Tara Lipinski Talks Executive Producing Peacock Docuseries ‘Meddling’, Career

Tara Lipinski knows pressure. In 1998 she became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in the history of figure skating at age 15. Shortly after she was keeping up with her heroes Scott Hamilton and Kristi Yamaguchi in the Stars on Ice tour, and now she’s a beloved Olympic broadcaster channeling unrivaled on-air chemistry with two-time Olympian Johnny Weir.

The Philadelphia native is behind the camera and away from the spotlight for a change with her latest project, Peacock’s mesmerizing new four-part docuseries Meddling. Lipinski used her expertise to help tell the story of a skating pair that rose to the pressure of the world’s largest stage, putting forth an impeccable performance, but was seemingly robbed from reaping their rightful rewards.

Meddling uniquely takes a deep dive into the 2002 Winter Olympics’ pairs figure skating scandal and alleged fix involving the Russian and Canadian teams. Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze took home gold for the Russians at the event, leading much of the world to cry foul for Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, the Canadians.

Lipinski executive produced the docuseries with her husband Todd Kapostasy, who also directed Meddling, as well as Dennis Rodman’s 2019 30 for 30: “Rodman: For Better or Worse”.

Being married to a successful documentary director and producer certainly helped Tara take on the new venture, but she was also able to draw from creativity that was cultivated during her skating career.

“My husband does this for a living and this was my first time executive producing on a doc and obviously I feel I grew up this world,” Lipinski told Forbes via Zoom. “By 12 years old I was in front of a camera, and the entertainment industry has always come second nature to me.

“I think especially when it comes to creative decisions, when I toured on Stars on Ice, just building a show together with the company and learning and building my resume that way, but obviously this was a huge next step and it was my husband who really has all the experience.”

She quickly learned what it takes behind the scenes to tell a compelling story onscreen.

“You need so much to fill a four-part series and there were so many moving parts, so many different characters that at the end of the day now, I can just breathe easy,” Lipinksi said. “I feel like for the last year it was either me stressing out about how to get a certain skater to participate or find the French judge, or how are we going to get the Russian mobster part of this? And then footage. Just hours and hours of going through the database finding little bits and pieces that will tell this story the way it needs to be told.”

The docuseries succeeds in revealing a very corrupt system in regards to skating judges at the time. Without giving too much away, in Meddling it’s alleged the French judge —— who was basically the swing vote —— admitted to helping fix the contest for a Russian victory.

In her interview 20 years later for the documentary, the judge –– Marie-Reine Le Gougne –– claims she cast her vote for the Russians over the Canadians because the mistake on their double axel many thought should have cost Russia the gold, wasn’t as big a factor as the Canadians skating with the same program a couple years in a row.

Tara weighed in on which element should have impacted the voting more.

“So I think that skating with the same program, especially back in the day, it happens very often now,” Lipinski said. “Nathan Chen will actually come back with the same program at this upcoming Olympics. Times have changed in that regard with repeating a program, but at the time it was a little unique to do that [back then].

“But I think that making a technical mistake is clearly the bigger issue at hand. Obviously you still have skating fans, true skating fans that say the Russians still had it above the Canadians because if you put aside that small mistake they had more speed or they had more difficulty throughout their choreography and that would have added up anyway to a higher score.

“It will be the great debate that goes down in pair skating history for many, many years. The one thing I will say, is that I’ve watched these programs so many times now over these past [several] years and there is something about an Olympic performance that draws fans in, and that is you skate to win, you don’t skate to lose and it always happens. There’s always that one skater that will just pull it out and it’s what people love because there’s so much pressure on these athletes.

“How are they able to go out under that immense amount of pressure and skate with such freedom and joy? And that is what you look for in an Olympic-winning program. I think the Canadians were relaxed and they delivered exactly that and I think it wasn’t rewarded on that night.”

Looking back at her own skating career, Tara seems as content with where she is now as an Olympic broadcaster, with the ability to take on new projects, as she was with winning gold in ‘98.

“I retired on my own terms, I wasn’t injured or anything, I just lived in a time where there was so much opportunity in skating,” Lipinski said. “As a young girl, I looked up to Scott Hamilton in Stars on Ice and again, I think that’s what led me into the entertainment part and aspect of this sport that I love so much, which is the performing for crowds and entertaining, but that was my dream.

“I knew if I won an Olympic gold medal maybe I’d be able to go on tour with Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton. That decision at 15 was really easy.

“If I [participated] in skating now, where there’s not that much opportunity, there’s no way would have left. I would have probably been competing until the end of time because I still needed that next goal, but I got that with Stars on Ice.

“I will say though, what was really nice, and I toured for many years, but I woke up one day and said, ‘Okay, I’m going to take a break. Maybe a year or two and I’ll come back.’ I think during those two years, there was something really nice. I was still young enough to figure out what I wanted as my second chapter, of course I could have gone on and skated until I was 40 if I wanted to but that definitely has never been my way.

“I always feel like I need more, I need a bigger goal to try to achieve and I’m thankful that I took that time to see and explore what possibly could be my next chapter because I found commentating, and that’s not something that you should just walk into. Broadcasters and analysts sit in those booths for 20-plus years.

“I remember when I took that on, I thought, ‘Am I making the right decision here? This may not happen.’ I went on that journey and it started over a decade ago for me and I’m glad that I have this diversity in my career.”

Episode four of Meddling is now streaming on Peacock.