Lipinski treasures golden memories

ST. LOUIS -- It's been so long now -- eight years -- that the gold medal seems as if it happened to someone else.

''It's like an out-of-body experience," said Tara Lipinski, who was inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame at a ceremony here last week. ''It's still so overwhelming. It's like a shock that I won."

Lipinski was 15 then, and even though she was world champion -- the youngest ever -- she wasn't favored to win the 1998 Olympics at Nagano. Michelle Kwan, who'd won the US title, was. All Lipinski wanted to do was stay on her feet, especially after Kwan skated a superb long program at the Games.

''I didn't want to hear Michelle's marks, so I put my hands over my ears," Lipinski recalled. ''Then I heard 5.9 and thought, well, that's that, I should just go home. My legs were shaking, I thought I was going to mess up everything. Then I looked up to the press section and said, 'I'm going to prove to you guys that I can do this.' "

Once she did, Lipinski felt she needed to prove no more. So she gave up her world crown, turned pro, and became an actress.

''For me at the time it was the right thing to do," said Lipinski, who later needed hip surgery. ''I felt I had accomplished everything I wanted to."

Kwan, her old rival, was named by US Figure Skating's international committee to her third team at 25 last night even after withdrawing from the national championships with a groin injury.

''I know she will be on the team," said Lipinski.

Lipinski may be two years younger, but she's done and gone.

''I'm 23, I won the nationals, I won the worlds, I won the Olympics," she said. ''Those performances were everything I wanted them to be. I don't want to be 'Skating With The Stars.' "

JOHN POWERS