Lesson 14 Tara Lipinski: Figure Skating Champion

By the time she was three years old, Tara Lipinski was roller-skating. When she was six, she started taking ice-skating lessons. By the time she was twelve years old, she won a silver medal in the national junior championships.

A silver medal is good, but not as good as a gold medal. Only skaters in the senior championships got gold medals. So Tara became a senior skater the next year. She placed third in the country!

The best part about winning third place was that Tara could skate in the world championships.

Figure skaters compete by skating two programs. The first has many difficult moves, such as jumps and spins. The second program has moves that are hard to do, but it also shows the skater’s grace.

At the world championships, Tara finished in fifteenth place.

The next year went very well for Tara, and she won the national title. Tara went on to win the world title. At fourteen years of age, she was the youngest person ever to win a wold gold medal in figure skating.

Then it was time for the Winter Olympics. When Tara Lipinski skated that night, she was like a firecracker. The crowd was on its feet, cheering. A few minutes later, they were on their feet again. Tara had won! At fifteen years of age, she was the youngest figure skater ever to win an Olympic gold medal.