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
I was nine-years-old when I first put on skates.
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.
I graduated a the top of my class in the '84 Olympic Games; I won a gold medal.
Half of figure skating is opinion, convincing judges.
From the fall of October, 1980 to March, 1984 I never lost a competition.
And the fact that I liked to show off and be the center of attention really lends itself to figure skating very well.
And so figure skating was a great vehicle for me to kind of be competitive at something, without having to be big.
But I never really thought that I would be extraordinarily successful at skating, it's just something that happened, you know.
I'm very accessible. I don't get into this ego thing.
When you turn professional, you become an entertainer, and like every other entertainer, you don't want to get a bad review.
Rationality is not one of this industry's attributes.
The Olympics in '80 was phenomenal. It was my favorite memory of all competitive events, because it was brand new and it was exciting.
A bad attitude is the only true handicap.