Figure skater Tara Lipinski's career in 9 photos – see her transformation from Olympic champion to The Traitors contestant

Tara was born in Philadelphia to her parents, Pat and Jack Lipinski. She grew up in New Jersey and always loved the Olympics. When she was only two-years-old, Tara watched the 1984 Summer Olympics, stood on a Tupperware bowl, and pretended to be a gold medalist.

After enjoying roller skating, Tara started figure skating, taking lessons at the University of Delaware. She continued her love of ice skating after her family moved to a suburb of Houston, Texas. In 1995, when Tara was 13, she and her mom moved to Michigan so she could pursue a higher echelon of her sport.

Tara's love of the sport was apparent even when she was a young girl. "I know I get all skate-nerdy, but [even back then] the smell of a rink, even the Zamboni fumes, was magical," she told Cosmopolitan in 2018.

Tara quickly gained notoriety in the figure skating world once she launched her competitive career. In 1994, she became the youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival. From there, Tara only kept rising.

During her 1996 to 1997 season, Tara became the first woman to complete the triple loop-triple loop jump combination during a competition. She also became the youngest skater to win a U.S. Championships title, defeating Michelle Kwan.

Ahead of the 1998 Winter Olympics, U.S. Figure Skating selected Michelle, Tara, and Nicole Bobek to compete in Nagano, Japan. And on February 20, after a fierce competition, Tara won the gold medal when she was 15-years-old. 

"For the rest of my life, I'll always have 'pinch me' moments thinking about it," Tara told Cosmopolitan in 2018. "I still say to myself, 'How did this happen?!'"

Figure skating is one of those individual sports that often turns teammates into competitors. For Tara, her biggest rival was Michelle – who won the silver medal in 1998 and the bronze during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"I'm so lucky to have [Michelle competing against me] — she pushed me and made me a better skater," explained Tara. Years after their figure skating days, she and Michelle coincidentally boarded the same flight at LAX, exchanging kind words and reliving memories. 

"I realized that we have this special bond," Tara said. "It's strange because we were both in this little competitive bubble for years, and it's something only we know about... I have this deep, deep respect for her and her talent."

Michelle felt similarly. She told Cosmopolitan: "Sometimes with the Olympics, [the media] puts two competitors against each other and there’s this intense 'rivalry' they build up. It's funny, because in my whole career I never compared myself to somebody. There was a deep respect for one another. It's fun looking back, knowing I had a competitor that pushed me so hard."

Tara retired from professional figure skating when she was just 20. She took a bit of a break from life, traveling and working, even acting. Tara appeared in two episodes of 7th Heaven and voiced a character on the animated show, Generation Jets.

In 2009, she started working as a commentator for figure skating competitions and was an official commentator at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, alongside her good friend Johnny Weir.

Tara's best friend is fellow figure skater and Traitors competitor, Johnny Weir. The two met while competing for Team USA, but their friendship really grew when they started commentating together.

"Obviously we knew of each other for so many years, skating's a small world, but we never really had time to connect or build a friendship or a relationship," Tara told People. 

"And when we started commentating, I was covering the women's and he would cover the men's event. One day, we were just in the studio waiting on a broadcast, and we started bonding over his handbag and my handbag. We started talking and it was just this instantaneous connection and feeling of home."

The two are on the fourth season of The Traitors, and are betting that their fellow competitors don't know they are best friends.

The figure skater met Todd at the 2015 Sports Emmy Awards when the figure skating commentator presented an award to him. Todd works in the entertainment business, focusing on sports documentaries and commercials.

Two years later, they tied the knot in a large ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina. Tara and Todd host their podcast, Unexpecting, together, where they share both sides of "every single event" before Tara got pregnant.

When she was 41, Tara welcomed her daughter, Georgie, via surrogacy. "I loved the surrogacy journey, I really did," she told People. "I had so much trauma around pregnancy. Something just clicked where my outlook changed and it became less about me and my experience. It wasn't about the pregnancy anymore."

Tara regularly shares moments of motherhood to her 848k Instagram followers. The family-of-three split time between Kiawah Island, South Carolina and Los Angeles. Her home in LA was damaged during the Palisades Fire last year.

She told People: "What made me most emotional after the fires was seeing people in the neighborhood stepping up to help, giving essentials to those in need. It was incredibly moving to witness how many showed up for all the people affected."

As a fierce competitor, Tara knows how to win. She showed up to season four of The Traitors with a slew of great outfits, her bestie Johnny, and a winning smile. The season premiered on Thursday, January 8, 2026 and revealed that Tara was a Faithful who was trying to cozy up to Traitor Candiace Dillard Bassett.

Tune into The Traitors on Peacock to see Tara's fate.