Scott Hamilton (figure skater)

Scott Hamilton
Full name	Scott Scovell Hamilton
nation	United States
birthday	August 28, 1958
place of birth	Toledo, Ohio
Career
discipline	Single run
society	Philadelphia SC & HS
Trainer	Donald Laws , Carlo Fassi , Pierre Brunet
End of career	1984
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 4 × 0 × 0 ×
winter Olympics gold Sarajevo 1984 Men's  World figure skating championships gold Hartford 1981 Men's gold Copenhagen 1982 Men's gold Helsinki 1983 Men's gold Ottawa 1984 Men's

Scott Scovell Hamilton (born August 28, 1958 in Toledo , Ohio ) is a former American figure skater who started in a single run . He is the Olympic champion from 1984 and the world champion from 1981 to 1984 .

Career

Scott Hamilton was adopted by teacher couple Dorothy and Ernest Hamilton at the age of six weeks and raised in Bowling Green , Ohio . He has two siblings who have also been adopted. When Hamilton was two years old, he developed a mysterious illness that stunted his growth. After numerous tests and false diagnoses (including being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and giving him half a year to live) the disease began to recede. His pediatrician referred him to Boston to see Dr. Harry Shwachman. It is unclear whether he was diagnosed with Shwachman-Bodian-Diamond Syndrome . A special diet and special exercises are said to have helped to get the disease under control. Nevertheless, Hamilton was only 1.60 m tall and weighed just under 50 kg at the height of his career.

Athletic career

At the age of 13 he started figure skating training with Pierre Brunet , the former two-time Olympic champion in pair skating . In 1976 he almost had to give up training because he could not afford the costs for it and for his studies. Only with the financial support of Helen and Frank McLoraine was he able to continue training.

In 1980 Hamilton was third in the US Championships, which secured him a place on the American team for the Olympic Games . At his first Olympic Games, where he also had the honor of carrying the flag for the United States at the opening ceremony, he immediately finished fifth. His big breakthrough came in 1981 at the national championships. He was flawless and earned a standing ovation before the end of his performance . From then on, Scott Hamilton never lost a competition and became the dominant figure skater of the first half of the 1980s. In 1981 in Hartford , he became world champion for the first time, winning ahead of compatriot David Santee . At the 1982 World Cup in Copenhagen he defended his title, this time in front of Norbert Schramm . He also beat him in his third win in a row, at the 1983 World Cup in Helsinki . He was the favorite for the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo and, as expected, won Olympic gold ahead of Brian Orser . He then won the last of his four world championship titles in a row before the Canadian in Ottawa .

Hamilton's figure skating style was shaped by the great athleticism and speed of his presentation. He always jumped his triple jumps safely, high and with the highest torque. The short athlete with the high forehead always showed a lot of humor in the show.

After the sporting career

After retiring from his career, Hamilton toured with "Ice Capades" for two years. He then founded "Scott Hamilton's American Tour", which was later renamed "Stars on Ice". He worked there until 2001 and occasionally comes back for guest appearances.

Hamilton has received numerous honors, and in 1990 he was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.

He has been a commentator on figure skating for CBS since 1985 and has also worked for NBC . In 2006 he hosted the show "Skating with Celebrities" on FOX . In 2008, Hamilton made a guest appearance in the Nickelodeon children's series Cosmo and Wanda - When Elves Help in the episode "The Fairly Oddlymipics". There he was used both as a cartoon character and as an actor.

Even after his sporting career, Hamilton met private strokes of fate. In 1997 he developed testicular cancer . His fight against the disease was covered by the media. After the treatment he came back and continued to run in Stars on Ice. On November 12, 2004 it was announced that Hamilton had a benign brain tumor and was treated in Cleveland . On June 23, 2010, in order not to go blind, he underwent another operation to remove the recurrent benign tumor that was discovered in 2004. On June 25th, he announced that he was feeling fine and would now recover.

Hamilton is committed to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, a children's hospital in Memphis, and is an honorary member of the Myeloma Research Foundation, which works for the treatment of multiple myeloma .

On November 14, 2002, he married the nutritionist Tracie Robinson. With her he has two sons: Aidan McIntosh Hamilton (* 2003) and Maxx Hamilton (* 2008). The family lives in Franklin , Tennessee and is a member of the Churches of Christ .

In 2009, Hamilton wrote the book "The Great Eight" describing how he cope with the many challenges and disappointments in his life.

Results

Competition / year	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984
winter Olympics			5.				1.
World championships	11.		5.	1.	1.	1.	1.
American championships	3.	4th	3.	1.	1.	1.	1.

Fonts

• with Lorenzo Benet: Landing It: My Life On And Off The Ice. Autobiography. 1999, ISBN 1-57566-466-6 .

Web links

• Scott Hamilton in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Scott Hamilton in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20396952,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines
2. ↑ MMRF Honorary Board ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2010 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Ice Skater Scott Hamilton & His Wife Have a Boy - Babies, Scott Hamilton: People.com
4. ↑ Gold medal skater Hamilton puts focus on God, other fundamentals ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.