15. TARA LIPINSKI | On Success at a Young Age, Trusting Love, + Reinventing Yourself
iTunes: click here.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.
As of late, Tara Lipinski has been making the rounds talking about her incredible Olympic Gold Medal Winning moment on pretty much every national television morning show possible. The reason? She's heading to South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games as a host for NBC. This is Tara 2.0. Or, maybe it's 3.0. Could be 4.0. Point is: this woman is never one to shy away from a momentous opportunity to start a new chapter in her life. Wildly aware of when to step away from something which no longer serves, unlike most, Tara sprints into the Unknown, ready to conquer any road she finds herself on.
“It’s been 20 years. I almost feel like I’ve lived a second life. I’m glad I sort of accomplished all my goals at such a young age that it forced me to shed my skin and start a new life."
Of course we know her as the young faced beauty who scored Gold 20 years ago...in fact, I start this interview speaking about that moment, fresh on my mind, as I watched her win on YouTube - a moment I hadn't seen since the day it happened live. Goosebumps is all I can say for two reasons. 1. The confidence, poise, and strength she carried at such a young age. 2. How had I not brought this up with her before!?
We met when Tara was still living in NYC. She, like I, was single and dating. We met for dinner and drinks, talking about everything but skating; relationships, men, women, vulnerability, strength. I had been bewildered then that she was nicknamed Tara the Picky.
“I landed the nickname picky. If you know yourself as a woman you kind of know your boundaries and what you want and what kind of life is going to make you happy and by 30 years old, I knew what I wanted in a guy. And I wasn’t gong to settle."
This attitude then is still the reason now that I love speaking with this Woman. She is unapologetically herself, she knows what she wants, and she'll make it happen, one way or another, whether that's in her professional or personal life.
We speak about her figure skating career, of her working for and winning an Olympic Gold Medal, and touring as a professional skater..
“I did miss out on all these milestones that most people get to experience. But I had this obsessive drive to be at the rink every day. It’s all I needed. I had a relationship with skating. I was in a full-time relationship with skating. It was a love-hate relationship but it was something that I wanted to do and wanted to pursue so badly.”
But then, more interestingly, we move through the transition of Tara the Girl into Tara the Woman...
“I realized, oh my god, I’m so behind in real life. It was hard. I was so completely lost. Finally my Mom called me and she was like, Tara, you cannot go to the rink anymore. That’s over. Figure out your life. You’re smart. You’re outgoing. Go out there and experience it.”
Experiencing life for the very first, especially when she made a choice to move to New York.
"It was so nice to be like screw it! I want to make friends and I want to go out and I’m going to date a lot and I just don’t care. It was this very freeing, fun couple of years for me.”
And then there's her recent marriage to Todd Kapostasy. I'll let you listen to how things evolved with them. Hint: trust the process and lose the butterflies.
This truly is two girlfriends having a conversation about life and what it means to be a modern woman in today's society. Thank you Tara for sharing your Story, your Truths, and your Flaws. You're imperfectly perfect just the way you are!
