Athlete profile: Tara Lipinski

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

When she was just six years old, Tara Lipinski asked her father to build a podium in their house so she could pretend she was on an Olympic medal podium...now after a surreal 1997 in which she became the youngest US and World Champion ever, the ninth grader sees her lifelong dream at the end of the rainbow...her free skate music is a composition from the 1989 film "The Rainbow"..."It's a good comparison to the rainbow because the movie was about a young girl dreaming her dream and that is what I am doing," says Lipinski. "And it's great to have that sense of what the story was like so the whole program is about reaching the dream and how to get there"...Norway's Sonja Henie won the first of her three Olympic titles at 15 years, 318 days; on the night of the free skate -- February 20 -- Lipinski will be 15 years, 255 days...for Lipinski to outduel compatriot Michelle Kwan again, she must exhibit a greater degree of maturity on ice and combat questions of her technical skill...at both the 1997 US Championships and the 1997 Worlds, Lipinski was buoyed by Kwan errors -- in the free skate in Nashville and the short program in Lausanne -- and cannot count on Kwan failing again..."I don't think there is this big rivalry going on," says Lipinski. "We get along. It's so strange to hear people say that. When we go in the locker room, we talk. I don't see it but I guess it's going to be there. I think it is that we are both going for the same dream. You know the Olympics"...this fall, Lipinski was beseiged by claims that her triple Lutz did not merit the marks it had received last year...in finishing second in Skate America (to Kwan) and Trophee Lalique (to France's Laetitia Hubert), Lipinski's techincial marks were lower than her artistic grades...Lipinski's coach, Richard Callaghan, was informed by judges that Lipinski incorrectly launches her Lutz -- judges call it a Flutz because instead of taking off from the outside edge of her skate blade, judges feel Lipinski takes off from the inside edge..."I have a problem with the idea of Tara having a problem with the Lutz," notes Callaghan. "Because last year when she was world champion with the same Lutz, there was no problem. This year, they seem to be centering on her take-off, which maybe has a slight change of edge, but it's no different than most of her competitors"...Kwan's coach, Frank Carroll, dismissed Callaghan's assertion that his pupil also has a Flutz...Callaghan has shorted the takeoff a bit to try to minimize the effect..."I think it's going to end up way better than it was, so I think we've got things covered," he says...but esteemed Russian coach Aleksei Mishin believes the "edge" in question is a mental one..."I watched her in practice, and she wasn't as concentrated," Mishin said. "She looks like she thinks if she misses something in practice, it will be there when she needs it"...it's hard to believe Lipinski was only 15th at the 1996 Worlds -- which Kwan won...but languishing in 23rd after the short program, Lipinski foreshadowed her rise by landing seven triples in moving up eight places...now, Tara will be the youngest-ever world champion in perpetuity because the rules of the International Skating Union (ISU) state a skater must have reached his or her 15th birthday by the July 1 preceding the competition...Lipinski, in fact, was grandfathered in under a clause pushed for by US Figure Skating Association President Morry Stillwell that allowed those young skaters who had competed in the 1996 Worlds to be able to return in 1997..."My memories of the Worlds are different than I thought they'd be," says Lipinski. "It went so fast number one. I really was mad about that. I wanted it to take a long time, and I think was in shock. And then it hit the next couple of days, and I was like, `Oh my gosh, I want to do it again'"...Lipinski's major weapon is her triple loop,triple loop combination - unprecedented in ladies' figure skating - and her free skate is punctuated by seven triples...the sprite Lipinski -- who wears size 10 jeans -- can rotate with great ease, often just inches off the gound..."[Coach Richard Callaghan] wants more height, but I mean speed is a big thing and for me I'm tiny so it's hard for me to get up like the bigger skaters and finish everything," notes Lipinski. "The bigger skaters have more power so they can push up higher so they have more time. For me it's harder"...even Kwan -- a veteran of 17 -- notices what adolescence has done to her mechanics..."I can see my arm positions try to adjust to where my weight is," says Kwan. "I think I jump higher now. When I was littler, I spun. Now I jump higher and my moves are more delayed"...Tara has her own autobiography -- "Tara Lipinski: Triumph on Ice"; her own web page -- www.taralipinski.com - countless appearance on talk shows; and an income estimated at around $1 million...but fears that Lipinski will drown in the sea of publicity are quickly dismissed by her support system...her mother still allows for Friday night slumber parties for Tara and her friends at their condominium -- "And they don't talk skating," says Pat Lipinski...on the ice, Tara trains with 1996 world champion Todd Eldredge, whom she calls "my big brother and role model"...indeed, Eldredge's maniacal work ethic is shared by his more illustrious rinkmate..."Tara is almost too much of a perfectionist who insists on repeating a jump 20 times without stopping," says Callaghan. "Part of my job is to caution her to use her body conservatively as she gets older and stronger. We haven't seen anyone with this combination of athletic ability and lyrical quality since Janet Lynn in the ‘70s"...at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, Lynn won a bronze medal , capturing the hearts of the Japanese...she was invited back to the Olympics by the Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee as an ambassador...whether Lipinski can achieve the same connection with the residents of Nagano remains unknown...Lipinski should not be caught up in the moment -- she has amazed figure skating cognoscenti with her mental toughness..."I realize if you have too much nerves then that will ruin it, and I also realize that if you are too calm then you won't push as hard and you won't have that adrenaline pumping," says Tara, "so I'm nervous so that's good, but I can't get too nervous so I try to stay calm"...Tara has her detractors -- articles in Europe have referred to her snidely as "The Robotic Shrimp," who lacks the artistic refinement of Kwan and Oksana Baiul before her...asked about her free skate in Lausanne, 1988 Olympic men's gold medalist Brian Boitano remarked, "It was nice. It was pleasing to the eye. But it was a little girl's program"...to pursue her rainbow, Tara has had to grow up under less-than-ideal circumstances...Lipinski's parents, Jack and Pat have lived apart (while still married) since June 1993 in order for Tara to train for the Olympics...Pat gave up a secretarial position in Texas to move with Tara to Newark, Delaware -- where Lipinski skated under coach Jeff DiGregorio...two years ago -- after a nationwide tour for a more esteemed coach -- mother and daughter settled in a condominium in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan ...Jack is a vice president with an oil company in Houston and now sees his family ever weekend..."It's a sacrifice for Jack and I not to be living together," says Pat Lipinski. "You wouldn't call that normal. But every time I think we get more courage for it and we get more drive for it every time we watch her skate. Whether it's a good skate or a bad skate, you see the drive there. If she didn't do what she wanted, you still see the drive of her putting on a happy face and wanting to go out there again. So then you say, `If this is the only little thing that I can do for her?' I mean soon she will be grown up and she will be gone and hopefully Jack and I will have a lot of time together and we will look back and say we won't regret that we didn't do anything for her"...Pat and Jack Lipinski were born in a New Jersey hospital three days apart and met at 15 at a school dance...on one of their first dates, they saw Gone With the Wind -- 16 years later, they had a daughter and named her Tara... the Lipinskis have five dogs -- four stay in Texas with Jack and one (a Maltese named Coco) is with Tara and Pat...Tara first began skating at age three -- but it was roller skating...the Lipinskis were living in New Jersey at the time, and Tara wanted to go to the rink because of a free Care Bear promotion...she cried the first time Pat laced up the roller skates, but liked it so much that three years later, she also started ice skating...Tara won a national 12-and-under roller skating title before turning to ice skating full time at age nine...a few years ago, the Lipinskis had to remortgage their home so Tara could continue skating (obviously, the cost of skating is not a worry now)...Tara skates every weekday, so her schooling comes from a team of three tutors...the Lipinskis have created a virtual classroom in the condominium -- complete with a desk, textbooks, notebooks, a microscope and a computer..."She's got classes year-round, basically whenever the time permits," says her math tutor Jerry Kotasek. "She works very hard, she's very energetic and she takes it very seriously"...Tara is on her way to fulfilling the one promise she has made for her mother..."I say, `Tara, you promised me college.' That's the one thing I have asked for. I don't care if she ever uses it. If she wants to skate the rest of her life and go into commentating or TV or operate a camera, that's fine. But I want her to be able to say, `Yes I have four years of college behind me'"...Tara is still very much young at heart -- her favorite vacation spot is Disneyworld where she has gone every years since age two...for their birthdays last year, Tara and Pat gave each other a Cinderella castle charm..."We'll wear these to the Olympics," says Pat. "It's really been a magical place for her"...Tara and Todd Eldredge share more than a rink and a friendship; Todd's mother Ruth also lived apart from her husband, John, to be with Todd as he was growing up under Callaghan's watch...Tara collects toy frogs...her uncle Phil Callahan often "does my thumbs-up sign. That's my lucky thing"...