Scott Hamilton Interview (page: 2 / 9) Olympic Hall of Fame	Print Interview

Was there a particular experience or event that inspired you most to achieve the level of success that you have?

Scott Hamilton: The most important thing for my skating was the commitment I made after my mother passed away. She had done so many things for me throughout her life. She was a second grade school teacher, but she needed to make more money to keep me in skating, because it was very expensive. So she went back to school, and she was still working full time. She went back to school, she got her Masters and became an associate professor. And all that time she was suffering from cancer, with surgery and chemotherapy and radiation. It was pretty devastating physically and emotionally. Your life is being threatened, but at the same time you're looking ahead to the next job, to the next level of income.

She was a counselor in marriage and family relations, which meant that she had to face her illness own every day while she was counseling other people about their problems. She stayed focused and held the family together at home as well. She was the strongest person I've ever known.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When she (my mother) passed away, I kind of understood the commitment that she made to make sure that I could stay in skating and I wanted to live up to whatever I could. Not so much win everything, but just to be the best that I could possibly be, to honor her memory and everything she went through to make sure that I was given the opportunities to be the best that I can be. Not to be a world champion or an Olympic gold medalist, but to be the best that I could be. And that was the most important thing that ever happened in my career.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

Then I decided I was going to take it seriously. Before then I was just improving, and working hard, and doing the best that I could do, but there was no force behind it. It was just something I did.

Would you say your mother most inspired you?

Scott Hamilton: Absolutely. If you believe in the spirituality of a life force that is constant and forever, I think I absorbed a lot of her strength and a lot of her passion to hold it together and to fight through whatever obstacles lay in front of me. I always admired her strength and I always admired her courage. 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. And if you make any mistakes, you're dead. So I really feel like a lot of the qualities my mother had, and a lot of what she showed us with commitment, and integrity, and perseverance, I absorbed when she passed away. It gave me what I needed to be successful in figure skating.

What goes through your mind when you're out there on the ice, do you think of her?

Scott Hamilton: Sometimes. Every performance is different. Sometimes you're thinking, "Whoa, I've got this one stuck. This is great. I'm in the groove." And other times you think, "Uh oh, I don't feel right out here tonight. Who changed my skates? These are definitely not my blades." Other times, you'll make a mistake and you'll try not to panic through the rest of the performance. Other times you'll notice somebody in the audience that is doing something, and you're distracted. Every performance is different, so it makes each one special and unique. There's always a spontaneity. A lot of times you're skating for people that are complete strangers, but they're giving you this warmth and this acceptance, just by the look on their faces and the way that they're sitting while they're watching, that really makes you feel comfortable.

How did you feel when you began winning adult championships?

Scott Hamilton: When I won my first national title I was so excited, because that was something I understood. I knew who I was competing against, and I knew what I had to do to win.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I won World's, I was devastated. I thought, "I'm a world champion? What's wrong with this sport?" "If I can win the World's, this is like a bad time for figure skating." And then I tried to live up to the expectations or my image of what a world figure skating championship should be and it drove me crazy. I never could live up to the image that I had preceeding my world championship. I could never! Those are for other people, those are for the great skaters of the past like Dick Button, and Hayes Jenkins, and Davey Jenkins. Those are world champions. I'm -- you know -- this short jerk from Ohio. What am I doing winning world championships?

It was devastating, because it brought the whole notion of world champion down in my mind. It took me a long time to get used to the fact that now is my time. I'm not Dick Buttons, I'm not Hayes Jenkins, I'm not Tim Wood, I'm not Charlie Tigner, I'm not Robin Cousins. I'm different. This is my time. and I've got a responsibility to myself. If I have an opportunity to win a competition, then I'm going to win it, regardless of what it's called. Whether it's Skate America, or Skate Canada, or the U.S. Nationals, if I'm there to compete and I am in a position where I can win, then it's my responsibility to win.

So the second year, when I defended the World Championship in '82, it became a very understandable, acceptable thing for me. Then when I won it in '83 and '84, I was comfortable in that role. Going to the Olympics as "the lock" was a little bit of a mind game too. 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.

What I did was ask myself "What am I worried about? I've worked four years to be in a position where people are going to think that I could win this thing. Why do I want to talk them out of it?" Half of figure skating is opinion, convincing judges. If the judges are willing to give me the mark before I even show up, then it was worth all the effort of trying to win consistently for those four years.

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