Scott Hamilton
Scott Hamilton
Scott Scovell Hamiltonis a retired American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist. He won four consecutive U.S. championships, four consecutive World Championshipsand a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. His signature move is a backflip, a feat that few other figure skaters could perform and is against USFSA and Olympic competition rules, but which he would include in his exhibition routines to please the crowd...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFigure Skater
Date of Birth28 August 1958
CityToledo, OH
CountryUnited States of America
There's more to sports than just being big and strong and quick.
I don't care how many of these things I can inject into my body, am I going to be able to compete with Shaquille O'Neal on the basketball court? No. Or would he be able to compete with me on the skating surface? No. So there's a lot to just basic genetics, body style, physical stature, and then the mental capability, too. There's more to sports than just being big and strong and quick.
I was more interested in skating and the girls and traveling than I was in calculus.
I just try to touch people's hearts in a way through skating, so they're not just witnessing a performance, they're feeling a performance and they're a part of it.
From the fall of October, 1980 to March, 1984 I never lost a competition.
And so figure skating was a great vehicle for me to kind of be competitive at something, without having to be big.
Refined indifference is a sports psychology precept: train like there's no tomorrow and then accept whatever happens. Once you step on the field realize that whatever is meant to be is meant to be.
When you're expected to win and you have the press saying that you are going to win the Olympic gold medal, and you're the only sure thing in the Olympics, it can undermine your confidence.
That's what makes the Ryder Cup in golf so much better than the Masters or the U.S. Open. To be a part of something that is not about personal achievement, but about representing everyone and sharing it with the whole country, it's wonderful.
So as an amateur Olympic competitor I loved criticism, because it made me better. But now as a professional I don't really know how to channel it or where to take it, so I don't take it quite as well.
I started skating and I kind of liked it because I could run circles around the guys that wouldn't pick me to play baseball.
What was really funny is that as I got older all those guys who called me a sissy in junior high school wanted me to be their best friend because they wanted to meet all the girls that I knew in figure skating.
Male figure skating is different than female figure skating; we're not America's sweetheart.
Without strength and courage it's really hard to perform at the highest levels of international figure skating, because you're alone on the ice and you only have seven minutes over two nights to prove yourself.