Are we the only ones who think Tara Lipinski made a solid move last week? When she announced she was turning pro (meaning she won’t be eligible for competitions like nationals, worlds and the Olympics), we at KidNews applauded. Hey, the 15-year-old gave up her childhood to go for Olympic gold; then she nabbed it, and now she’s moving on. Got a problem with that?
Well, every person we talked to did.
“I think she’s afraid of losing to Michelle Kwan so soon after the Olympics,” said Katie G., 13, of Chicago. “I know her dream was to get the gold. But was her dream to do that or succeed in the sport?”
Arefa P., 12, of Tinley Park saw it that way too: “She didn’t have the patience to keep going. She should have waited and given other skaters the chance to beat her.”
The head of the U.S. Figure Skating Association, Morry Stillwell, was quoted as saying Lipinski “had the potential to be one of the greatest Olympic-style skaters ever.”
(The potential to be one of the greatest? Can you say “the world’s youngest figure skating gold medalist”?)
Others said Lipinski is leaping straight into obscurity. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan wrote, “Lipinski most likely has disappeared from the sports radar screen.”
(So Lipinski might wind up a contented millionaire who gets to spend time with her family and skate before adoring crowds. Pity, huh?)
The way Lipinski sees it, some other young girl is just waiting to take her place. “I have the feeling there is going to be someone who was watching the Olympics the way I was in 1994, when no one hardly knew me,” she told Tribune Olympic sports writer Philip Hersh.
As for Kwan, she offered some words of wisdom about Lipinski’s leap to the pros: “Everyone has to do what’s best for them.”
That means that ultimately, the only one who will know whether Lipinski made the right choice is Lipinski.