Skater Lipinski Unchanged by Success

SIMSBURY, Conn. —  Tara Lipinski ties several yard-long rubber bands around a medicine ball, then attaches the other ends to her waist, shoulders, hands and feet.

She rolls around on the ball like an astronaut floating in zero gravity, all the while talking nonstop about whatever pops into her head.

The exercise is therapeutic, helping the 17-year-old Lipinski deal with an aching hip. It also looks like fun, which is exactly what should be expected from the 1998 Olympic figure skating champion.

No matter how much work she has to do, Lipinski finds a way to enjoy herself. As she prepares for her second year as a professional and rehearses for her second season on tour with Stars on Ice--not to mention her burgeoning acting career--Lipinski hasn’t lost sight of what attracted her to the ice.

“The skating always should be fun, or you shouldn’t be doing it,” she said as she went through bends and dips that would make a contortionist jealous. “Skating has brought me everything I have, so I never really think of it as work.”

Lipinski pretty much has disappeared from the competitive spotlight, limiting herself to infrequent made-for-TV and team events, although she has committed to the prestigious World Pro Championships in December. Still, she’s been plenty busy.

The tour, which begins after Thanksgiving and carries into the spring, will take up the bulk of her time.

Lipinski also makes appearances as a spokeswoman for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and as an anti-drug advocate for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

In addition, she’s appearing occasionally as a recurring character on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless”; filming a television movie, “Ice Angel,” for the Fox Family Network; acting in Nickelodeon’s “Afraid of the Dark”; and participating on Nickelodeon’s game show “Figure It Out----Wild Style.”

“It’s a new world, but it’s cool,” she said.

The old world, the daily grind of practicing jumps and spins and programs to be judged in competition, is almost entirely gone. Lipinski, who turned pro after the Nagano Games, doesn’t miss it much.

Oh, there were some pangs last month when she skated in the Grand Slam of Figure Skating, a television creation sanctioned by the International Skating Union.

“I wouldn’t say there are any withdrawal pains,” Lipinski said, “but I was so excited with how I performed, especially before ISU judges. I felt the edge and the butterflies and I skated better than when I was an amateur. I did all the triple jumps and clean programs.

“It was the first event back with the old amateurs and the ISU people and there was more pressure on me than usual. I am a competitive person and I wanted to keep going and show I can do everything people expect from me.”

She won against a field that included Ekaterina Gordeeva, Katarina Witt and Yuka Sato -- but no Michelle Kwan, who remains the most popular Olympic-eligible skater. That rivalry appears to have peaked at Nagano and then died.

“I look back on Nagano every day and it is just as exciting now as it was the day it happened,” Lipinski said. “It’s something great that happened, but it’s not like I think of something like it happening again.”

She isn’t allowing the sore hip, which has bothered her for more than a year, to curtail her schedule. Scott Hamilton, the founder of Stars on Ice and still one of its headliners, calls Lipinski “a phenomenon.”

“She’s committed to constantly keep growing,” he said.

Lipinski has done that physically, too, topping 5 feet. Her programs no longer are built around her youthfulness--she’ll do “American Woman” on the tour.

But there’s no getting around the fact she is just heading into the prime years for a female figure skater.

By turning pro, she turned her back on the opportunity to emulate Witt, who won the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, and Sonja Henie, winner of three gold medals. If she’d remained eligible, Lipinski could have gone to the 2006 Games, as a 24-year-old, possibly seeking to tie Henie’s incredible achievement.

She chuckles at the thought. Removing the rubber bands, shoving the medicine ball aside, Lipinski admits she isn’t thinking beyond, oh, December.

“I love what I’m doing and I look forward to the show and acting and everything I’m doing,” she said. “I don’t regret anything.”