After what sports writer E.M. Swift called a "whirlwind coaching tour", when Lipinski and her mother interviewed and Lipinski took sample lessons from figure skating coaches around the country, they hired Richard Callaghan. In January 1996, Lipinski won a bronze medal as a senior-level skater at the 1996 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She closed out the 1995–1996 season and gained international attention by qualifying for the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships. In what figure skating historian James Hines called "a disappointing first outing", she placed 22nd after the short program, but her long program, which included seven triple jumps and which "Sports Illustrated" called "sparkling", brought her up to 15th place.