Welcome to TaraRulz.com, the oldest and largest website dedicated to the 1998 Olympic, 1997 World and National, and World Professional figure skating champion, and current NBC broadcaster, Tara Lipinski. Working hand and hand with Tara, we strive to be your number one source for fans across the globe for news, photos, and more, including the largest photo gallery on the web. Thank you for visiting and come again soon!











Webmaster: Angie
Online Since: September 1, 1999
Contact: Lipinski82@aol.com

DISCLAIMER:
All photos and videos belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringment intended. Contributions are always accepted and appreciated.

Header photos are copyright Tara Lipinski.

 


By her third birthday, future Olympic figure skating champion Tara Lipinski was convinced walking and running were inefficient ways of moving around. She preferred going faster. Roller-skating was the mode of choice. With wheels beneath her feet, Tara could fly. The fearless toddler eventually entered several age-group competitions, winning a regional championship in New Jersey by age 5. And Tara liked roller hockey even though it attracted more boys than girls. Of course, it was only a matter of time before Tara noticed how fast the kids on ice skates were going - Very.

ICED "T"
Curiosity finally lured Tara onto an ice rink when she was 6 years old. Her dad, Jack, vividly remembers his daughter "flopping around" during that maiden voyage atop a frozen surface. Rather than make her nervous, Jack and Pat, Tara's mom, went indoors for hot chocolate. They returned a short time later to discover that the ice suited Tara to a tee. She might as well have been on roller skates. Everything came so naturally; she progressed through skating lessons in no time. The transition happened quickly. But no one could have guessed just how quickly ice skating would come to recognize the potential of a young girl named Tara Lipinski. In fact, Tara advanced from first lesson to national medalist in less than 6 years. After rising to the silver medal podium of the novice division, it was obvious that the Philadelphia-born Tara was blessed with above average skill and determination. This was a youngster, after all, who frequently rose as early as 3 a.m. for pre-dawn skating lessons after her family re-located to Texas, near Houston. Eventually, Tara went back to her former Delaware rink. In the summer of 1994, Tara brought new meaning to the "Spirit of St. Louis" with a show stopping performance at the U.S. Olympic Festival. At 12 years, 1 month, Tara became the youngest athlete ever to win a gold medal at the Olympic Festival. In 1995, Tara was already in the public and media spotlight. At the U.S. Championships in Providence, RI, she earned the junior silver medal and, a Providence newspaper declared her "the future".

DAYS TO REMEMBER
The 1995-96 season saw Tara move into skating's senior division and also marked a change of scenery for Tara and her mom. They relocated to Bloomfield Hills, Mich. There, she would be coached by the acclaimed Richard Callaghan, whose students included national champions Nicole Bobek and Todd Eldredge. When she is not traveling to compete or tour, Tara's days in suburban Detroit are always busy and productive. She also enjoys family outings on weekends when her dad visits from Houston, where he is an oil executive. During the week, Tara receives daily four-hour tutoring and is proving to be as proficient at academics as she is at skating. Tara is an "A" student who faces homework in the evenings despite the additional demands of four, 45 minute training sessions spread over each day at the Detroit Skating Club. This disciplined lifestyle undoubtedly contributes mightily to Tara's competitive toughness. Her technical and mental preparation has been rewarded again and again over the past two seasons during a remarkable ascent to national, world and Olympic championships. "She's so far beyond where we thought she'd be," Jack Lipinski said in a recent interview with People magazine. "She's always rising to the occasion."

THE "TARA ERA"
Against the measuring stick of history, Tara's accomplishments are staggering. Carol Heiss, Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn, Dorothy Hamill and Kristi Yamaguchi were great U.S. Champions, yet not one was a national medalist at 13 or a gold medalist at 14. During the early months of 1997 Tara earned titles and made history on what seemed like a weekly basis. The culmination of the 1996/97 season was at the World Championships last March in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Tara eclipsed a record that had endured 70 years. She replaced legendary Norwegian Sonja Henie as the youngest woman to be crowned the world's No. 1 skater, only a year after debuting at this competition with a 15th place finish. Tara landed her signature triple loop-triple loop combination jump and five other clean triples to finish ahead of reigning world champ Michelle Kwan. All of this came just one month after Tara secured her first national championship with the same seven-triple free program in Nashville, Tenn. It was in that event that she became the first woman to land a pair of triple loops in combination. Two weeks after Nashville, Tara won the Championship Series Final in Hamilton, Ontario, as a prelude to Lausanne. Rarely has an athlete opened an era in so dominant a fashion.

BUMPS IN THE ROAD TO GOLD
The 1997/98 season started out on a bumpy note for Tara as she finished 2nd at Skate America to fellow American Michelle Kwan. The road became even bumpier as Tara struggled against illness and bad blades to finish 2nd at the Trophy Lalique competition in Paris. Tara proved herself capable of a major comeback just over a month later, however, becoming the first woman to succesfully defend her Champions Series Final crown with hard-fought victory over Germany's Tanja Szewczenko in Munich. Tara returned to her roots in Philadelphia for her 2nd title defense of the season at the US National Championships. After a fluke fall in her short program, Tara stood in 4th with a spot on the Olympic team hanging in the balance. Proving herself to be as resilient as she is talented, Tara performed an impressive long program and moved up to take the Silver medal along with a spot on the 1998 US Olympic Team.



ONE FOR THE AGES
Tara entered the XVIII Olympic Games with two goals in mind: 1) becoming the youngest-ever gold medalist in Ladies Figure Skating and 2) Having a LOT of fun! She accomplished both goals during her stay in Nagano, and turned in one of the most amazing upsets in Olympic history, defeating her heavily favored teammate Michelle Kwan with a free skate of epic proportions and capturing the imagination and hearts of skating fans worldwide.

BEYOND NAGANO
After returning home from Japan, Tara took some time and considered her accomplishments. Youngest ever Olympic Festival Champion. National Champion. World Champion. The only female skater to successfully defend a Champion Series Final Gold. And, of course, the youngest ever individual gold medalist in ANY sport in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. At the age of fifteen, Tara had seen it all and conquered it all. In addition to considering her accomplishments, Tara also considered her parents, who had sacrificed so much to allow her to pursue her dream. On April 7, 1998, during an appearance on NBC's Today Show, Tara officially ended her eligible skating career and entered the ranks of Professional Skating.

NEW WORLD, NEW GOALS
Tara's first foray into Professional skating was a competition - The Skate TV Championships. Skate TV was a hipper, more fun kind of competition, featuring celebrity judges and an MTV-centric theme. Although the format and rules were vastly different from eligible skating, one thing remained consistent - Tara took home the Gold. Tara continued her tear through Professional competition, winning first place at the Jefferson Pilot championships. She followed that up with another first in the Ladies division at Ice Wars later in 1998. Tara closed out 1998 with yet another record, becoming the youngest ever to win the Ladies' World Professional Championship Gold. In 1999, the only thing that changed was the year on the calendar, as Tara racked up Gold after Gold. In fact, Tara has never been defeated in individual competition since turning professional. Tara has also shown talent in the acting field, landing several roles in Prime-time dramas, a starring role in the FOX-TV movie Ice Angel, a starring role in Nickelodeon's "Are you afraid of the dark?", a recurring role on The Young & Restless, and she recently made a cameo in her first theatrical film, playing opposite Cameron Diaz in Cameron Crowe's upcoming film, Vanilla Sky.

PROFESSIONAL SKATING
Although she was forced to forgo competitions in 2000 because of surgery to repair a torn labrum and remove scar tissue from her hip, Tara still paid a visit to over sixty cities in her role as a headliner for the third straight year in Target's Stars On Ice Tour. Tara had fought through pain and several incorrect diagnoses of her hip to compete and tour, (the hip was originally injured in 1997) and she was not about to let the repair stop her anymore than the injury itself did! If you saw this year's Stars On Ice Broadcast on TV, you saw Tara skating a mere seven weeks after undergoing surgery to repair her hip. If you could only use one word to describe Tara, "fighter" would be a good choice!



TODAY'S TARA
Today, Tara works as a television figure skating commentator and analyst. During the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Tara and Johnny Weir took the world bt storm with their commentating and fashion choices. Since then, the duo have been fashion alaysts for the Today Show and Acccess Hollywood, critiquing fashion from the Academy Awards and Kentucky Deby. Stay tuned, as Tara and Johnny have even more projects together in the works! Tara currently divides her time between Los Angeles and New York, spending summers at her home in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.