Photo: Michael Loccisano / Staff/ Getty Images

The Winter Olympics 2018 are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. This year, Tara Lipinski, a figure skating champion, will be sitting in the broadcast booth. She is famous for being an analyst and commentator for NBC and NBC Sports. In fact, Tara Lipinski was an Olympic competitor who retired at an early age. But why did Tara Lipinski retire? Keep reading to find out! 

Tara Lipinski, the 35-year-old American figure skater, quickly earned a name for herself. She won championships in the 1998 Olympics, 1997 World Figure Skating competition, 1997 U.S. National Figure Skating competition, and twice at the Champions Series Final.

Lipinski won the World Figure Skating title at the age of 14, making her the youngest female to do so.

The figure skater married Todd Kapostasy in 2017.

When Did Tara Lipinski Retire?

On March 9, 1998, Lipinski announced her decision to withdraw her name from the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships. This was because of a grave glandular infection that required surgery to remove two molars. She was also suffering from fatigue.

Many people heavily criticized Lipinski’s decision to retire, including columnist Christine Brennan.

Lipinski’s agent, Mike Burg, said at that time, “She can’t go at an Olympic pace right now. Tara feels that if she can’t go full-out for worlds, she didn’t want to go. Everybody is saying: ‘Wait a second. Let her get herself back together before she starts a tough training regimen.’”

“Knowing Tara, once she makes up her mind in a direction, that’s the direction it is,” Burg added.

During her figure skating career, Lipinski suffered from a torn hip cartilage, which became worse until she had surgery in September 2000.

Lipinski said about her injury, “It’s a huge shock when you [sic] sitting in bed and you can’t get up to get out.”

“I’d go to the mall and I couldn’t walk more than 15 minutes and I’d have to sit down. When I was at Disney World, which is my favourite place, I couldn’t go around the parks. I can’t explain how bad it was. I thought it was just torn muscles. But right after the Olympics, when it got bad, we had MRIs and they said it would be just fine. But it shouldn’t take seven months to come back from a torn muscle, [sic]” Lipinski added.

In 2013, it was revealed that Lipinski would be working as a commentator and analyst on NBC, NBC Sports, and Universal Sports during the Sochi Winter Games.

Recently, Tara Lipinski appeared on an episode of Lip Sync Battle against Johnny Weir.