Lipinski, Tara 1982-

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LIPINSKI, Tara 1982-

(Tara Kristen Lipinski)

PERSONAL: Born June 10, 1982, in Philadelphia, PA; daughter of Jack (a lawyer and oil executive) and Patricia (a secretary) Lipinski.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Gold Liedtke Associates, 3500 West Olive Avenue, Ste. 1400, Burbank, CA 91505; fax: 818-955-6411.

CAREER: Professional figure skater and actress; touring with Stars on Ice, 1998–. Appeared in films, including Olympic Glory, 1999; and (as Natalie) The Metro Chase, Legend Family/Workshop, 2003. Appeared in television series, including (as Marnie Kowalski) The Young and the Restless, Columbia Broad-casting System (CBS), 1999; and (as correspondent) Entertainment Tonight, 2002. Appeared (as Tracy) in the television movie Ice Angel (also known as On Thin Ice: Going for the Gold), Fox Family Channel, 2000; (as Jessica) Generation Jets, 2003. Appeared in television specials (as herself unless otherwise noted), including An Evening of Championship Skating, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 1995; Too Hot to Skate, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1995; Breaking Through: The First Superstars, Lifetime, 1997; Champions on Ice, USA Network, 1997; The Chevrolet Skating Spectacular, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1997; Ladies' Home Journal Most Fascinating Women of '97, CBS, 1997; A Passion to Play: The Making of a Champion, ABC, 1997; Skate International Champions Finals, Fox, 1997; Skate International of France, Fox, 1997; Skate International of Germany, Fox, 1997; The State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships, ABC, 1997; World Figure Skating Championships Presented by Mastercard, ABC, 1997; (as judge) The 16th Annual Miss Teen USA, CBS, 1998; E! Specials: Ice Skating, E! Entertainment Television, 1998; Campbell's Soups Champions on Ice, ABC, 1998; Discover Stars on Ice Presented by Smuckers, National Broadcasting Company (NBC) 1998; The Golden Gala Skating Championships, NBC, 1998; Ice Skating, E!, 1998; Ice Wars: USA vs. the World, CBS, 1998; The 1998 Skate TV Championships, ABC, 1998; State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships, ABC, 1998; Ultimate Performance: The Science behind Olympic Competition, The Discovery Channel, 1998; Rudy Galindo: The E! True Hollywood Story, E!, 1998; Intimate Portrait: Oksana Baiul, Lifetime, 1999 (as Team USA member) Ice Wars: Four the World, CBS, 1999; (as Team USA member) Ice Wars: USA vs. the World, CBS, 1999; From This Moment, CBS, 1999; Target Stars on Ice, CBS, 1999; Christmas in Rockefeller Center, NBC, 2000; The Great American History Quiz: Heroes and Villains, History Channel, 2000; Improv-Ice Presented by Chevy, USA Network, 2000; The 1999 Metabolife World Professional Figure Skating Championship, NBC, 2000; Target Presents: Scott Hamilton's Farewell to Stars on Ice, CBS, 2000; Scott Hamilton: The E! True Hollywood Story, E!, 2000; Fire on Ice: Champions of American Figure Skating, Arts and Entertainment, 2001; (and creative director) Hip-Hop on Ice, NBC, 2001; The Great American History Quiz: 50 States, History Channel, 2001; The Great American History Quiz: For Kids, History Channel, 2001; Michelle Kwan: People in the News (documentary), 2001; Olay Presents the World Ice Challenge (also known as Ice Wars), CBS, 2001; A Skate Tribute (The Legacy of the 1961 U.S. World Team), ABC, 2001; Target Stars on Ice, NBC, 2001; All-Star Olympic Salute: Countdown to Salt Lake City, NBC, 2002; Target Stars on Ice 2002, Arts and Entertainment, 2002; Women of the Games: Going for the Gold, E!, 2002; At Home with Tara Lipinski, 2002; Ice Wars 9, 2002; and VH-1 Where Are They Now: On Ice, VH1, 2003. Appeared at awards presentations, including (as presenter) 70th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1998; 40th Annual Grammy Awards, CBS, 1998; (as presenter) 26th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, CBS, 1999; Kids Choice Awards, Nickelodeon, 1999; and 1999 Teen Choice Awards, Fox, 1999. Guest star on television programs, including Early Edition, CBS, 1997; Touched by an Angel, CBS, 1999; Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, ABC, 1999; Veronica's Closet, NBC, 1999; Candid Camera, CBS, 1999; Figure It Out, Nickelodeon, 2000; Are You Afraid in the Dark?, Nickelodeon, 2000; The List, VH1, 2000; Wheel of Fortune, syndicated, 2000; MXG Beach Countdown, Fox Family Channel, 2001; The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC, 2002; E! News Live, 2002; The Maury Povich Show, 2002; Arli$$, 2002; The Bachelor, 2002; Headline News, 2002; Girls Behaving Badly, 2003; 7th Heaven, 2003; and The Wayne Brady Show, 2003.

AWARDS, HONORS: Gold medals for Blue Swords, Midwestern Novice, Southwestern Novice, and U.S. Olympic Festival, all 1994, South Atlantic Juniors, 1996, Hershey's Challenge (team), Champions Series, National Championships, and World Championships, all 1997, Champion Series, Olympics, Ice Wars (individual and team), Jefferson Pilot Financial Championships, and Ice Wars (individual), all 1998, and Ice Wars (individual and team), Pro Superteam Challenge, and World Professional Championships, all 1999; Mary Lou Retton Award, 1994; Sports Woman of the Year Award, U.S. Olympic Committee, 1997; March 1, 1998, declared Tara Lipinski Day, Houston, TX; named female athlete of the year, U.S. Sports Academy, and Teen Choice Awards, both 1999; named best female athlete, Kids Choice Awards, 1999, 2000.

WRITINGS:

(With Emily Costello) Tara Lipinski: Triumph on Ice, Bantam (New York, NY), 1997.

Totally Tara: An Olympic Journal, Universe (New York, NY), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: In her brief amateur career, figure skater Tara Lipinski amazed fans due to the young age at which she rose to prominence. She was only fourteen years old when she first won the United States national and the world figure-skating championships in 1997, breaking figure skating legend Sonja Henie's seventy-year record for youngest world champion ever. At the next year's Nagano Olympics Lipinski—who at four-feet-eleven-inches tall and eighty-five pounds was the smallest athlete to compete in Nagano—won the gold, defeating heavily favored seventeen-year-old American Michelle Kwan. Then, surprisingly, a few months after the 1998 Olympics Lipinski chose to turn professional. This decision allowed her to cut back on her training and to spend more time with her family—particularly her father, who had remained behind in Sugarland, Texas when Lipinski and her mother moved to Maryland and then to Detroit, Michigan to be closer to Lipinski's coaches—but precluded any chance of defending her Olympic title in 2002.

Around the peak of her career, in 1997 and 1998, Lipinski published two books about her life: Tara Lipinski: Triumph on Ice, and Totally Tara: An Olympic Journal. In the former autobiography, Lipinski relates the first time she considered being an Olympic champion, at age two, when she saw a medal ceremony for the 1984 Olympics on television. She climbed up on an overturned container and demanded of her mother, "I want a ribbon and some flowers so I can be like the people on TV." The next year Lipinski began roller skating, and at age six she took to the ice. From then until she turned professional, Lipinski trained relentlessly, six days a week. Throughout Triumph on Ice, Kay Weisman wrote in Booklist, Lipinski appears to be "a hardworking, positive young woman likely to inspire others to follow in her footsteps." In addition to showing herself to be no stranger to hard work, Lipinski is also positive and cheerful, writing her life story in a "chatty breathless voice" likely to appeal to younger readers, as Dance contributor Susan Elia noted.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Newsmakers 1998, Issue 3, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Sports Stars, Series 1-4, U∗X∗L (Detroit, MI), 1994–98.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1998, Kay Weisman, review of Tara Lipinski: Triumph on Ice, pp. 805-806.

Dance, July, 1998, Susan Elia, review of Tara Lipinski, pp. 86-87.

Newsweek, March 2, 1998, Mark Starr, "Tara Lipinski," pp. 62-64.

People, March 3, 1997, Alex Tresniowski, "Tara Lipinski," pp. 56-58; February 23, 1998, Alex Tresniowski, "Triple Threat: With a Little Bit of Lutz, Our Three Olympic Figure-skating Women Might Have Nothing to Fear but Each Other," pp. 94-99; March 8, 1998, Pam Lambert, "Tara Lipinski," pp. 42-47; June 7, 1999, "Soap Capades: No Longer Stalking Gold Medals, Skater Tara Lipinski Settles for a Little Daytime Drama," p. 83.

Publishers Weekly, November 10, 1997, review of Tara Lipinski, p. 75.

School Library Journal, April, 1998, Marilyn Payne Phillips, review of Tara Lipinski, p. 148.

Sports Illustrated, March 2, 1998, E.M. Swift, "Tara Lipinski," pp. 48-51, Rick Reilly, "The Lipinski Who Was Left Behind," p. 128.

Texas Monthly, September, 1997, Skip Hollandsworth, "Tara Lipinski: A Classic Sports Prodigy," pp. 134-136.

Time, March 2, 1998, Nadya Labi, "Tara Lipinski," pp. 66-68; December 28, 1998, Bruce Handy, "Second Acts," p. 153.