Tara Lipinski

She placed 22nd after the short program, but her free Skate, which included seven triple jumps, brought her up to 15th place.

Lipinski and Callaghan spent the next year making her appear more mature; she enrolled in ballet classes and hired choreographer Sandra Bezic to "create programs for Lipinski that expressed delight yet looked adult".

She broke the record set by Sonya Klopfer, who was 15 when she won U.S. Nationals in 1951.

Tara Kristen Lipinski (born June 10, 1982) is an American former competitive figure skater, actress, sports commentator, and documentary film producer.

Tara Kristen Lipinski was born on June 10, 1982, in Philadelphia, to "Pat" Lipinski and oil executive Jack Lipinski.

She spent her earliest years in Sewell, New Jersey.

When Lipinski was two, while watching the 1984 Summer Olympics, she stood on a Tupperware bowl and pretended to be a gold medalist.

At the age of three, she began roller skating and eventually became a national champion in her group when she was nine years old.

She began figure skating in the same year, transferring her skills to the ice rink.

She later switched exclusively to figure skating and took lessons at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware.

In 1991, Lipinski's father received a job promotion, so the family moved to Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston.

She trained on a public rink at The Galleria.

Two years later, Lipinski and her mother returned to Delaware to resume her training there with coach Jeff DiGregorio, who had worked with Lipinski, on and off, for three years before their move to Texas, while her father stayed in Texas to support their family.

In 1994, Lipinski earned a silver medal in the novice women's division at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

When she was 12, she became the youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival.

She then took first place in the Blue Swords in Chemnitz, Germany, her first international competition, in November, after which the media began to notice her.

In 1995, Lipinski and her mother transferred to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to train with coach Richard Callaghan at the Detroit Skating Club.

As a junior skater, she came in fourth place at the 1995 World Junior Championships and came in second place at the 1995 U.S. Championships.

In late 1995, she placed fifth at the 1996 World Junior Championships, which marked the end of the relationship between DiGregorio and the Lipinskis.

After a series of interviews conducted by Lipinski and her mother and sample lessons given to Lipinski by prospective figure skating coaches from around the country, they hired Richard Callaghan.

She closed out the 1995–96 season and gained international attention by qualifying for the 1996 World Championships.

In January 1996, Lipinski won a bronze medal as a senior-level skater at the 1996 U.S. Championships.

In late 1996, she added the triple loop-triple loop jump combination, which added technical difficulty to her programs.

She was the first woman to complete the jump combination in competition.

Lipinski competed in the ISU Champions Series (later renamed the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating) during the 1996–97 season; she finished in second place at Skate Canada, third at Trophée Lalique, and second at the 1996 Nations Cup.

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.

She defeated Kwan, the reigning 1996 U.S. champion, who won the short program.

Kwan fell twice and landed only four out of her seven planned triple jumps in her free Skate, leaving the door open for Lipinski's victory.

She was the last skater to perform in the competition's free skating segment; she skated cleanly with seven triple jumps, including her signature jump element, the triple loop-triple loop combination, and came in first place.

Starting in 1997, Lipinski had a rivalry with fellow skater Michelle Kwan, which was played up by the American press, and culminated when Lipinski won the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.

In February 1997, at the age of 14, Lipinski became the youngest skater to win a U.S. Championships title.

According to author Ed Swift from Sports Illustrated, the 1997 U.S. Nationals marked the start of the Kwan–Lipinski rivalry.

A month later, Lipinski won the 1997 World Championships and became the youngest female skater to win that event.

A former competitor in women's singles, she is the 1998 Olympic champion, the 1997 World champion, a two-time Champions Series Final champion (1997–1998) and the 1997 U.S. national champion.

Lipinski retired from competitive figure skating in 1998.

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 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, became NBC's primary figure skating commentators in 2014.

Until 2019, she was the youngest single skater to win a U.S. Nationals and the youngest to become an Olympic and World champion in figure skating history.

She is the first woman to complete a triple loop-triple loop combination, her signature jump element, in competition.