Tara Lipinski

Tara Lipinski, born in 1982, American figure skater, who in 1998, at the age of 15, became the youngest gold medalist in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. Lipinski was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to her family, when 2-year-old Tara watched the 1984 Summer Olympics, she stood on a homemade medals stand and imagined winning a gold medal. She started ice skating when she was 6 and soon was training with top coaches. At age 12 she moved to Michigan to train with Richard Callaghan at the Detroit Skating Club.

Lipinski is noted for her exuberant, athletic skating style. She won the bronze medal at the United States championships in 1996. The next year, at the age of 14, she became the youngest U.S. titlist in history, breaking the age record set in 1951 by Sonya Klopfer. At the 1997 world championships Lipinski became the youngest skater ever to win the world title. Although she placed second at the 1998 U.S. championships, Lipinski skated two nearly flawless programs at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and won the women’s competition. She was two months younger than Norwegian skater Sonja Henie had been when she won the women’s title at the 1928 Games in Saint Moritz, Switzerland.