Tara Lipinski – Bio, Net Worth, Husband, Age, Family, Religion, Awards, Medals, Records, Height, Job, Salary, Career, Parent, Wiki, Retire, Olympics

Tara Lipinski is an American professional former competitive figure skater, actress, and sports commentator. She is famous for winning the Gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships, and the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in both 1996-1997 and 1997-1998. When Tara had won a Gold medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1995, she was the youngest to achieve the feat. She was, until 2019, the youngest skater to win a U.S. Nationals. She was also the youngest skater to win a World Figure Skating title and the youngest to win an Olympic gold medal. She is the first woman to complete a triple loop-triple loop combination, her signature jump, in competition. She grabbed the Silver medal at the 1996 GP (Grand Prix) Nations Cup, the 1997 GP Skate America, the 1996 GP Skate Canada International, and the 1997 GP Trophee Lalique. She had also won the Bronze medal at the 1996 GP Trophee Lalique. She retired from competitive figure skating in 1998 and had started participating in professional events. She won every competition she entered during her professional career and was the youngest skater to win the World Professional Figure Skating Championships. She performed in over 300 live shows before retiring from figure skating in 2002. Lipinski, along with sports commentator Terry Gannon and fellow figure skater and good friend Johnny Weir, commentated for skating in two Olympics; they became NBC’s primary figure skating commentators in 2013. Tara holds the record for being the first female figure skater to complete a triple loop-triple loop combination, her signature move, in competition. She was even inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2006 and had become the youngest figure skater to achieve this feat. 

What is Tara Lipinski Famous For?

• Being a former competitive figure skater, actress, and sports commentator. 
• Being the 1998 Olympic champion, the 1997 world champion, a two-time Champions Series Final champion (1997–1998), and the 1997 U.S. national champion. 

Source: @cutewallpaper

What Ethnicity is Tara Lipinski?

Tara Lipinski was born with the birth name of Tara Kristen Lipinski on 10th June 1982. She is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. She holds American nationality and her ethnicity is American-Polish. Her race is White. Gemini is her zodiac sign. By religion, Lipinski is Catholic; she has had a devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux since 1994. She is the daughter of her father, Jack Richard Lipinski (Oil Executive, Lawyer), and her mother, Patricia Lipinski (née Brozyniak) (Secretary). She is the only child born to her parents. She spent her earliest years in Sewell, New Jersey. All four of her grandparents were born in Poland. She celebrated her 39th birthday as of 2021. When she was only two, while watching the 1984 Summer Olympics, she stood on a Tupperware bowl and pretended to be a gold medalist. When she was three, she began roller-skating; when she was nine years old, she became a national champion in her age group. She began figure skating when she was nine, transferring her skills to the ice rink, later switching exclusively to figure skating and taking lessons at the University of Delaware. In the year 1991, her father received a job promotion, so the family moved to Sugar Land, Texas near Houston. She trained at the Houston Galleria, an upscale mall with a public rink. In 1993, her father stayed in Texas to support the family, and Lipinski and her mother moved back to Delaware to resume her training there with coach Jeff DiGregorio, who worked with Lipinski, on and off, for three years before their move to Texas. In 1995, she alongside her mother moved to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to train with coach Richard Callaghan at the Detroit Skating Club. 

About her education, she went to the University of Delaware. Later, she didn’t continue her study after she became a professional skater. 

Tara Lipinski Career Timeline

• Lipinski earned a silver medal in the novice women’s division at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
• At the age of 12, she became the youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival and took first place in her first international competition, the Blue Swords in Chemnitz, Germany. 
• As per Cosmopolitan Magazine, the media began to notice Lipinski after Blue Swords in November 1994. 
• As a junior skater, she came in fourth place at the 1995 World Junior Figure Skating Championships and with six triples in her long program, second place at the 1995 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
• She placed fifth at the 1996 World Junior Figure Skating Championships; according to the Washington Post, the competition marked “the end of the relationship between the Lipinski’s and DiGregorio”. 
• In January 1996, she won a bronze medal as a senior-level skater at the 1996 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
• She gained international attention by qualifying for the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships. 
• In late 1996, she added the triple loop-triple loop combination, which became her signature jump and added technical difficulty to her programs. She was the first woman to complete the combination in competition.
• Further, she competed in the ISU Champions Series (later renamed the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating) during the 1996–1997 season where she finished in second place at Skate Canada, third at Trophée Lalique, and second at the 1996 Nations Cup.
• Next, she won the gold medal at the Champion Series final and defeated Michelle Kwan by completing more successful jumps in her short and free programs. 
• In February 1997, with her signature triple loop-triple loop combination, she became the youngest skater to win a U.S. Nationals title. 
• Moreover, she broke the record set by Sonya Klopfer, who was 15 when she won U.S. Nationals in 1951. She also defeated Kwan, Nationals champion in 1996, who won the short program. 
• Skating last, she had to come in first in the free skate, which she did by skating a clean program, with seven triple jumps, including “a history-making triple loop-triple-loop combination”.
• She also won the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships and became the youngest female skater to win the World Championships. Lipinski was a month younger than the previous record-holder, Sonya Henie from Norway when Henie won the first of 10 World Championships in 1927.
• At Skate America, Kwan defeated Lipinski for the first time in three competitions and won the gold medal. 
• She came in second place at Trophée Lalique, behind French skater Laetitia Hubert.
• She was tied as the fourth best-ranked female figure skater in the world coming into the Champion Series Final. She won, skating her first clean program of the season whereas Kwan withdrew from the finals due to injuries.
• She came in second at the 1998 U.S. Figure Skating Championships whereas Kwan came in the first place. Lipinski performed her free skate program “with determination” and she completed all seven triple jumps, including her trademark triple loop-triple loop combination and a difficult triple toe loop-half loop-triple toe combination sequence. The judges awarded her all 5.8s and 5.9s, except for a pair of 5.7s for presentation. 
• Lipinski and Kwan entered the Olympics as “co-favorites” to win the gold medal. At the Olympics, Kwan “easily” won the short program as eight of the nine judges put her in the first place. Thus, Lipinski came in second place. 
• Her free skating program, with her triple loop-triple loop combination and seven triple jumps total, was the most technically difficult program in Olympic history. She received 5.8s and 5.9s in presentation scores. Kwan received all 5.9s in presentation scores, but she received lower technical scores than Lipinski.
• Lipinski was the youngest Olympic gold medalist in figure skating history as well as the sixth American woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
• It was in March 1998, she announced her decision to withdraw from the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships due to a serious glandular infection that required her to have two molars extracted, constant fatigue, and possible mononucleosis. 
• After a month, in April, she announced her intention to turn professional in an interview on the Today Show, thus ending her eligibility to compete in the Olympics again.
• As per skater Scott Hamilton, Lipinski “took an enormous amount of heat” for turning professional. He further reported that USA Today criticized her decision, stating that she had taken “the easy way out” and compared it to “joining the circus”. 
• Moreover, she skated in over 300 live shows, including professional team competitions like “Ice Wars” on CBS. 
• On CBS, she produced and starred in a two-hour special called “Tara Lipinski: From This Moment On”. 
• She even won every competition she entered during her professional career. 
• After the Olympics, she toured with Champions on Ice, visiting 90 U.S. cities.
• In August 1998, she ended her association with Champions on Ice.
• In the year 1999, she performed with “Stars on Ice” for a second season and on the ISU-sanctioned “Grand Slam of Figure Skating”, became a spokeswoman for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and an anti-drug advocate, appeared on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless”, and acted in TV shows for the Fox Family Network and Nickelodeon. 
• She also became the youngest skater to win the World Professional Figure Skating Championships, completing a triple flip, a triple toe loop, and a triple salchow in her free skating program. 
• She had hip surgery in 2000 at the age of 18, which she believed saved her career. Her injury, a torn labrum in her hip, had been misdiagnosed for four or five years, and that it had caused her a great deal of joint pain. She became a spokesperson to increase awareness about deep vein thrombosis (DVT), “a dangerous potential side effect of surgery”. The injury, which may have occurred before the Nagano Olympics, became progressively worse until she was unable to tour. The surgery, which usually lasted 45 minutes, took 3 1⁄2 hours to complete because she was developing arthritis and because cartilage had grown over the bone. 
• In the year 2002, she toured 61 U.S. cities with “Stars on Ice” after her recovery.  
• She then retired from skating in 2002.

Broadcasting Career

• After Lipinski’s retirement from skating, she spent a few years traveling and working “here and there”.
• In the year 2009, longing for the “high” she felt as a figure skater, she contacted U.S. Figure Skating’s streaming service Ice Network and offered to work as a commentator for competitions. 
• She then started began commentating for Universal Sports in 2010 and transitioned to NBC and NBC Sports in 2011, where she covered almost every international figure skating competition broadcast by the network. 
• She also became a special correspondent for Extra and covered skating for WDIV in Detroit and WHDH in Boston.
• She then teamed with sports commentator Terry Gannon and fellow figure skater and good friend Johnny Weir at the Sochi Olympics as the network’s second team of figure skating commentators for their daily live broadcasts in September 2014. 
• Initially, she worked with Gannon during the women’s events, and Weir worked with Gannon during the men’s events. According to sportswriter Tom Weir, “they had instant comedic harmony, with their casual chatter and humorous asides playing amazingly well against the staunch and exacting backdrop of figure skating”. 
• In September 2014, Lipinski, Weir, and Gannon were promoted to NBC’s primary figure skating commentators, replacing Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic, and Tom Hammond. 
• They were also the analyst at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She stated that she had worked for ten years to commentate during the prime time during the Olympics. 
• Moreover, the trio was also slotted to host the closing ceremonies in Pyeongchang. 
• Lipinski and Weir were hired by NBC’s Access Hollywood in 2014, to analyze fashion during the red carpet at the Oscars. 
• She even served as “a fashion, lifestyle, and social media correspondent” for NBC Sports, including, with Weir, the Beverly Hills Dog Show in 2017, the National Dog Show every year since 2015, the Kentucky Derby in 2014–2017 and 2018 (as “fashion and lifestyle experts” in 2016), and pre-game coverage for the Super Bowl in 2015 and 2017. They were named “culture correspondents” for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
• She called her broadcasting career her “second dream”.
• In 2018, she told Entertainment Tonight, “I feel extremely grateful that Johnny and I have found this spot in our world, and it gives us opportunities outside of skating”. In the same year, the Washington Post reported that viewers’ response to Lipinski and Weir were mixed; some considered them “Olympic darlings–a one-stop shop for knowledge, sass and brass”, while others found them “mean, obnoxious, and distracting”.
• Regarding her job, she currently acts as a commentator for Universal Sports. 

Source: @awfulannouncing

Awards, Records, and Achievements

• Youngest athlete (12 years old) to win a gold medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival (1995)
• First woman to complete a triple loop-triple loop combination, her signature jump, in competition
• Youngest woman (14 years old) to win the World Figure Skating Championships (1997) 
• Sixth American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating
• Youngest skater (16 years old) to win the World Professional Figure Skating Championships (1999)
• Youngest inductee into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame

Who is Tara Lipinski Husband?

Tara Lipinski is a married woman. In June 2017, after two years of dating, she married sports producer Todd Kapostasy. The duo met each other in May 2015, when Lipinski presented Kapostasy an award at the Sports Emmys. Johnny Weir was a “bridesman” and Scott Hamilton was a guest during their wedding. Today, the couple is enjoying their present life happily without any disturbances. Her sexual orientation is straight. 

Source: @instagram.com/taralipinski

How much is Tara Lipinski Net Worth?

Таrа Lipinski is a former competitive figure skater, actress, and sports commentator. She retired from skating in 2002 but still she is renowned thе mоѕt ѕuссеѕѕful fеmаlе аthlеtе іn thе UЅ. Ѕhе hаѕ collected many tіtlеѕ during her career timeline. At present, ѕhе іѕ асtіvе аѕ а ѕроrtѕ соmmеntаtоr аnd аlѕо аѕ аn асtrеѕѕ. Аѕ оf 2022, the net worth of Tara Lipinski is estimated to have $6 Mіllіоn. She currently acts as a commentator for Universal Sports. Her annual salary is around $500K-$1 Million as per sources. Furthermore, she is also the brand ambassador of businesses such as DKNY Minute Maid, Target, Kellogg’s Chevrolet, Kodak, and Hallmark. The Associated Press reported that in 1998, Lipinski’s net worth, due to many endorsements and book deals, was “possibly as high as $12 million”. She signed “an exclusive deal” with CBS to do some acting and to perform in skating shows and non-sanctioned competitions. 

How tall is Tara Lipinski?

Tara Lipinski is a beautiful woman with an athletic body type. She has a height of 5 feet 2 inches or 157 cm and her body weight consists of around 48 Kg. She has blonde hair and she has a pair of blue eyes. About her body measurements, her waist size measures 23 inches, and her hip size measures 33 inches. Her shoe size is 5.5 (US) and her bra size is 32A. As she is religious to Roman Catholicism, she credited St. Therese for her Olympic win in 1998 and the recovery from her hip surgery in 2000. She wore a necklace with a good-luck charm, given to her by her uncle, that said, “Short, but good”, as well as a medal of St. Therese, given to her by Rev. Vince Kolo, a Catholic priest from Pittsburgh, during the Olympics. Overall, she has got a healthy body with a charming smile attracting a lot of people towards her.