Tara Lipinski

Tara Kristen Lipinski (born June 10, 1982) is an American figure skater. At the age of 15, she won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics, and remains the youngest individual gold medalist in the history of the Olympic Winter Games.



Lipinski, an only child, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Patricia (née Brozyniak), a secretary, and Jack Richard Lipinski, an oil executive and lawyer.[2] She spent her earliest years in Washington Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey.[3] The family lived in Sewell, New Jersey until 1991.[4] Lipinski began roller skating at age three and later won a number of competitions. She began figure skating at age six. Her first competition was the 1990 regional championship, where she finished second. At the 1991 United States Roller Skating Championships, she won the primary girls freestyle as a nine-year-old.[5]

In 1991 her father's job required the family to move to Sugar Land, Texas. However, training facilities were not available there. In 1993, Lipinski and her mother moved back to Delaware, where she had trained before. She later moved to Detroit, Michigan to train with Richard Callaghan.