born on June 10, 1982, in Philadelphia. Her mother is "Pat" Lipinski, and her father is Jack Lipinski, an oil executive. They are of Polish Catholic ancestry. She spent her earliest years living in the suburb Sewell, New Jersey. When Lipinski was two, while watching the 1984 Summer Olympics, she stood on a Tupperware bowl and pretended to be a gold medalist. At the age of three she began roller skating, and became a national champion in her group when she was nine years old. She began figure skating in the same year, transferring her skills to the ice rink. She later switched exclusively to figure skating and took lessons at the University of Delaware. She worked on and off with coach Jeff DiGregorio for three years

In 1991, Lipinski's father received a job promotion, so the family moved to Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston. She trained on a public rink at The Galleria. Two years later, Lipinski and her mother returned to Delaware to resume her training with DiGregorio; her father stayed in Texas to support their family. In 1995, Lipinski and her mother moved to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to train with coach Richard Callaghan at the Detroit Skating Club. She then took first place in November in the Blue Swords in Chemnitz, Germany, her first international competition, after which the media began to notice her. Placed 23rd after the short program, she performed seven triple jumps in her free skate and finished 15th. Lipinski competed in the ISU Champions Series (later renamed the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating) during the 1996–97 season; she finished in second place at Skate Canada, third at Trophée Lalique, and second at the 1996 Nations Cup. She defeated Kwan, the reigning 1996 U.S. champion, who won the short program. Kwan fell twice and landed only four out of her seven planned triple jumps in her free skate, leaving the door open for Lipinski's victory. She was the last skater to perform in the competition's free skating segment; she skated cleanly with seven triple jumps, including her signature jump element, the triple loop-triple loop combination, and came in first place. According to author Ed Swift from Sports Illustrated, the 1997 U.S. Nationals marked the start of the Kwan–Lipinski rivalry.

A month later, Lipinski won the 1997 World Championships, becoming the youngest female skater to win that event. She was a month younger than the previous record holder, Sonja Henie from Norway, when she won the first of her ten World Championships in 1927. (Despite the ISU's recent decision to raise the age minimum to enter international competitions, Lipinski was eligible to compete at Worlds due to a grandfather clause.) She also completed two double Axels, but one rival coach noted the small height of her jumps, stating that "you couldn't have put a piece of paper under them". Her presentation marks were mostly 5.7s or 5.8s and similar to her technical marks. Three out of four judges gave her higher presentation than technical marks. She went into the 1997–98 season by continuing to add more sophistication to her programs by taking daily dance classes from Russian ballet teacher Marina Sheffer. She selected film scores for both her short and free skate programs, with the choreographies being created by Sandra Bezic. According to Kestnbaum, Callaghan "expressed bewilderment in why the judges had so marked down the reigning World champion, who by virtue of that position might otherwise have been expected to receive the benefit of any doubt". Lipinski came in second place at Trophée Lalique, behind French skater Laetitia Hubert, who had not won any major competitions since the 1992 World Junior Championships and who came in eleventh place at her previous competition.

Coming into the 1997–98 Champions Series Final, Lipinski was tied for fourth place in the Series standings with Russia's Maria Butyrskaya. Kwan, although she was eligible, withdrew from the Finals due to injuries. Lipinski performed her free skate program with seven triple jumps, including her trademark triple loop-triple loop and a difficult triple toe loop-half loop-triple Salchow combination. The judges awarded her all 5.8s and 5.9s, except for a pair of 5.7s for presentation.

1998 Winter Olympics U.S. Figure Skating selected Kwan, Lipinski, and Nicole Bobek, who came in third place at Nationals, to send to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Swift called Lipinski's short program performance, which was technically more difficult than Kwan's, "luminous–fast and light and joyful". but "the difference was her trademark triple loop-triple loop combination and a wonderful closing triple toe-half loop-triple Salchow [combination]".

Lipinski was the youngest Olympic gold medalist in figure skating history, and the sixth American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating. Single skaters from the same country had not won gold and silver medals at the Olympics since Americans Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss in 1956. In April, Lipinski announced her intention to turn professional in an interview on the NBC program Today Show, thus ending her eligibility to compete at the Olympics again (at the time professional skaters could not compete, this wasn't relaxed until 2006). As her main motivations, she mentioned the desire to end her family's separation caused by her skating career and to focus on other goals such as attending college in another two years. According to The New York Times, her decision "sent tremors through the Olympic figure skating community". After the Olympics, Lipinski toured with Champions on Ice, visiting 90 cities in the U.S.

In 1999, Lipinski performed with Stars on Ice for a second season and participated in the ISU-sanctioned Grand Slam of Figure Skating. She became a spokeswoman for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and an anti-drug advocate, appeared on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. She acted in television shows for the Fox Family Network and Nickelodeon. She also became the youngest skater to win the World Professional Figure Skating Championships, completing a triple flip, a triple toe loop, and a triple Salchow jump in her free skate program. Her marks consisted of two 10s, eleven 9.9s, and one 9.8; she won by more than one point over Denise Biellmann, who came in second place.

Lipinski had hip surgery in 2000 at the age of 18, which she believed saved her career. Her injury, a torn labrum in her hip, had been misdiagnosed for four or five years and had caused her a great deal of joint pain. She became a spokesperson to increase awareness about deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which the National Institutes of Health called "a dangerous potential side effect of surgery". The injury, which might have occurred before the 1998 Winter Olympics, became progressively worse until she was unable to tour. The surgery, which usually lasts 45 minutes, took 3.5 hours to complete because she was developing arthritis, and cartilage had grown over the bone. She was back on the ice seven days later for light practice with Stars on Ice. She was able to return to touring but had to withdraw from the 2000 World Professional Championships. In 2002, Lipinski toured 61 U.S. cities with Stars on Ice, then retired from skating.

Skating technique Lipinski's skating influencers were Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton, and Christopher Bowman. Her skating style was often contrasted to that of Michelle Kwan: Jere Longman called Lipinski "the consistent Energizer bunny of a jumper" and Kwan "the more sophisticated, complete artist". she contacted U.S. Figure Skating's streaming service Ice Network and offered to work as a commentator for competitions. Unlike what was customary for skating commentators when she competed, she would call figure skating from studios in the U.S. instead of live at the competition venue. At first Lipinski collaborated with Gannon at the women's events and Weir with Gannon at the men's events. Lipinski, along with Weir and Gannon, was an analyst at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Commentating during prime time at the Olympics had been a dream of Lipinski's. The trio also hosted the closing ceremonies of the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 Olympic Games. They were part of the broadcast team that won a Sports Emmy Award for its coverage of the 2024 Games.

NBC's Access Hollywood hired Lipinski and Weir in 2014 to analyze fashion on the red carpet at the 86th Academy Awards. She served as a social media, lifestyle, and fashion correspondent the National Dog Show since 2015, and the pre-game coverage for the Super Bowl in 2015 and 2017. They were called culture correspondents by People magazine for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Lipinski approached broadcasting "with passion, vigor and an arduous work ethic similar to what she brought to the ice". She spent hundreds of hours researching skaters. In Dick Button's opinion, Lipinski and Weir were "excellent", but that Lipinski "might talk a little too much", although Tom Weir stated that when skaters were "elegant and error-free", both Lipinski and Weir had "the good sense to stay silent". In 2018 and 2019, Lipinski and Weir hosted and appeared in a few shows on Food Network, including two seasons of Wedding Cake Challenge. In 2022, Lipinski co-hosted Wedding Talk with event planner José Rolón and wedding designer Jove Meyer, produced by Chicken Soup for the Soul Studios. In the same year, Lipinski and her husband, Todd Kapostasy, a sports producer and documentary director, co-produced Meddling: The Olympic Skating Scandal That Shocked the World, a four-part documentary series focusing on the skating controversy at the 2002 Winter Olympics, which was aired on the NBC streaming service Peacock in January 2022. Lipinski, who called the series "a deep and responsible look at what happened", said that she and Kapostasy chose to create the series because it was the 20th anniversary of the scandal and there had been no comprehensive look at what happened. They interviewed people in Russia, France, and Canada who were involved in the scandal. USA Today calls the documentary "a deep look into the scandal". She also wore a necklace with a good-luck charm, given to her by her uncle, with the words, "Short, but good". in her 2023 podcast, Tara Lipinski: Unexpecting. She told People magazine in August 2023 that during the previous five years, she had four miscarriages, four D&Cs, six failed IVF transfers, eight egg retrievals, was diagnosed with endometriosis, and had two major surgeries.

In September 2020, in order to help raise awareness of the condition, Lipinski made public her diagnosis of endometriosis after having laparoscopic surgery to treat it. Although her symptoms were not severe, the intermittent pain she experienced worsened over five years before it was diagnosed and treated. She reported that her surgery was successful, all of her adhesions were removed, and her recovery was "mainly pain free". She credited dancer and actress Julianne Hough and actress Gabrielle Union with increasing awareness of endometriosis, which encouraged Lipinski to seek out her own treatment.

Records and achievements Youngest athlete (12 years old) to win a gold medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival (1994)

Figure skating Programs

Competitive highlights

Television credits Early Edition (1997), Herself Touched by an Angel (1999), Alex Thorpe Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1999), Herself Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2000), Ellen Vanilla Sky (2001), Girl at Party – Uncredited Arliss (2002), Herself 7th Heaven (2003), Christine The Metro Chase (2004), Natalie Jordon What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2005), Grey – Voice role Whose Line Is It Anyway (2014), Herself Superstore (2016), Herself Kidding (2018), Herself Amphibia (2019), Herself – Voice role Wedding Talk (2022), Herself – Host Extra Mile Club: Scotland (2025), Herself The Traitors (2026), Herself