Tara Lipinski

In a Today Show appearance on April 7, 1998, Lipinski announced that she would no longer compete in the amateur ranks. Her departure robbed the sport of one of its finest rivalries, as spectators had looked forward to future competitions between Lipinski and Michelle Kwan, the top two skaters of the day. "I experienced everything I wanted to," Lipinski later told Cathy Harasta of the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service in December 2001, "I went to the Olympics for three weeks and had the time of my life."

Lipinski had to cut back on her professional appearances after under-going operations on her hip in 1998 and again in 2002. Following her second surgery, she became a spokesperson for an awareness campaign for deep-vein thrombosis, a sometimes-fatal complication from surgeries like the ones she had undergone. Although she still suffered from some residual hip pain from her surgeries, Lipinski continued to skate with the Stars on Ice program as one of its most popular performers. She also appeared in the soap opera The Young and the Restless and the television movie Ice Angel and planned more acting roles in the future.