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SCOTT HAMILTON
Olympic Ice Skating Legend
Clearly one of the most sought after keynote speakers and most popular figure skating stars in the world today, Scott Hamilton is also a role model, a humanitarian, and a cancer survivor. As a public speaker, he exudes enthusiasm and inspiration. As a figure skater, he is forever bridging the gap between sport and entertainment. As a role model, he contradicts the saying that "good guys finish last." As a humanitarian, he avails himself to any plight that will improve mankind. But, more important, as a cancer survivor Scott Hamilton is a constant reminder that with fortitude and determination, anything is possible. Scott's much publicized bout with testicular cancer in 1997, and his November, 2004 diagnosis of a benign, non-cancerous pituitary brain tumor, from which Scott Hamilton is successfully recovering, has touched him with a special insight into life and the human condition.
During the last five years, Scott Hamilton has inspired audiences at various events throughout the country, speaking to a wide variety of groups and organizations about his life, and overcoming cancer. Never ceasing to impress, his clarity about living the life he's been given, has inspired thousands upon thousands of people at numerous engagements for such organizations as Hilton Hotels, Healthcare Management Systems, Elekta, Inc., the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Liberty Mutual, the Toledo Children's Hospital, the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, St. Vincent Oncology Center, the Multiple Myeloma Foundation, Robert Wood Johnston University, the University of Chicago Hospital, the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists, and the (2003) Twenty-Eighth Annual Congress of Oncology Nurses at the Denver Convention Center, to name but a few.
Scott Hamilton is an avid participant in a wide variety of charitable events, and serves as an official spokesperson for Target House at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as his own Scott Hamilton C.A.R.E.S. Initiative (Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship) at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Additionally, he promotes his Foundation's web site Chemocare.com and serves on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics.
Adversity has motivated and strengthened Scott Hamilton's outlook on life. It has created and molded his courageous character. Six weeks after his birth on August 28, 1958, Scott was adopted by Ernest and Dorothy Hamilton, both professors at Bowling Green State University. When Scott was about two, he contracted a mysterious illness that caused him to stop growing. For the next six years, doctors prescribed a variety of unsuccessful treatments. After his illness was mistakenly diagnosed as cystic fibrosis and he was given six months to live, the Hamiltons took their son to Boston's Children's Hospital where his ailment began to correct itself by special diet and moderate exercise. From the beginning, Scott Hamilton skated with great confidence and uncommon speed. He began taking formal lessons, joined a hockey team and within a year, his illness disappeared and he began growing again although he would always be considerably smaller than his peers. His miraculous recovery was attributed to the effects of intense physical activity in the cold atmosphere of the rink.
At thirteen Scott Hamilton began training with Pierre Brunet, a former Olympic gold medal winner and, despite steady progress, abruptly quit competitive skating in 1976 due to financial struggles and enrolled at Bowling Green. But before he began classes, an anonymous couple who had supported other Olympic hopefuls volunteered to sponsor Scott. He immediately resumed training.
Over the next several years, Scott Hamilton continued dedication paid off. By 1980 he was good enough to capture third place in national competition and win a berth on the U.S. Olympic squad. In addition, he earned a solid fifth place finish at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. Then in March of 1981, Scott Hamilton's dazzling free skate program at the World Championships enabled him to win the title and become only the second American to do so since 1970. Later that same year, he took an individual Gold medal at the first Skate America tournament and was voted Male Athlete of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee.
Scott Hamilton held onto his National and World titles in 1982 and 1983. As the winner of sixteen consecutive championships after the 1980 Winter Olympics, he was heavily favored to take the Gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo and that is precisely what he did. A month later, Scott Hamiltonwent on to score a stunning victory at the World Championships in Ottawa, Canada. In April of 1984, Scott turned professional after being inundated with lucrative contracts from the major ice shows. The Ice Capades secured his superstar talents for two years.
Since 1986, audiences have seen Scott Hamilton perform in his own Scott Hamilton's America Tour; with numerous U.S. symphony orchestras; and 15 national touring seasons in Stars On Ice which he also co created and for which he served as co producer until his retirement from the tour in April 2001. Scott Hamilton's October, 1997 comeback to skating, preceded by a People Magazine cover story profiling his courageous battle against cancer, and Maria Shriver's highly rated profile of Scott for NBC's Dateline, was capped by the live CBS Television Network Special Scott Hamilton: Back on the Ice. By all counts, the event was one of the most emotional and riveting evenings of the year.
In addition to producing ice specials for television, ice spectacles (including Stars on Ice which he still co-produces), Scott Hamilton also co-produced the highly acclaimed off-Broadway production Now Hear This!
In July of 1990, to add to a remarkable list of achievements which now includes over 70 titles, awards and honors, Scott was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and also became a privileged member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. His career has since been published in Marquis' Who's Who In America and Who's Who In Entertainment. In October, 1999, Scott received critical praise for writing his best-selling autobiography Landing It: My Life On and Off the Ice (Kensington Books).
During a fourteen-year tenure with the CBS Television Network as one of their most articulate sports analysts, Scott Hamilton's coverage of the figure skating competition at the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympic Games were heralded as an incisive, exuberant and refreshing. Similar accolades were bestowed upon Scott for his NBC Television Network commentating and coverage of figure skating at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Scott Hamilton also co-hosted the NBC-produced show titled Olympic Ice which aired daily on the USA Network during the 2006 Winter Games. Simultaneously, he hosted the prominently successful Fox Television Network prime time Variety/Reality show, Skating with Celebrities between January and March, 2006.
On December 14, 2002, Scott Hamilton married former nutritionist Tracie Robinson. On September 16, 2003, she gave birth to their first child, Aidan McIntosh Hamilton.
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