When Scott Hamilton was six weeks old, he was a sickly baby but lucky enough to be adopted by professors Dorothy and Ernest Hamilton, who gave their all to help him get better. But thanks to misdiagnoses, he spent most of his time in hospitals. At one point the Hamiltons were told he likely only had six months to live.
While his parents wouldn’t give up on their son, they were “exhausted and burned out” until a doctor at Boston’s Children’s Hospital told them “to remove Hamilton from all restrictive diets and let him live a normal life.”
That new direction resulted in the little fellow actually playing with other kids and taking up other child-oriented activities, like ice skating at a rink at nearby Bowling Green University.
It was a turning point and a life-changing experience because Scott didn’t just ice skate, he excelled at it. Once again his parents were there for him and encouraged his efforts with trainers and competitive programs. But then it all looked for naught when, at the age of 16, Scott’s skate training was in jeopardy. The family funds were needed to help his mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. In what he thought was his final year, he won the Junior National Title and came to the attention of a couple who agreed to sponsor him. Unfortunately, it resulted in his placing ninth at the national championships with a disastrous performance that was the last one his mother would see. She died four months later in 1972.
Her death inspired Scott to work harder, resulting in his becoming fifth in the world. To achieve the top spot he had to nail skating “figures.” His answer was to not just work on perfecting figures, he “learned to love figures.”
In 1984 he showed that all that work would have made his mother proud when he became only the fourth American man to win Olympic gold in Figure skating.
But his story of overcoming challenges didn’t end at the Sarajevo Olympics or winning 70 titles, awards and honors including an Emmy Award nomination.
Despite his status as a world renowned athlete, his body continued to face health challenges, including overcoming Stage 4 testicular cancer in 1997 and battling brain tumors in 2004, 2010 and 2016.
As Scott told “People” in 2016, “I have a unique hobby of collecting life-threatening illness…I’ll tell anybody that will listen: If you’re ever facing anything, get as many opinions as you possibly can. The more you truly understand what you’re up against, the better decision you’re going to make.”
He added, “I’ve been blessed beyond my wildest imagination; I would never even think to dream the stuff that I’ve been able to do. Last round, in 2010, I told Tracie [his wife], ‘God doesn’t owe me a day. I’m good. Whatever’s next is next.’ The blessings keep coming because we allow them and we ask for them.”
Besides raising four children (three biological and one adopted from Haiti) with Tracie, creating the Scott Hamilton CARES (Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship) Foundation, serving as a television commentator and writing “Finish First,” “The Great Eight” and a children’s book, “Fritzy Finds a Hat” (illustrated by Brad Paisley), Scott will be the keynote speaker at HHM Health’s “2023 Healing Hands Luncheon.” It’s being co-chaired by Julia Sands Cunningham and Shannon Graham with Honorary Chair Tucker Enthoven at the Dallas Arts District Mansion on Friday, April 21.
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* Photo provided by HHM Health