Tara Lipinski won Olympic gold at 15; now she’s back on the ice for her daughter

Tara Lipinski had already made history on the ice as she became a world champion when she was just 15. Lipinski is still connected to the sport, but her life looks different after almost 29 years. Recently, she returned to the ice to skate with her young daughter, Georgie, who has developed an interest in the sport that once made her mother a household name.

In October 2026, Lipinski shared a video of Georgie, 3, performing in a sparkly pink skating dress to Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tara Lipinski (@taralipinski)

Lipinski and her family cheered as the toddler skated around the rink. After the performance, Lipinski praised her daughter and wrote, “Here's our pink pony girl! She did so well,” according to People.


Also Read: Noah Kahan launched a mental health nonprofit in 2023; here's how it raised $13 million and helped fund mental health initiatives

She also wrote in the caption, “Watching my three year old skate out there all by herself, and seeing how incredibly proud she was afterward, reminded me of all of it. I just love watching her discover what she’s capable of.”

How Tara Lipinski started skating

Tara Lipinski started roller skating when she was 3 years old in Sewell, New Jersey. At 9, she won a girls’ freestyle title at the United States Roller Skating Championships, according to her official website.

Her success continued as she grew older. In 1994, she won gold at the junior-level US Olympic Festival, becoming its youngest gold medallist at the time, according to NBC Sports. Then Lipinski won Olympic gold in figure skating in 1998. She was just 15, making her the youngest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympic history.

At 13, Lipinski became the first female figure skater to land a triple loop–triple loop combination in a competition. This move involves completing two triple-loop jumps one after the other. It later became one of her signature moves.

In 1997, at 14, she won both the US national championship and the World Figure Skating Championships. She became the youngest skater to win both titles, according to NBC Sports.

Also Read: In 2008, Camp Rock made Demi Lovato a Disney star; in 2026, she returned with a new role; how has her career changed since then?

How she beat Michelle Kwan to win Olympic gold

In the time of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Lipinski competed against fellow American skater Michelle Kwan. Lipinski was behind Kwan after the short programme.

But Lipinski delivered a strong performance in the free skate. She landed seven triple jumps, including her signature triple loop–triple loop combination. Her score put her ahead of Kwan, who won silver. China’s Chen Lu took bronze.

Motherhood has brought her back to the ice

In 2017, Lipinski married television producer Todd Kapostasy. Then their daughter Georgie came into the world in October 2023. Lipinski had shared a video of herself skating with her daughter and said she had not expected Georgie to fall in love with the sport so quickly.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tara Lipinski (@taralipinski)

Lipinski wrote as a caption in a post , “Skating has given me so much in my life, but one of its greatest gifts has always been the lessons that go far beyond the ice. Confidence, courage, independence, grit, resilience and learning to believe in yourself. In skating when things don’t go your way, there’s no one on the ice to fix it for you. You get back up and figure it out. You learn just how strong you are.” Georgie’s interest in skating has given Lipinski a new reason to return to the rink.

Lipinski transitioned to broadcasting, joining NBC Sports in 2011. She became NBC’s lead Olympic figure-skating analyst at the 2018 Winter Olympics alongside Johnny Weir. In 2026, the pair appeared on Season 4 of Peacock’s reality competition series The Traitors.