1998 National Championships
Feature On Tara
Transcript by Danielle Mueller

Brent: From the time Tara was a 4 year old Tara had a plan of being a famous figure skater and in record time she was a national and world champion. Even for Tara it happened ahead of schedule.

Tara: Never last year did I think I would be National Champion, World Champion, Series Final Champion and on top. I thought that I'd gradually move up and skate great and maybe place but never win.

Brent: Tara had her plan affirmed at last years Nationals when reigning world champion Michelle Kwan opened the door for Tara make her mark. Seven jumps and triples won her gold, fame, and notoriety which might have unnerved other fourteen year olds. But for Tara is was part of her plan.

Richard: She's totally in control of her skating and of her schedule.

Tara: My skating every week I think for me has be like a set schedule. You keep going and training without interruptions.

Richard: She's only 15 and she's more independent. But I think she's using that to her advantage. I mean it really goes back to where she has an mind-set and wants a Olympic medal and there is no time in her schedule to let anything interfere with that.

Brent: Tara continues to strategize. Already considered a technically brillant skater she is working now with a Russian ballet coach to silence crtics who previoulsy marked her artistic presentation as robotic and unemotional.

Marina: We speak about what emotions she to feel because I like her to imagine the story she is dancing so the chracter and dancer would become the same thing.

Tara: You know the different, like you're a different person on the ice you try to especially what charcter you are trying to potray you have to do that and you have to have the whole package when you're out there and when you get off the ice you be normal.

Marina: Even in the year and a hlaf that I have been working with her I can really feel the difference it's like a different person in front of me.

Brent: It's seemed the judges recognized her transformation winner of the recent Champion Series Final Tara received four 5.9's for artistic presentation. Tara has grown up quickly with tv apperances, tours, and even her own autobiography it's hard to believe this is a normal life for a 15 year old. On the ice Tara has proved that nothing will detour her plan the one she shares with her mother. Off the ice maturity has come from seeing the harsh realities of a life you don't plan. Before competitions Tara and her mother visit ill children. They their first visit a year ago prior to the Nationals in Nashville.

Pat: Tara met a little boy their that was terminally ill and when she came into the room he was explaining about how he was happy to see her but he was having a bad day.

Tara: Before that I was having a bady day and I just realized that it's not a bad day and how lucky I am to everything I do.

Brent: National and World title's, fortune, fame all by the age of 15. Everything was going according to Tara's plan until her disastorous short program Thrusday. The question tonight is what happens when the plan doesn't work.

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