Gold medalist shines at young age
Campus Times
March 6, 1998
I found it amazing that a 15-year-old girl, Tara Lipinski, was competing
for a gold medal for women's figure skating and won.
Here is a girl who is so young that she legally cannot drive a car but
can represent the United States of America. She is practically just a baby
still, who was competing for an Olympic medal and representing our nation
at such a young and innocent age.
Unbelievable!
However, I do have to explain how I did not stay up-to-date with the
Olympics, nor with Tara Lipinski.
When the 1998 Winter Olympics first began, I was not paying any attention
to the games. For some reason, this was the first year I had little interest
in the Olympics.
Almost every night, my mom would call me at home and ask me if I was
watching the Olympics and did I just see who did what and how good this
person was. And every time I would tell her no because I was not watching
them. But to make my mom happy, I would change the channel to the Olympics,
talk to her for a few minutes about the games and once we hung up, I would
change the channel again.
It was not until the last night of the Olympic games that I actually
sat down to watch them and, of course, I was at my mom's house at the time,
which I wish I had done a lot sooner.
My mom brought me up to date on who is whom and who was expected to
win the gold. She knew it all.
But as I began to watch the women's figure skating contest, I stared
in awe and could not take my eyes off the television, especially Lipinski.
She was outstanding and skated very well. I knew she was young by the way
she looked, but I was not sure exactly how young.
I think what took me by surprise was the fact that she was so young
and so good. She skated with such grace, as though she was out there just
for fun, not for an Olympic gold medal.
During Lipinski's skating competition, her last one that put her in
the gold category, my mom was telling my sister and me how Lipinski was
so adorable and talented and how she thought she deserved the gold. My mom
was even taping the program. You would have thought that Lipinski was one
of my mom's daughters; she was so excited for her.
My sister, on the other hand, was telling us her opinion of Lipinski
and how she is so fake for 15, oddly mature for her age and that 17-year-old
Michelle Kwan, from the United States, should have won the gold medal.
At this point, I was just trying to enjoy Lipinski skate and had no
feelings about her. Who am I to judge an Olympic competitor whom I have
never even heard talk?
However, after her routine, I was in shock. She was one of the best
skaters that I have ever seen before -- not only for 15 years old but also
for the United States.
When she skated off the ice with her hands in the air and crying, I
soon saw her inexperienced ways come out. Then when she found out her scores
of her performance and began to jump up and down squealing, I began to smile
and think of how I have never seen any past gold medalist act as she did.
I am not saying that is a bad thing. All I am saying is that would be
the reaction I would have, after realizing I had just won the gold medal.
It should be the reaction of all winners in the Olympics, especially a gold
medalist.
I read in the March
2 issue of Time magazine that, "Journalists handicapped
the event in favor of Lipinski because she was so carefree and relaxed.
She was all over the Olympic village, taking to dorm life faster than any
pre-frosh." It was even heard that Lipinski was making stickers, as
kids usually do for fun, on the day of the finals.
Lipinski did everything right while she was in Nagano. She was serious
when she needed to be but at the same time, she still acted as a kid.
I am dedicating my space in the Campus Times to Lipinski for being so
talented and successful at such a young age. She deserves everything she
has been given.
Laura Czingula, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of
the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at czingula@ulv.edu.
