Family

Olympic champion Tara Lipinski intends to become a professional figure skater so she can spend less time training and more time with her family. "Now I'll ... be able to be with my family because they mean so much to me," she said Tuesday. "I don't want to be 21 and not know my dad."

As a pro, Lipinski would be ineligible for amateur competitions and would need to receive reinstate­ment as an amateur to skate in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Reinstatement by skating authorities would not pose a problem.

"I would love to go to the 2002 Olympics and try to win another gold," she said, but added that she would feel "almost a little greedy in doing that, especially to my parents, who have given up so much... I realized after Nagano how important it is to me to be with my mom and dad and be all together and have fun and go out to dinner and really be a family again."

—Jim Wilson