The Real Reason Ice Capades Fired Scott Hamilton

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Sage Steele Show

Episode: The Real Reason Ice Capades Fired Scott Hamilton

Date: July 16, 2026
Host: Sage Steele
Guest: Scott Hamilton

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Episode Overview

In this deeply personal and wide-ranging episode, Sage Steele sits down with Olympic gold medalist, cancer survivor, and ice skating icon Scott Hamilton. Together, they explore not just the story of how Hamilton was dismissed from the Ice Capades and went on to revolutionize the world of professional skating, but also his lifelong health struggles, adoption, cancer battles, family, faith, and building resilience through both loss and triumph. The conversation is candid, humorous, and rich in reflections on purpose, perspective, and legacy.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Health Challenges and Adoption

• Scott recounts a mysterious illness as a young child that stunted his growth ([01:15]-[13:26]). After years of inconclusive tests, Dr. Schwachman at Boston Children’s told his parents to “just live a normal life and see what happens”—a turning point that led Scott to discover skating.
• "For the first time in my life, I had self esteem because I was always the smallest, weakest, sickest, whatever you want to put before 'est,'" (Scott Hamilton, [15:08]).

2. Journey to Olympic Gold and Professional Transitions

• Discussion about the strict amateur rules of the 1980s and the lack of financial opportunities after the Olympics ([17:39]).
• After winning Olympic gold, Scott joined Ice Capades and found financial stability, only to be dismissed due to new ownership's preference for "women stars only" ([18:36]-[20:13]).
• Quote: “Has anyone ever, ever in your life put their arm around you and started walking and it was good? Not once.” (Scott Hamilton, [19:08])

3. Firing from Ice Capades and Birth of Stars on Ice

• Key Moment ([20:13]): Ice Capades lets Scott go, citing sexism and traditionalism. This disappointment became a blessing when he was invited to help create a new tour, Stars on Ice.
• “Do you want to help us build a new skating tour? ...Let me check my calendar. Are you kidding me? Yes.” (Scott Hamilton, [21:12])

4. Building an Entertainment Legacy

• Early mishaps, including a fire during the first Stars on Ice show ([22:49]), and how the show later became a sold-out phenomenon with superstar skaters joining.
• On audience focus: “If I can win that guy over, if I can get that guy on his feet, I can skate forever.” (Scott Hamilton, [35:09])
• On his philosophy, influenced by musicians like Springsteen and Neil Diamond ([39:20]).

5. Health Struggles, Cancer, and Resilience

• Scott’s diagnosis and battle with stage three testicular cancer, then later a brain tumor, and his mother’s battle with cancer ([42:11]-[48:01]).
• The role of humor and positivity in enduring chemotherapy:
  • “No one was allowed in my room unless they made me laugh.” (Scott Hamilton, [48:01])
  • “Courage is only fear that’s said its prayers. Courage cannot exist without fear.” (Scott Hamilton, [44:00])
• The importance of accepting support, faith, and the lessons learned from his mother’s resilience ([51:24]).

6. Revelations About His Lifelong Condition

• The brain tumor was revealed to be a craniopharyngioma he’d had since birth, the very cause of his childhood growth issues ([66:33]-[67:41]).

7. Family, Faith, and Adoption

• Deep dive into Scott’s family life: two birth children and two adopted children from Haiti. Reflections on the challenges and joys of multicultural, adoptive family life ([72:03]-[78:28]).
• On embracing adoption: “I couldn’t be hypocritical… the chance you were given.” (Scott Hamilton, [77:54])
• Tracy Hamilton’s missionary work in Haiti and its impact on them as a family ([74:03]).

8. Societal Reflections: Race, Bullying, and Kindness

• Racial realities for his adopted children and the difficult but necessary conversations he’s had as a father ([79:43]-[83:06]).
• On bullying, online criticism, and cultivating resilience: "There’s only two kinds of criticism: opinion and fact… if it’s just their preference, delete. Done." (Scott Hamilton, [94:16])

9. Legacy, Meaning, and Advice

• On legacy and preparing children for life: "Each grain [in an hourglass] is a day... when the sand runs out, next is next." (Scott Hamilton, [97:45])
• On using life’s challenges for growth: “Life happens that you hope to learn from it, be strengthened by it, and... try to be a good human and help other people get through it.” (Scott Hamilton, [101:41])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On perspective after surviving cancer:
  “Do you know when you know you’ve truly survived cancer? ...When you get upset in traffic, because you’re back to sweating the small stuff.” (Scott Hamilton, [03:48])
• On handling adversity:
  “Courage is only fear that’s said its prayers.” (Diane Cannon via Scott Hamilton, [44:00])
• On letting go and legacy:
  “My intention was to leave a piece of my heart... and now it’s time for them to figure out who’s going to lead.” (Scott Hamilton, [37:36])
• On criticism and social media:
  “It takes some ingenuity to insult somebody on the internet. And some of it's really creative, and it means nothing.” (Scott Hamilton, [90:49])
• On life’s brevity and purpose:
  “We have sand, we want more sand. ...The only reason we’re here is to perpetuate the species and allow them to go— as we hope—good humans to do great work and to bless the world in some unique way.” (Scott Hamilton, [97:45])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Early health journey — [01:15]–[15:08]
• 1984 Olympics and pro transition — [17:04]–[20:13]
• Being fired and starting Stars on Ice — [20:13]–[24:28]
• Stars on Ice growth & philosophy — [24:28]–[40:19]
• Cancer & humor in adversity — [42:11]–[48:00]
• Mother’s wisdom & resilience — [51:24]–[54:46]
• Brain tumor diagnosis: revelation — [66:33]–[67:41]
• Building a family & adoption — [72:03]–[78:28]
• Race, society, and parenting — [79:43]–[83:06]
• Legacy & life lessons — [97:45]–[101:41]

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, honest, and warm, interwoven with humor and faith.
• Both host and guest are candid, reflective, and unafraid to examine pain and joy alike.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode is a tapestry of hard-won wisdom, undaunted optimism, and the enduring value of self-reinvention. Scott Hamilton’s journey from medical mystery to Olympic champion, from rejection to industry-shaping pioneer, is framed not by triumph or defeat, but by the philosophy of service, gratitude, and the joy of living each day fully—no matter how many grains of sand are left in the glass. Anyone facing life's unexpected turns will find inspiration and practical advice for carrying on, building family, and leaving a meaningful legacy.

Transcript

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[Scott Hamilton]

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[Scott Hamilton]

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[Interviewer]

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[Scott Hamilton]

See terms I was growing, but I was going to be undersized, you know, for sure. And then I stopped growing altogether. For the next four years I was in and out of hospitals trying to figure out why I wasn't growing or developing and no one could figure out what was going on. Dr. Schw looking after me himself. I can't treat something I can't identify, so I'm going to send you home with some advice. Just live a normal life and see what happens. Scotty Hamilton, three time world champion, started skating. Symptoms went away. I started growing again. Miraculously. Everything was incredible and for the first time in my life I had self esteem. Pausing for effect. She goes, what's going on? I go, I have a brain tumor. And she didn't hesitate. She just took both my hands and she started praying. And I realized, oh, that's what you do when you're up against it. I lost my mom to cancer and I'm thinking, all of a sudden I'm going to suffer. I'm going to diminish And I'm going to die, and I'll never skate again.

[Interviewer]

How was 1984? 42 years ago.

[Scott Hamilton]

Well, you like this. You do that a lot. And time passes, you know.

[Interviewer]

I don't like it.

[Scott Hamilton]

Oh, you know what? Slow down. There's a couple things. It's like, I went up to Dick Button one time, and we were at a comp. We were all at this event where the Olympic years, they would bring back all the past champions. Yeah. And he'd lost some weight, and he was looking really. You know, he'd had so many health issues, you know, and so many. He had traumatic brain injury. He had all these different things going on. And I saw him. I go, dick, you look great. And he goes, thanks a lot. And I go, what did I. Wait, wait, what did I just say? And he said, there's only three phases of life. And I go, what are they? And they go, youth, middle age. And you look great. I go, okay, I'm in that you look great phase right now. That hurts.

[Interviewer]

And, you know, they always say it's a privilege to grow old.

[Scott Hamilton]

It is.

[Interviewer]

And I believe it. It doesn't mean I'm not going to fight it. Not fight. Like with surgery. Like, never. Mark my words, husband, never. But more just with. Okay, how do we prolong this thing as long as we can and be healthy? Like, now we know so much more. We actually don't have many excuses. There's certain things we can't control. Right. But at the end of the day, I love life. I have so much left to do. And we want to see, you know, our kids have. Have kids and go through that whole process, but you look great. Scott Hamilton, thanks a lot.

[Scott Hamilton]

Again, it's just, you know, it's funny because without having that full experience of, you know, life at its best and life at its worst, then you really don't value it as much. You know, I always tell people, especially those that have survived cancer, I go, do you know when you know you've truly survived cancer? And they're like, how? And I go, when you get upset in traffic, it's like, wow, because you're back to sweating the small stuff, you know? And so that's it. I said, you know, you get through something like that, and you go, all right, this isn't important. It's because I have something to compare it to. But there are so many that don't have those types of things to compare to, so they get caught up in the moment, you know, And I think that so many of my Health challenges have really given me such perspective, and it's been an extraordinary blessing in its way, because I don't get worked up over a lot of things. I get worked up when there's. I don't like bullies. I get worked up when there's, you know, things that I've worked really hard to create and they start to get, you know, torn down. Right. So that. That's where I kind of go, oh, it's not fair. Like, if there. There's anything that's not fair that upsets me.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

But other than that, like, I can deal with just about everything, it seems. And I think my kids would tell you that I don't. I'm not the yeller, the screamer, the threatener. I'm kind of like the here's the why guy. You know, here's. Here's why. Here's why I'm telling you this. Here's why. I think it's important, and it's mutual respect.

[Interviewer]

So when was the last time you got upset in traffic?

[Scott Hamilton]

I can't remember.

[Interviewer]

Got long?

[Scott Hamilton]

I don't know. It may not be that long. I just purged it from my memory. But it was just one of those things where. I don't know. I don't. And again, especially my kids, because they're kind of like the ones that would probably be the one to kind of see all phases or see every facet of my kind of dysfunction. But I would say mostly I'm pretty calm. Even if there's a storm going on, I try to remain pretty calm.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, it's so funny. I woke up today, and Dave and I have a newer ritual. Don't touch your phone. Nothing until we do our, like, scripture reading and a prayer and, you know, stay two. So it's going well.

[Scott Hamilton]

Day two, literally. But moving into the house.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Yes, we are winning. And I prayed for peace with a very busy day of tapings and phone calls and all the things and that no matter what. And within about 45 minutes, I was really ticked off about something.

[Scott Hamilton]

Well, you're in the middle of a construction zone, so he walked through it and survived. Guess what? My wife and I have been married twice 24 years, and we've lived in six different houses. So, yeah, once you get. Once you get to a certain point, it's like, okay, I'm mad. Until the contractor says, oh, by the way, that'll be another X. And it's like, no, we. We said we wanted to do it for this, and now you've, like, gone four Times past that, it's like, no,

[Interviewer]

well, if you want electricity, it's another $10,000. We didn't talk about whether or not you wanted lights.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. One of my favorite stories ever was when we lived in California. I'm always trying to charm sort of our, you know, just. Just remain friendly and everything to the people that really make life happen. Right. Yeah. Homeowners association or whatever, you know, I'm always, you know, going in and visiting and just being, you know, because a lot of people just get on the phone, complain, whatever, and I'm going to go and just relax and sit. So when we're. We're doing this. This house, we got it when it was being framed, and then we just thought we could do it our way. We could add some things.

[Interviewer]

Right?

[Scott Hamilton]

So we. Customer service. We got to be really great with them. And. And another guy in that community said, I'm having the worst time with customer service. And it's like, what do you mean? He goes, I just. I can't get them to come over to my house and see things that I need fixed. And. And I. I said, well, let me. Want me to put in a word? And he goes, please. And so I called him up, but can you just go over to Peter's house and just check it out? And they go, he's been calling us a lot. And I go, just go over to his house and check it out. I think he's got a big problem. And they go, okay, we'll go. We'll do it this afternoon. So I. I felt like I did him a big favorite. So they go into the house, and they go, hey, Peter, what's going on? He goes, come into the kitchen. So they walk into the kitchen, and they go, looks great. What's wrong? And he goes, well, just turn on the lights, and you'll see. And they were looking around. Where are the light switches? He goes, they threw it up so fast that they stop.

[Interviewer]

That's insane.

[Scott Hamilton]

It was an ultimate perfect nightmare. So now what are we gonna do? Right? So it was. It's just that, I mean, when you're in construction.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

And you're doing renovation and.

[Interviewer]

But you're still trying to be normal.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. Have you ever just slum in the golfer?

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. So Jeff's the little guy. Yeah. Like me. So you see eye to eye on just about everything. But he had the best one ever. He said, here's what I did, because my general contractor. I was doing an addition on my house, and it was going to be done by the time the Western opens in Chicago. And I was going to have all the players open, their wives have a barbecue. And I said, can you get it done by the Western Open? He said, absolutely. He goes, punch list. And he goes, yeah. He goes, are you sure? And he goes, 100% guaranteed I'll have it all done. And he goes, okay. So the next thing he did was he called the general contractor's wife and he said, is there a place you've always wanted to go as a family, just on vacation? And she said, we've never been to Hawaii, and I've always wanted to go. And he goes, here's the deal. If your husband finishes the job and gets to the punch list by the time the Western Open is finished so I can have my barbecue. He has all these points and everything, and he has all these deals from his sponsors. He goes, I'll send you and your family over to Hawaii for a week on me. The next morning, the way Jet tells it, the next morning he gets a call from his contractor saying, what have you done? Can you imagine? His wife's on him like eight times a day. How's it going? Is it going?

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

Is it great? Is everything on time? Is anything missing? Is there? Because she didn't want to be disappointed. Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know, that's brilliant. I don't have that ability.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah, I know. Not many people do, but, you know, with all of his travel and all of his points and all of his hospitality. Yeah. No, it was like, how can I do something that doesn't cost me anything but gets me exactly what I wanted?

[Interviewer]

Yes. It's that or you threaten. And not in a violent way.

[Scott Hamilton]

No, no, no, of course. But how many times a day do they get threatened?

[Interviewer]

That's true. Not by Dave. Hasn't. They haven't faced Dave yet, though.

[Scott Hamilton]

I listen to Dave.

[Interviewer]

Exactly. Thank goodness. Our contractor is absolutely a spectacular human. And I don't know that I've met anyone more talented.

[Scott Hamilton]

Hopefully, they'll see this.

[Interviewer]

Yes, that's why I'm saying it. Although it'll be. I should have done it at the beginning. Right now. Now the whole thing's over. No, I.

[Scott Hamilton]

But I lost.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. My piece and. But here's the good thing. I caught. I caught myself. And maybe that's the power of prayer. It's probably just old age wisdom, slash experience of good and bad.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I don't think I fully appreciated how bad it has been for you at times with your. With your health. But, like, for so many years, Scott.

[Scott Hamilton]

No, I'M here. But, you know, each one of them, I look at them each as sort of an odd blessing, you know, So a lot of people know, a lot of people don't. My health history. So I was adopted at six weeks of age. And so with that comes a lot of mystery, right? With birth children, there's some sort of, you know, fascination, expectation of, oh, your eyes, his chin. You know, it's like. And, you know, and if you're. Let's say that you're a parent and you're an athlete or in sports, you expect your children to be interested in sports, right? Genetics, right. I used to teach my. That to my kids all the time. How did you get to be so smart? Genetics. They didn't know what it meant, but, you know, it's like, it was funny. And if you're in academia, you expect your children to be interested in school, right? Just because that's the way you. Of course, but when you're adopted, it's kind of like, okay, now what's going to happen? What do we do? So I was kind of let left up to my own devices that I was very small and I was growing, but I was going to be undersized, you know, for sure. And then I stopped growing altogether about age 4. And so for the next four years, I was in and out of hospitals trying to figure out why I wasn't growing or developing. And so it was all about that. It was like I. They were. I had pictures, like these Polaroid pictures where they were tracking my height and everything, but my legs were about this big around, and I had a distended belly because I wasn't able to. To digest my food properly. And no one could figure out what was going on. Mid-60s, right? Medicine back then was, you know, a little different. So we get all the way from Bowling Green, Ohio, to Toledo, Ohio, to University of Michigan to Boston Children's year after year after year. And we finally at Boston Children's, it's like, where do you go from Boston Children's, like, that's the best of the best.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And at every symptom of a disease called Schwachman diamond syndrome. And Dr. Schwachman, it's a celiac disease that prevents growth and development. Dr. Schwachman was looking after me himself. So it's like, best hands possible. At the end of that tenure, he sat us down and said, he doesn't have the disease. He has every symptom, but he doesn't have the disease. I can't treat something I can't Identify. So I'm going to send you home with some advice. Just live a normal life and see what happens. I mean there's so much of this is such a mystery that we don't know if he'll outgrow this or we don't know if this is just something weird that's going on. But just go home, live a normal life. And so went back home and we just started to try to live normally. By then it's four years later. My parents are both schoolteachers, right. So financially they were just at, you know, what are we going to do?

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Scott Hamilton]

Emotionally, physically, I mean they're, they're shot. And they adopted another little boy. I joke just in case, but he was adopted at the beginning of my health adventures. So it was just really wild. But looking back on that, you know, the first thing that I did when I got home was our family physician said there's a brand new facility at Bowling Green State University where they want to have a hockey team. And on Saturday mornings for four hours they teach children how to skate. My kids are in it. It's Safe, great environment, 100 plus kids are there. So I went and after a few weeks I could, I could skate as well as well kids. And then a few weeks more I could skate as well as the best athletes in my grade. This is what age I was about 8, 9.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And for the first time in my life I had self esteem because I was always the smallest, weakest, sickest, whatever you want to put before est, you know, that was kind of me. But yeah. So started skating, symptoms went away. I started growing again. Miraculously, everything was incredible. And then I became a skater and. But what going back to the health thing. So I went all the way up, won the Olympics, which there's a lot that happened before that. A lot of failure that really makes that seem impossible. And then I turned professional because I was 25 years old, living in my best friend's parents basement with no income at all. So it was time for me to get a job.

[Interviewer]

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[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah, it's different now. Now, right.

[Interviewer]

I think people now don't understand.

[Scott Hamilton]

No, there's sponsorship agreements, millions of dollars. Like if you don't make, you know, if you're like a leading athlete and you don't make at least half a million dollars going into the Olympic Games, you, you have the wrong representation. And then what goes on afterwards if you win is, you know, it's extraordinary, but short lived. It's not like it used to be. Like Dorothy Hamill, she won the Olympics in 1976. She went from being relatively unknown to being like massive superstar. Everybody had the haircut.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know, all those things. And she remembers getting, you know, telegrams at the time from all these celebrities, you know, congratulate, congratulating her. And it's like, you know, I was, you know, eight years later, so I was an extension of all those amateurism rules where you couldn't make money. Anything attached to your sport. Yeah, anything attached to any sport, you couldn't make money doing any of it. You know, like back on Way back, Jim Thorpe, you know, where he was probably one of the greatest all around athletes the country's ever produced. But he played semi pro baseball one summer and they deemed him ineligible. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, there's all these. But then after 84 Olympics, they saw things starting to generate commercially. So 88 Olympics, they had access to being able to make some money and it was put into trust funds which they had access to. Which is kind of like a workaround.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

But yeah, so I go from living

[Interviewer]

in your friend's basement.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

With the gold medal in your pocket,

[Scott Hamilton]

to joining the Ice Capades. And I did that for two years. I had a third year option and I just thought, this is incredible. I'm finally able to kind of support myself in a completely independent way. And I bought a little condo downtown Denver, which was awesome. It was perfect for me because I had access. I didn't cook or anything. I had access to all the restaurants and. And it was safe. And I could just shut the door and go on tour and not worry about it. And there was a lot of, you know, magical things back then. And then going into the third year of my Ice Capades tenure, I thought, you know, I never missed a show. I never missed a press call. The president of the company is here watching my last performance on my second year deal, and here's where he tells me I get my third year option, right? And he just. After the show, he just put his arm around me and we started walking. Has everyone ever, ever in your life put their arm around you and started walking and it was good? Not once. So he walks and he goes, hey, congratulations, man. You promised you'd never miss a show and you didn't. You promised you'd never miss a press call and you didn't. You kept your end of the bargain and in such a. An unexpected and spectacular way. Congratulations. And I'm, like, waiting for my third year option. And he said, you know, we're going through a sale. And I go, I've heard about it, and I'm excited, and I really am really excited to meet the new owner. And he goes, well, he doesn't really want to meet you. And it's like, why?

[Interviewer]

Why?

[Scott Hamilton]

And he said, well, he's kind of an old school guy that only really wants to present women stars. So he doesn't want any male stars or any of that. So we're letting you go. And I was, okay, two years. All right, two years is good. I've invested and I've saved and I've been responsible. And I just pretty much worked NonStop for those two years, whether it be pro competitions or other opportunities. So I worked hard. And so my manager said, meet me in Florida. He ran the tennis division of img, and he was looking after me. And he goes, we'll talk about next. And so I said, okay. So we're sitting on a beach in Delray Beach, Florida. We're down there for the Lipton. I was a huge tennis fan, so it was really fun to kind of have a backstage pass. And he said, look, I've done everything I can with the Ice Capades. I think we're. We gotta close the door on that. They're not gonna have you back? And I said, yeah, I figured as much. And he said, but we've been talking internally. Do you want to help us build a new skating tour? And I, I think I remember him, looking at him saying, let me check my calendar. It's like, are you kidding me? Yes. So we, we started sort of the prototype for show that is Stars on Ice.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And we did five cities in the north east. And nobody kind of knew what to expect from us because they're all college, like hockey rinks, Right? Yeah. And so we're keeping the budget way down just to see if this will work. And I worked all summer to create all the creative elements. You know, hire the sound guy, hire the lighting designer, hire, hire the choreographer, you know, put the cast together. And it was really fun to do all that because most of the skaters, you know, that they're my friends, like really good friends from all my Olympic days. And there were some, like, Tyler Cranston was on that tour, who was a Canadian champion who retired in 76, and Very Avant garde and just, you know, really interesting to watch and. But nobody knew what to expect from us. So we, we hung the lights and, you know, we had two things of lights and the, the people in the building, when they set it up, they. They go, well, we're just going to put this 100amp wire to the 300amp beam and put it on directly to the transformer. No breaker. So we get to the end of the show and the finale is going, and all the lights come on and the wire explodes.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Scott Hamilton]

And it starts the, it starts the spotlight thing on fire. And then some lady, I think she had a wig on her hair kind of went up. My God, her husband's doing this. And it's like, sir, your wife's hair's on fire. And the whole thing was just like a big, like, nightmare. And they evacuated the building and I think six people went to the hospital.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my goodness. Nobody.

[Scott Hamilton]

Nobody sued or anything. I think they were in different time. Different time. And then, you know, the next day we were in Vermont at University of Vermont's rink, and we had like, the fire marshal show up. They're all there to make sure everything you set up.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

Not our fault. Our fault. Yeah. So it's, you know, we had humble beginnings and then it's sort of grew over the years and, you know, it was a great opportunity. So I just worked really, really hard to make sure that, you know, we put together a show that was broadly, you know, sort of acceptable, you know, to countless, you know, anyone. Anyone could come and enjoy the show. And it. As we went, we. We tried to do it more like an exhibition thing, like a tennis thing where we use house lights and some spotlights and things, but the audience didn't buy it. They liked the theatrical side.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

So we went back and we started booking shows like Rochester and Syracuse, and then we book a couple more shows just to check out different markets. And it was just sort of, you know, toe in the water, foot in the water, ankle in the water, knee deep, and now we're up to our waist. And after six years of doing. And we started the first year, we did a dedicated, full scheduled tour. Dorothy Hamill was brought in. And it was really fun to be on tour with Dorothy Hamill.

[Interviewer]

Sure.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know, because, I mean, she's Dorothy Hamill legend. And we brought in a brand new company that just launched called Discover Card. And yeah, it was really fun. Just that we're all doing this, you know, bootstrapping this thing and making it work. And so we went, you know, year after year after year, we have different cast members coming in and out, depending on where they were in their lives. And year six, we finally, you know, turned the corner of breaking. Making a profit, not just breaking even. And I'm. I'm covering my very first Winter Olympic Games in Alberville, France. Yeah. Okay. ABC did the 88 games. Dick Button, the voice of figure skating for every Olympics anyone ever saw up to that point. And now I'm doing the Olympics. And I made sure that there was never going to be a moment where I didn't have something to say. So I had my. My research binder, and I put all these little kitschy little fun lines in there. And it was relatively. Almost scripted. And nobody was really making eye contact with me back in the production and the compound. And I was like, what's going on? And then Saturday Night Live, Phil Hartman played Verne Lundqvist and Dana Carvey played me. And it was like, everybody thought, okay, we've made it. Now we're being roasted on Saturday Night Live. And it was just like, really? That's so cool. And we, you know, and then it was kind of fun. But then I kind of got wind of every single television critic hated me. And it wasn't just that they. They didn't think I was doing a good job. It was almost personal. They were like, get him off the set. Give his headset to Brian Boitano. Anyone? Anyone else? Give him a ski pass. Do whatever you need to do to get him off the air because it's unlistenable. Your voice, it was just, I think the content as much as anything else. And I was not Dick button.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know, it's hard to be the next guy.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

Like, who's going to be the next, you know, forward for the Chicago Bulls after Michael Jordan.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know, it's like that, that level of greatness is. I'm having to replace.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, no.

[Scott Hamilton]

So we're going into the men's event. My favorite, of course. I love the men's event because it's just fireworks and exciting. And I have my research binder sitting in front of me on my desk and Vern and I are just trying to figure out a way to rally. And I take my research binder and I go over to my right, I throw it in the waste basket. And Vern, I look at Vern, his eyes are kind of big. He's like. I go, I got nothing, I got nothing. And he's like, okay, let's do the Olympics. And so I realized in that moment and I just, you know, I'm just thanking, you know, Holy Spirit, whatever, whatever encouraged me to do that. It was just like, I need to be a fan, I need to respond to it as a fan, but also as somebody that knows the sport and can help lay fans, people that only watch us for every four years, fall in love with it.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Scott Hamilton]

That's my job. And so from then on, I just reacted.

[Interviewer]

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[Commercial Announcer]

Right.

[Interviewer]

To throw away the binder, to trust that what comes out is going to be.

[Scott Hamilton]

It's got to be honest.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And it has to be in the moment, otherwise it means nothing.

[Interviewer]

How did you feel after the first time you did it?

[Scott Hamilton]

I just felt free again. It's a men's event. Right. So how are we going to do that? You know, how are we going to do. Well? And then I had to do the pair of events where I really bumbled. Then the men's events next, and then dances after that. And Tracy Wilson was going to do the dance because they really. I told them, I said, I can't do this sport justice. I don't know enough about it. Yeah, I've never really been an ice dancer. And it's a unique discipline, very, very technical, different. Bring in Teri C. Wilson. She's, like, amazing. She's doing all kinds of Canadian, you know, television. She's experienced. She's amazing. So she would do the backstage interviews for all the other events, and then she would do the ice. Great ice dance. And so she did the ice dance. And I could. I could hear the rumblings that the men's event went really well. Like, it was, you know, Paul Wiley, you know, who'd always struggled to get on the podium, he almost won the Olympics. And it was just amazing. It was just like, the best. And then we're going into the women's event, which is Midori Ito. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my gosh. She could just.

[Scott Hamilton]

She jumped that high. I know she's this tall, jumping this high.

[Interviewer]

Yes. The power.

[Scott Hamilton]

But what happened was, I watched. She got there. When she arrived in Albertville, she was unbeatable. And Christy Yamaguchi is like, this is going to be great. And no pressure at all. Midori's gonna win. I just wanna get on the podium. And then maybe two years, if she's not back, I'll have a chance of winning in Lillehammer because they were going to the. The two years and then leapfrogging. And so she. She. No pressure at all. But what happened was Midori was so heavily favored that the media, especially from her home country, were just, like, cameras this far from her face when she was trying to practice. And it just unraveled her. So she had a really rough short program. Things started to come into play where I think she was fourth after the short. And then Christie's doing really well. And then Christy goes out and wins the Olympic gold medal in women's figure skating, which is the marquee sport. I mean, it's the anchor marquee sport of every Winter Olympic Games. And they said, Christy, what's next? And she said, I'm going to join Stars On Ice. And I was like, okay, I guess we're pregnant. It's going to be amazing. And so we went like, just, we went from 30 to 60 cities overnight and all of a sudden we're playing buildings and, and, and more and more people are coming to the shows. And you know, we had Gordieva and Grinkoff and we had all these like Kurt Browning and Paul Wiley and we had all these amazing skaters and it just kept growing and growing. We ended up having Torval and Dean on the tour with us and it was just Katarina bit. And pretty much whoever the champion was, you know, Tara Lipinski came on board, Ilya Kulik, all these, whoever the champion was, they wanted to be on Stars on Ice because they had the ability to almost be like rock stars instead of being in the machine of just doing 12 shows a week.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

So Stars and Ice just went like this and then it went like that. And we were, I mean, I think we sold out Madison Square Garden four years in a row. We would sell it everywhere. It was just, it was just amazing. And so we did that. And then year 11, right. Did six years kind of bootstrapping and trying to get it across the finish line as profitable. And then Christy joins and five years later, you know, we had, we were able to track so many great skaters that were just selling out everywhere. Insane. And I'm 50 cities into a 60 city tour and I could not stand up straight without pain. And I'm like, this is weird. Okay, hold on. Yeah, hold on.

[Interviewer]

Because that's a whole. I'm, I'm, I'm excited to hear about this part because of the way you've chosen to handle it. And I wanna, I wanna ask you a question about the success of Stars after being cast aside on that other tour. Right. I mean, it's not like, yeah, take that. But it had to from a human level feel kind of good. That especially based on, look at the very first event and you're lighting people's hair on fire. Like, it's a disaster. You should have been shut down and never allowed to start it again. To go from that when you guys were cast aside, like, why not just try it to selling out Madison Square Garden? I mean, give me the honest truth about a moment where it hit you like, okay, what a blessing that was.

[Scott Hamilton]

It just. The whole thing was just like, I'll go back. So my heroes that I based my whole philosophy on performing, they weren't skaters because I was my best friend all those years training and everything else was music. And so they're all rock stars. So if I could have that blue collar mentality of Bruce Springsteen, to build an audience over time, like a dedicated audience over time, to earn their respect by working harder than they thought, you know, I could or should. Right? That's what Springsteen did. He'd do four hour shows and people would leave there exhausted. Right? So Springsteen was like, blue collar, work hard, build your audience, show up 100% every night over, deliver, like, whatever their expectations are, take it to the next place. Plus, there's the other thing, which was I would look out the curtain, Ice Capades even, and I would see these guys with their wives sitting in the front row, and they'd be like, looking around to see if any of their buddies were in the audience, because it was like they did not want to be forced to go. Like, I want to go see the skating show. It's like, sure, hon, that'd be great. So I look out and I go, if I can win that guy over, if I can get that guy on his feet, I can skate forever. Forever. Because there's an underserved audience out there that really needs to be looked after.

[Interviewer]

When did you get that guy on his feet?

[Scott Hamilton]

Pretty much the first year of Stars on Ice. The first year? Yeah. Why?

[Interviewer]

Why do you think?

[Scott Hamilton]

A lot of the music choices and a lot of the way that I, you know, I. I'd learned the backflip and I started incorporating that and then going into, you know, Stars and Ice and everything else, it was just. It was geared towards creating athleticism and excitement and a sort of a choreographic style that was very accessible and not high art. You know, it was like, I'm going to make sure that I don't alienate anyone, but main thing is I got to get that guy on his feet. And so it started happening and it happened pretty much every time I did a Stars and I show for 18 years. It happened.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah, it was crazy.

[Interviewer]

And as a performer, I mean, you feed off of that. You See one guy, right, you lock eyes with one that you're like, okay, this is a success. Can you describe the. The adrenaline that you get when you see you and others relating and really affecting the audience?

[Scott Hamilton]

It's. It's just this relationship. It's not going out into skating. It's really just being very intent on building a relationship and building trust with an audience to make sure that they. They want to go straight to the box office to see if next year shows on sale yet. That's. That's kind of how you build a tour. And, you know, a lot of. I don't think skaters today even are aware of that was even a thing, you know, because it's been a while since it's, you know. But this year, stars and I sold out every building because the Olympic team was so popular. And I'm hoping that ignites interest in skating again to bring it back to where it was 25 years ago. Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer]

And what's. What's your role with it now?

[Scott Hamilton]

Spectator?

[Interviewer]

Are you out of ownership?

[Scott Hamilton]

I mean, I never owned it.

[Interviewer]

So what do you.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah, I was a founder. A founder and a producer.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Scott Hamilton]

And then once I, you know, it's kind of like my last year on tour, every city I went to, I went to try to find a piece of art that would. I could hang it, I could look at it and just remember.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

My intention.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

I could never find a piece until I went to Boston on Newbury street and I found an Alexander Nikita piece. And it's called A Mother's Love. And basically it shows a woman holding a heart, and it's like a mother's love happens when she leaves a piece of her heart with her child as they launch into their own identity. And I thought that. That my farewell year on tour, I just thought, I've done everything I can do here, and now it's time for them to, you know, figure out their, you know, who's going to lead it, who's going to run it, who's going to. And I just respected the tour and the skaters enough to say, I'm leaving this for you, on you, with you. And now, you know, you're of an age and experience where you can now take this thing into the next. And it was really liberating to do that. And so, yeah, so all those years, you know, I closed the show. Every year, it didn't matter who won the Olympics, didn't matter who was joining, who was coming on board. Every year I close the show. And some years it was tough because I'd have to skate after Christy Omgucci.

[Interviewer]

Not fair.

[Scott Hamilton]

Who was really good.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

And, you know, other years, I'd peek through the curtain and I'd watch Gordiev and Grinkoff. I'd always peek through the curtain, watch Torbilon Dean. I'd always sneak around to the corner of the building to watch Paul Wiley. There were all these skaters that I loved and admired. Kurt Browning was a genius as being an entertainer. It was just. It was magical. Magical. And so I go back to the mentality. Right. Springsteen. The next one was. There were three. The next one was Neil Diamond. If you've ever been to a Neil diamond show, you always have a good time.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

The joy of his being on stage, just it. It invades every. Every cell in your body. I just can't wait to come back and do this again because it's so much fun. I wanted that to be a part of it. And then the other one was the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant. So Robert Plant. I never got to see Led Zeppelin together as a band, but I was a huge fan of his solo tour because he would always explore different rhythms, different styles. He was very, very curious about the artistic sort of, how do I do something that I've never done before? How do I do something that would be fresh or new or that would, you know, just where I could grow as an artist? And. And I was always so blown away by him that I just said, I'm gonna do. I'm gonna work really hard. I'm gonna show Joy every single time I skate, and I'm gonna take chances because I never want to be accused of saying, oh, he's the guy that does that.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

Unless it's Backflip, which is going to be in every performance. So it was really fun to explore all those different styles and rhythms. And then I always joke around when I do, like, corporate speeches and I tell the story of Stars and Ice, and I go, yeah, so Stars and Ice was doing really well. We're selling all these buildings. Here's passive aggression. Has anyone seen Ice Capades lately? Anyone pausing for effect?

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Did you ever hear from them?

[Scott Hamilton]

They went out of business because I guess they didn't have enough men to self.

[Interviewer]

They didn't have enough boys.

[Scott Hamilton]

But that. I mean, I don't want to ever wish anybody ill, of course, but it was just one of those things where it's like, yes, I was devastated when they let me go, like, anytime, but it was like my life would look totally different completely.

[Interviewer]

It had to Happen.

[Scott Hamilton]

It had to happen. And so in the moment, it didn't feel good. Like, in the moment when I'm in Peoria, Illinois, 50 cities into the 60 city tour, and I'm thinking I developed an ulcer and that I. I can't stand up straight anymore because I've been working too hard for too long, and I've just been so obsessed with the next opportunity and more. More, more, more, more, more, more, more. My life was. Talk about balance. It was, like, so out of balance. And. And I just. I was. I was good at the skating thing, and I was terrible at everything else, like interpersonal relationships and all this was. I was sort of like, something's got to give. And so I went into the emergency room to get Tagamet or whatever they get people with ulcers. And the doctor was amazing. He sat me down, he goes, we found a mass. And I'm like, really? And he goes, why are you smiling? And I go, because nobody's ever used the word mass in description of me before.

[Interviewer]

Stop.

[Scott Hamilton]

Like, this is a big day for me. And he goes, no, thank you. This is either benign, malignant, or something else. And I lost my mom to cancer. And it was two months shy of the 20th anniversary of burying my mom, and she never had a chance. And I'm thinking, all of a sudden, I'm gonna. I'm gonna suffer, I'm gonna diminish, and I'm gonna die and I'll never skate again. Why didn't think of that?

[Interviewer]

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[Scott Hamilton]

And I. I just got really scared all at once. And then it flipped. It was really weird how it flipped, because it was totally opposite. Diane Cannon was a cancer survivor, and I saw her speak one time, and she said, courage is only fear. That said it's prayers. And I just. It's just like a lightning bolt. Because courage cannot exist without fear. It can't.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Scott Hamilton]

What is courage without fear? Right? So I looked at that, and I was like, wow. Because I went from being so scared out of my mind and that I was just gonna, you know, just succumb and let it do its thing. And then it flipped, and it's like, no, I'm coachable. I proved to be coachable. Yeah, I'm gonna be on tour next year. Whatever this thing is, I'm going to beat it, and I'm going to be back on. Where was the tumor? It was abdominal. It was abdominal. So I didn't know what was causing it. So I called my manager, Bob, and he answers the phone, and he goes, hello. I go, hey, Bob Scott. And he goes, how's it going out there? And I go, good. Are you. I need. Are you sitting down? He goes, no, you're not. You're in the kitchen. You answer the phone in the kitchen. Please go into the family room. Sit down. I have some news to share with you. And he goes, goes, okay. So then finally the phone picked up, and he goes, what's going on? I go, I have cancer. And it was. It was just so, like, weird. Just say it. Right? And he was silent on the other end of the phone. And then he said, okay, where are you? I go, I'm in Peoria. And he goes, okay, where are you headed? I go, I'm headed to the building to do the show. And he said, you're going to do the show? I go, of course I'm going to do the show. I'm not going to do that to the cast. I gotta do the show. And I did a show last night. I can do a show tonight. It doesn't feel good, but I could do it. And he goes, all right. He goes, well, as soon as your show's over, get in your bus and go to Cleveland, and I'll take care of everything. And so I said, all right, I'll see you tomorrow. Because he lived in Cleveland, so he set everything up at the Cleveland clinic. I arrived, and they put me in. They did a biopsy, put a needle through My stomach, which I was scared out of my mind. And the next day, they came in with a diagnosis that I had stage three testicular cancer. And it was one of those things where I go, I don't want. I don't want that cancer. I don't want that. And they go, no, no. If. If you had to choose cancer, this is a good one. And I got like, who would choose a cancer?

[Interviewer]

Right?

[Scott Hamilton]

And I started laughing. You need to take this thing seriously. I said, no, I. I don't. I really don't. I'm not going to. I don't. I don't know. We're going to have. This is going to be fun. We're going to make this. Somehow we're going to make this fun. And so after the diagnosis, they said, we've got a plan. You're going to do chemotherapy. We've got the right, you know, 80 to 90% sure that you're going to be 100% after you're done with all this, and then you're going to have a relatively large surgery, and then you'll be cancer free and done. You can go back to your business. And I was like, cool.

[Interviewer]

Okay, great.

[Scott Hamilton]

So the cast of Stars and Ice, when I went to Cleveland, they went to Dayton to do the show, and then they get the news that I'm not going to be there. And so they spent a day in rehearsal to fill my spots, and they did the show, and then they had a day off, and they were going to fly up to Rochester, but instead they said, let's take the buses up to Rochester so we can stop in Cleveland on the way. And so Kurt Browning, like, I love to tell a story. So when he heard about what was going on with me, he said, and he processes things differently. He's very creative.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And so we would do these kind of David Letterman Top 10 lists in every city. And so the top 10 list that night was top 10 things to do with Scott's discarded testicle. Oh, my gosh. That's creative. Well, but it got better because the chalk that they used to make the list, he. He kept it. And the next day, he presented me to the chalk, and he said, I think this might make a good prosthetic. Oh, my gosh. That's. I know.

[Interviewer]

Kurt was like that. That's awesome.

[Scott Hamilton]

Oh, he's hilarious.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

So that's my crew right here. Here's a piece of chalk that you can put down there to make everything work its way out. And it's like, okay, this is gonna be Fun.

[Interviewer]

That's amazing.

[Scott Hamilton]

And so no one was allowed in my room unless they made me laugh. So people would show up in skinhead wigs. They'd show up with funny movies or whoopee cushions or whatever. The nurse, Mary, she would decorate my bags with Snoopy stickers. You treat me like an 8 year old patient instead of a 38 year old patient. And then I had Mylar over the second bag. It's party time. And she goes, if you're really good today I had spongebob and Scooby Doo band aids. They treated me like a pediatric patient. And then if I'm really good, there's a banana popsicle waiting for me in the nurse's freezer. Right?

[Interviewer]

That's the best part.

[Scott Hamilton]

But I mean, that's how I remember that. I don't remember the nausea or the fear. I don't remember, you know, waiting to be hooked up to the next chemo bag. I don't, I don't think of those things. I think of somebody coming in and making me laugh. I think of sitting down the first week of chemo and watching Tiger Woods Wind Masters. And I watched every single hole because I had nowhere to go. It was an eight hour infusion. What am I going to do, right? Jog? Yeah, I'm going to sit here. You're hooked up. Get it? And. And it was so exciting. You know, it's just amazing that those memories are so rich, so incredible.

[Interviewer]

But that is a distinct intentional choice to tell people, don't come in if you're not going to make me smile, make me laugh, make me happy. Where does that come from?

[Scott Hamilton]

My mom, really well, when she was diagnosed with cancer, I was a junior in high school and I'd just gotten done with that competitive season. I came home and she walked in the front door and she goes, hey, everybody, family meeting. And we're like, what's a family meeting? We've never done a family meeting before. And she goes, everybody, come on in. And she was like, super, like high energy and really, like laughing and joking around. It's like, wow, something great happened. And so we sit around the table and she goes, okay, everybody, I just came from the doctor and I've been diagnosed with a disease called cancer. And we're like, you don't say the word. You never said the word back then. It's like 1975, you didn't say the word cancer. You said the C word, right? You never say cancer. And so. And I'm like, whoa. But why is she so happy? I Go. She must feel really confident or something. She was thrilled. And so she. She said, okay, I'm gonna have to have some medicine. That may not make me feel great, but I'll still be, you know, teaching my class, going to school and everything. But I'm gonna need some help around the house. I'm going to need somebody to help cook. And my dad said, I'll do that. And I'm like spaghetti every night. And then she said, and I'm going to need some help with chores around here. You're going to have to clean up your rooms. And then she looked at me and she said, and you, mister, were broke. We're almost bankrupt. But we're going to get you through one more year. It's your senior year in high school. Make it count. Have a great time. And then at the end of this year, we'll talk about next year going to Bowling Green. We're both professors there. You can go for free, but in the meantime, go back to Illinois. Have a great time. So back to Illinois. My main coach had retired. The new coach that came in scared me to death. He was a very harsh, very direct, very disciplinary and very coach. And I wasn't used to that. But he scared me so much, I said, I'll just do whatever he tells me to do to stay out of trouble.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And so I did whatever you wanted me to do. It's my last year in skating. I might as well. Whatever. So we make it to the nationals. The year before, I was seventh out of nine, which is the best result I've ever had at a nationals. Normally, I'm 9th out of 9 or 9th out of 10. I was always the guy that close to the bottom. So I go to the nationals, and people are looking at me going, this. He's different. This year, I just started landing my first triple, and things were changing. My mom arrives, and she's got a big smile on her face, and she's wearing. She's wearing a sling because they removed her left breast and the inside of her left arm, all the lymph nodes and everything. And then she was wearing a wig because all of her hair fell out with chemo. And she was just smiling, and it's like, are you okay? And she goes, I'm actually great. It's like, what kind of drugs do they have you on? Because this doesn't make any sense to me. And she goes, I'm just wearing this thing so people don't bump into me. And I'm great. You just go out and have Fun skating. But she would say things when she was going through cancer like this chemotherapy. I finally found a way to lose all this weight. Oh, this chemotherapy is fabulous. It's like, I've wanted to quit smoking all these years. Now I have no desire. And, oh, this chemotherapy. I'm telling you, it's amazing. My hair was always so unattractive and so difficult. These wigs are so beautiful, and they're so easy. And then every now and then, when we're all sitting around the table, the left prosthetic breast would come out, and it'd be a game of, like, hot potato. And so it's. That's. I want to be like that. I don't want to be, you know, Mr. Pity Party, laying in bed, you know, scared out of my mind and wondering, what's next? I'm going to take control. And so that was one way to do it. And it was really remarkable that it worked for three of the four rounds. I wanted to quit after the third round. And it was. I just. I just felt like, you know, I'm in front of 17,000 people, and I'm with my. My star is a nice family, and now I'm kind of like, home getting chemo and sick, and everything's too quiet. It was quiet. And I just missed my friends and I missed my life.

[Interviewer]

When you say quit, quit the treatment, quit everything.

[Scott Hamilton]

Just. I just felt like I'm so tired. I just can't do this anymore. I just felt like it was just. It's a low point. See, I look at cancer as being more or less a sentient being. It's got a voice, and it's got a mission, and it's there to talk you out of winning. And I didn't realize it then, but after my closest friend said, how many rounds you got left? I said, one. He goes, you can. Come on. You can do that. Yeah, I can do that. I was like, I'm awake now. Let's do this. And so I got to the last round, hit the tape at the end of the marathon, chemo marathon, on time. And then I had to rest up for six weeks before the surgery, which is a 38 staple surgery. And I call it Filet O Scott. And so that was next. And I was really scared there. And then my doctor said I would lay on the operating table before they put me under. And he goes, what's wrong with you? I go, I'm scared. And he goes, why? And I said, have you ever done one of these before? He goes, I did seven this month. Oh, I'm fine now. We're good. Let's go.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And then I was back to life and I got on the ice as soon as I was cleared to get back on the ice. I was back on tour the next year and pushed myself too hard that year. That was kind of dumb. But then it was back to whatever's next. But I knew that my mom didn't get a second chance and I knew I was given a second chance and I knew that I was out of balance and I wasn't. I was almost toxic to be, you know, just as far as like, yeah, give me an audience and I'm fine, but give me somebody alone, one on one in a room. And I'm, I just wasn't as not good. So I got in my car one day, I started to drive just to figure out, you know, I call it my adventure.

[Interviewer]

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[Scott Hamilton]

And I went through New Mexico because I've never been to New Mexico before. And I was like, it's Pretty, but beige.

[Interviewer]

That's very beige.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

And then I go, oh, there's a road to Tucson. I can. I can drive over to Tucson. And I have a friend who runs a golf resort. I can mooch off him for a while until I figure it out. So I'm about, I guess, 10 miles outside Tucson and an animal ran in front of my car when I was in cruise control. My back was sore, so I was kind of twisted and I went to hit the brake and I hit the gas and I spun out in the desert and I basically totaled the car. But I was able to kind of limp all the way to the resort. And then I took the car to the dealership the next day to see if I could get it fixed. And I said, we can't fix this. So I said, here's what I want. I use the insurance money and the trade in or whatever, and this is what I want to get, you know, to replace it. And they go, okay. So about a week later they called up and go, we found it and we're having it flat bedded in. I had. I was homeless at the time. I was just living in this golf resort, just mooching. And I go, what's that going to cost to flatbed the car? And they said, a thousand dollars. It's like, where is it? And they said, it's in Los Angeles. And I said, how much is the Southwest ticket to Los Angeles? And they said, 50 bucks. That's a better deal. I went to LA and then I thought, well, I could hang out here for a while. My choreographer was there, I had a coach there, and so I just kind of stayed. And then three years of sort of working every winter on Stars and Ice Tour and doing all the things. Three years of that and I'm in Memphis doing the show and. And we benefited Target house at St. Jude because Target was our corporate sponsor then. And Tony Thomas, Danny Thomas's son. Oh, yeah, you know Tony.

[Interviewer]

I don't know him though, of him.

[Scott Hamilton]

Oh, he's.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, don't know.

[Scott Hamilton]

So we were good friends because, you know, he liked me because we're raising a lot of money for, you know, everything else.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And so he had guests coming to the show that night. It's like Tony's dating. He went through a divorce and it's kind of rough on him. And I go, I'm curious, you know, who's the one Tony's dating? This is good. So after the show, I see this girl standing in front of the production office and it's like, I'm going up and introduce myself. So I went up and I said hi, and my heart jumped a little bit. And I was like, okay, that's weird. I've taken three years off and I don't. It's on the third anniversary of my diagnosis, and I'm like, this is weird, but it's Tony State. Okay, I gotta go. So I talked for like 10 minutes, and then I went away. And then Tony and I are playing golf later that about a few months later in la. And he's, okay, see you later. I go, is that the girl from Memphis? He said, tracy. I go, I don't know, Just met your date in Memphis. And he goes, that wasn't a date. I'm like, oh. He goes, did you like her? I go, maybe.

[Interviewer]

Sound like a sixth grader maybe.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. So he goes, I'll get her number for you, and maybe we can, like, set up a time for you guys to meet again. I go, okay. So I go to a barbecue, like that week, Fourth of July barbecue, and my favorite caddy at the golf club where I was playing goes, hey, man, how you doing? I go, good, Jimmy. And he goes, you know, my cousin was supposed to come that made other plans. I go, who's your cousin? He goes, tracy. You met her in Memphis. It's like, shut up. Yeah, so we, we. I. I asked Tony for a number, and he goes, got it right here. So we called, went to voicemail, left a message. A few weeks later, she was back because she had to go back to Tennessee to get all her stuff to move to la. And we went out. We've been together ever since.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that was what year? 90.

[Scott Hamilton]

That was 2000.

[Interviewer]

That was 2000.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

She's stunning.

[Scott Hamilton]

Oh, thank you.

[Interviewer]

I got to meet.

[Scott Hamilton]

I'll share that one time.

[Interviewer]

No, stunning.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah, she's really.

[Interviewer]

And I can totally picture when you met her.

[Scott Hamilton]

And you're like, well, you know, it's crazy. That night, she's driving back out of Memphis, back to where she was living with her cousin Gina, who lives in that Memphis area. And she's like, oh, I was backstage, I met Scott Hamilton. And Gina goes, what's he like? And she said, you know, that's the type of man I see myself marrying someday. So I was already in.

[Interviewer]

I had no idea.

[Scott Hamilton]

I had no idea. You were just like, yeah. So we've been together now 26 years and got, you know, two birth children, two adopted children. But then, you know, of course, the health thing starts happening again.

[Interviewer]

So you were healthy when you met her?

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And. Yeah. How soon after that did the next issue come up?

[Scott Hamilton]

We. We got married, and I was still touring and doing. Working and, you know, just skating. And we got engaged, married and pregnant in order in three months and total, like. No. We were dating for a while, and then it was like, I. I asked her to marry me in front of 7,500 people.

[Interviewer]

Nice.

[Scott Hamilton]

my cancer benefit in Cleveland. So it would be hard for her to say no in front of all those people.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Scott Hamilton]

Because they liked me and they didn't know her very well. So I figured I had the advantage.

[Interviewer]

Peer pressure.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. She said yes, so it was good. And then we got married that December, and then we found out in late January that, like, it was that fast. And I thought with my health history, we weren't going to be able to have children for, you know, it was going to be tough. So I was back out on tour, and it's like, what. You know, I. We. You know, Aiden was born in. In September of the next year and then went back out on the road. And I'm six months away. I'm on the sixth month of his life, and I'm away, and I'm in New York, Madison Square Garden. Michael Feinstein singing for me. The number that I'm skating to. It's like, this is beyond anything I would have thought to dream. What am I doing here? Wait, what? And then the next night, I'm in Long island, and I'm skating the same song. It's called Only One Life. And that was a big song for Michael Feinstein. And I'm skating the whole time. I'm like, I can't do this anymore. I want to see his first steps. I want to hear his first words. I want to be in his life. I think I've earned it after 20 years. So I stopped skating. I just decided I'm going to be home. And I saw his first steps, and I heard his first words, and. And. But I wasn't feeling very good. And so I went, Made an appointment. It was the cancer benefit in Cleveland where I. And proposed to Tracy. We're back at. We're back. You know, and it was the next. Oh, yeah. About a year and a half later. It was two years later from the proposal to now I've got this little boy. And I went and made an appointment with my doctor, and he said, I got scanned. You have a brain tumor. It's like, that's so not fair, because I've done my medical stuff. I get to take it off and he said, no, no, we got to figure out what this thing is. It needs to be treated. I said, okay. So I go back to the hotel to meet Tracy, and they're arriving. When I get there, she goes, what's going on? And I go, I'll tell you upstairs. So we. We took the elevator up, and we get in the room, and Aiden's sitting on the floor, taking the phone and banging it on the. You know, just what kids do. And. And she goes, what's going on? And I go, I have a brain tumor. And she didn't hesitate even one beat, and she just took both my hands and started to pray. And I was like, wow. And it. That moment became, I think, if not the most powerful moment in life, it was in the top three. And I realized, oh, that's what you do when you're up against it, you know? And you just got to go, there. I go, this is great.

[Interviewer]

So how was your faith before then?

[Scott Hamilton]

It was. I was interested. I. I didn't understand. I believed. I believed in God. I just didn't know much about Jesus. And so I. I, you know, had to learn, and I have, and. But that's been a remarkable journey. But it's this. Now we're stuck in Cleveland to try to figure out what's wrong with this. So they put a hole in my head, and they went down through, and they took a piece of it, and they said I could have a stroke and I could lose motor function. I could lose memory. I could lose my ability to speak. I could. You know, there's a million things that could happen in the surgery. The bad things, they have to tell you.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Risks.

[Scott Hamilton]

So I woke up. I knew who I was, where I was, why I was there. I could wiggle my fingers and toes. Okay. And then I went, test. Okay, I can speak. This is good. I guess it went great. The doctor came in smiling. Tracy came in smiling, and they go, we know what it is. We just got to come up with a treatment plan. Here's. Here's some information on your tumor. And so Tracy started to read it, and she goes, oh, my goodness. Listen to this. Craniopharyngioma brain tumors are usually detected early in a child's life due to a lack of growth and development.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Scott Hamilton]

I was born with it.

[Interviewer]

What?

[Scott Hamilton]

I was born with it.

[Interviewer]

But no one knew until your.

[Scott Hamilton]

It's mid-60s. They don't have scanning. They don't have anything.

[Interviewer]

I mean, I'm going back to the doctor who's like, we can't figure it out. Go live and see what happens. And 35 years later, oh, my goodness.

[Scott Hamilton]

Isn't that crazy? That's insane. Yeah. So how am I going to be mad at that tumor? I can't be. Ever. And so. So we just went back to life and we wanted to have another child, but now I have a pituitary hormonal imbalance and all these issues that I've got to do replacement, and I've got to do shots in my leg. We want to have another child, and it doesn't work, and we can't do it. And I'm shooting myself in the stomach. I'm shooting myself in the leg. And two years of that, and we just. Nothing happened. And so I go, well, I said, trace, I got. We've been doing this for two years, and I'm hitting gushers now, you know, just everything's bleeding, and it's just. It's gotten to the point now where I don't really want to do an intermuscular shot in my leg anymore, and I can do other things. And I go, can I? I need your permission to stop, because I know we want to have another child, and from everything we've been told, this is the best bet. And she said, if we're meant to have another child, we will.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

And, yeah, go off. We'll be fine. And so I go in to get this thing looked at every now and then, and I went back in. I'm reading Dave Ramsey's book, you know, financial Peace, and I'm in that part about emergency funds, and I'm like, why am I reading this? I'm in the middle of an appointment about my brain tumor, and I'm reading about emergency funds and making sure Everything. You have enough when the storm comes and you could go. And I'm like, that's not, I don't know. So I started getting a little nervous, and the doctor wasn't coming right in. It was taking a long time, and so I got more worked up. And then finally he poked his head and he goes, where'd you get your scan today? And I'm like, the new imaging center. And he goes, oh, okay. So he went back and he was, sorry, it was just, it looked different. So I just want to make sure he goes, you're fine. Go home. Get out of here. And I go, okay. So I had a flip phone back then, you know, and I opened it up and there's. Why do they put cameras on flip phones?

[Interviewer]

Great point.

[Scott Hamilton]

You can't see anything.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Scott Hamilton]

And there was a pics message from Tracy. Now, when she told me she was pregnant with Aiden, I almost passed out. So I grabbed the bag with the pregnancy test, and I kind of like. And so I, I, I looked at, I couldn't tell what the picture was. And then underneath the text, it says, she just said, I hope you have a bag handy.

[Interviewer]

Amazing.

[Scott Hamilton]

And so, yeah, so our son Max was born, and we were here in Nashville, and, you know, it was, you know, she was, she was going into labor fast, and everything was coming fast. And then she said, I need, you know, some pain medication. They gave her the epidural, and everything slowed down. And then finally, you know, we see the top of his head, and he's got flaming red hair. I'm like, okay, how do I process this? And he has red hair. Well, I mean, if he came out Asian, I mean, I'm adopted. I couldn't deny him. Right? I had no idea. It's just that. And I go, I'm Irish. I found the mystery solved. Yes. And then Max came out with his red hair, and he was so unique, and he was so different than Aiden, you know, and it was just, it was magical because it's the typical stuff. Second child comes into the home, little brother's excited at first, and then the question happens. How long is he going to be here?

[Interviewer]

Yes, exactly. Yeah, like, well, he's stuck. And by the way, that hair is still. It flaming red. It's gorgeous. Does anybody tell you that?

[Scott Hamilton]

Old ladies usually. Well done.

[Commercial Announcer]

No, not you.

[Scott Hamilton]

I mean, like, on the street.

[Interviewer]

Max, it's too late. You just said it.

[Scott Hamilton]

You're so cute.

[Interviewer]

No, I, I, I know what you meant. Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And it is gorgeous.

[Scott Hamilton]

It is. And I, he's not gonna Lose it. Which is really cool.

[Interviewer]

No, that'd be hard to lose.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

That's a lot. And that is what. So.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. So, you know, mystery solved. Mystery salt. I am Irish. And then we just building this family. We. You know, we left LA when Aiden was born because we didn't want him to grow up there because it was just hard. Everything's harder there.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

Going to the grocery store is hard. In traffic, hard going. Finding a school is hard. Everything's hard. It's expensive. So he said, let's, you know, come to Tennessee. And, you know, and we had friends here already, and it was great. And. And then Max was born here, which was great. And we're just building this life. And then I'm in Spokane, Washington, for the U.S. figure Skating Championships, covering it for. I guess it would have been NBC. Yes. And I call home, see how everything's doing, and Tracy's sobbing, and it's like, are you okay? Are the boys okay? What's going on? She goes, no, everybody's fine. I just. You're not watching the news? And I go, no, what's. I've been working. I don't have time. And she goes, port au Prince was hit by an earthquake that just killed like, a quarter of a million people in 30 seconds. And I can't stop. It's like, I am so sorry. And she goes, I have to get down there. And it's like, well, now it's probably not a good time. And so we spoke with a friend. We said, we need advice. Traci wants to get down to Haiti to help. And he goes, there's a lot of people down there right now. Wait. And in seven months at the most, the news cycle will change, and then the need will expose itself. Very wise. And so we waited. And then she met a medical missions group that goes down there to do medical work for a lot of the people in this one really poor area. And she started going down, and it just ignited a part of her heart that just loved it so much. She just loved, you know, treating people, you know, babies that were underfed or women's pregnancy, you know, Then there was, you know, scabies and all the things that happen to the skin. And just being a part of helping these people, she. It just made her heart grow, like, five times its size. And she met a couple kids down there, and she just said, we need to sponsor them. I said, okay, we'll sponsor them. And then we were sponsoring them. And as a little. It was a boy and a younger sister. They were the two youngest of five kids. And their, their older brother had just come to the orphanage and was living there, and he was being adopted to a family in Knoxville. And then the other ones were working and doing their thing. And we were in LA coming back, and she got a message from the woman that runs the medical missions thing, and she started crying on the plane. Is everything okay? Are the kids okay? And she goes, that wasn't Laurie, that was John Paul. And I go, is he okay? And he goes, yes. I can't, I can't. I have this overwhelming feeling that he's our son. And I'm like, all right, let's talk about this. And so it took us a few years, couple years, a little over two to bring Jean Paul and Eveline home as our children. And so, you know, the adopting older kids from difficult places, it's a bumpy ride. You know, they, they don't know how to be in a family, you know, they just, they know how to be in an orphanage, you know, but they don't. It was, you know, it's just little, the dances, really clumsy. And, and so, you know, we've, we did our best to see him through. And now they both are building their lives independently now. Jean Paul is 24. He went into the Air Force, met a very beautiful, strong woman, which he needed, and they've been deployed to South Korea, and they're expecting their first child.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my goodness.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Wow. And his sister and then, oh, Evelyn,

[Scott Hamilton]

she wanted to do her own thing too, so she joined the Army National Guard Reserve. So they pay for a college, so she could kind of just decide what she, she wanted to be completely independent.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

I said, okay, you know, it's your plan. And so she's in LA right now doing weekends with the National Guard, and she's going to nursing school at Santa Monica College. And so she's, she's really, she's very book smart. Like, she gets things really fast, but sometimes her decision making is a little bit askew. But, you know, I, I, we've been texting even today, and I, she called, we talked yesterday, and she's happy and she's building her life and it's, you know, it's hard. She's tired a lot. She's, but, you know, she made this choice that I want to do it myself, and so she's doing it herself.

[Interviewer]

And you have to, we as parents have to allow them then 100% good, bad, ugly, to do it and to, and to follow through.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Commercial Announcer]

The World cup champion will be crowned this week and you can trade the tourney through the finals on kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Right now, Spain is trading at 58% to beat Argentina. Meaning 100 trade pays out $166 if they win on cash. Kalshi, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code hoops to get $10 when you trade. $10. K a l s h I kalshi trade the beautiful game 18 only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kaushi.com regulatory

[Interviewer]

was there any hesitation when Tracy said, I think, I think these are our children, I'm adopted. That, I mean, I think it's a safe assumption. Right. Well, you were adopted. Fine.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

No, I couldn't be hypocritical. They're older.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Trying to bring them in with your two kids, you said it was bumpy. So no hesitation because the chance you

[Scott Hamilton]

were given, I think a lot of it was that and a lot of it was just our time spent with them. Okay. An intervention is probably, you know, I think it's happened. But she's been to Haiti 28 times.

[Interviewer]

Whoa.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. And she's very invested. I think she's now on the board of David Danita's children. It's another orphanage in Haiti, but the gangs have kind of taken over the leadership.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know, there's no real government anymore. It's the gangs. Really dangerous to go down there now. So she hasn't been in a while in it. But through Denise children, she's able to serve still. And she loves everybody. It's part of that organization. And. And you know, that's the most recent development. And it's been really wonderful for her to kind of like still have, you know, sort of an identity in Haiti just knowing how much it brought her joy.

[Interviewer]

It's so interesting. We had some neighbors when we lived in Arizona who had two kids who were also from Haiti. And she spent a ton of time doing a lot of work down there. Incredible family. And because they were white, the crap that they got was it. Which makes no sense to those of us with common sense. And it's like these are kids who are living in an orphanage. Probably not a good life expectancy at all. And she rescued her two sons. I don't know if you view it that way as well, but some of the ugliness that can come with it based on them being a different race than you, from a different culture.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know, you're in Nashville now. It's everywhere here. It's so normal here.

[Interviewer]

So maybe it is where you live when you receive.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah. And it's so normal. I mean, there's so many parents with, you know, multicultural, multiracial families. I mean, it's just. It's normal. Right. Like, I. I was. I took Max over to. We weren't down at south or West Haven, and we were just grabbing a bite to eat, and he wanted to run and play. He didn't really want to do anything. So we came across this. This guy who's really nice guy, and he has two, you know, black children. And I go, where do they start their adventure? And he goes, haiti. And I go, I have Haitian children, too. And he goes, oh, that's fun. And so those two kids and Max just started running back and forth. They're playing and running and playing, and it was beautiful because that's kind of like. That's the way it is here. You know, it's like there isn't a lot of weirdness about. You know, you see so much of just this extension of love and faith, of just wanting to make a difference in somebody's life where they probably don't have much of an opportunity. Like, their opportunities are extremely limited in Tomaso Haiti, because there's. There's nothing there. Right? There's really nothing there. So. Yeah. So bring them home. Now. They have. You know, Jean Paul, when he went into the Air Force, we went to his basic military training graduation, and it just. He was a man. He just put on muscle and weight, and he was really struggling before then because he had a lot of PTSD from all the things that happened to him in Haiti, and. And we tried to get him through that as best we could, but ultimately we realized that he needed to do that. Like this. This was. We could come alongside him, but this was work that he had to do. He had to want to. But it's really weird that, you know, in our society. I don't even know how to say this. He was first one of my children to get his driver's license, and I had to say, I had to have a conversation with him that I didn't have to have with my birth children. And it was just like, if you're pulled over, please respect. Move slow, don't. And it was like, why am I even saying this because all the images we get, you know, are from all this interracial tension and all this, you know, it's. It's not a level playing field, and it's. It's violent. And it was like, oh, my goodness. I just. I couldn't bear to see him be at risk, you know, so I had to have a conversation with him that I didn't have to have with my other kids, you know, And. And so it was. It's just. It is. There are some differences, but generally, I have never seen anyone, even in the World cup, do the soccer ball with. This young man could do with a soccer ball. Oh, my goodness. He was so talented and so gifted, but, you know, he's building his life, and he's beautiful, happy, and he's expecting his first child and Grandpa Scott. But it's. You know, but it's. Again, it's just this cool name picked out.

[Interviewer]

Like, we had some friends, and we

[Scott Hamilton]

have some friends in. In Utah, and they had their grandchildren, and he passed away, and his grandchildren were talking about Earl. It's like, you call your grandfather Earl. He goes, yeah. He thought, grandpa is for old people. They don't want to do that. So it was Carol and Earl. You know, it was adorable. I mean, they just called him by their first names.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

There's no rules there. You do what you want.

[Scott Hamilton]

Did you.

[Interviewer]

Did you ever go try to trace back your history and find out where you.

[Scott Hamilton]

I didn't, but it happened. So I. I did a. I really. I was. I was honored to be invited to speak at Genentech. You know, it's a. It's a. The. The second most searched thing on the Internet is genealogy. So it's a genealogy conference, you know, where they bring people together. And. And I did my talk on adoption and everything that I, you know, just what my life looked like as an adopted child and not knowing, you know, sort of. But stepping into. And so they. They presented me with a book on stage of. Of, you know, my parents and, you know, going back several generations of this is, you know, your mom's, you know, uncle was. Was eel fishing in the river and in Boston, and he fell in the river, and it was ice cold, and he, you know, survived. And it was. They found all these things about all these, you know, stories from my. My parents, you know, my adoptive parents, you know, my parents. And I was like, really? I thought that was really cool because those are things that you get when you know where to look. You can find really cool things. So we Were backstage having a meal during the break, and they presented me with another book. They found my birth mother, and I saw her face for the first time, and it was just like. And I didn't know I'm talking about this. I probably shouldn't be, you know, but it was one of those things where, you know, now I know who to thank for being brave in the late 50s to bring a child into this world and put them up for adoption right away. So it was. Yeah, I didn't know I should talk about that. I don't know. It probably will open a can of worms. But anyway, I've just been respectful because it was a closed adoption. It was very secret.

[Interviewer]

I love that you took that with gratitude and thank you, because you're right. A very different time. Even now, there's people who would rather terminate their. Have an abortion than give birth, just regardless of circumstances. And she did.

[Scott Hamilton]

There was a long time where the right to life, you know, they. They wanted, like, poster child, you know, look, you know.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Scott Hamilton]

You know. You know what I mean? And I. You know, I don't ever put myself out in, you know, especially in political situations, because I. I love everyone.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Scott Hamilton]

And I don't, you know, I don't like the idea of being labeled or anything else. And I. I grew up in a way that my. My parents were really incredibly open and honest and supportive, and they just. You know, my dad was. You know, he kind of was looking after all the international students that came in. And one of my babysitters was from Kenya. He was an amazing guy. He taught me how to speak Swahili when I was three years old. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That's fun, right?

[Interviewer]

Count to 10 in Swahili.

[Scott Hamilton]

Huh?

[Interviewer]

Count to 10 in SwahilI.

[Scott Hamilton]

I can't anymore. I remember Jumbo. Jumbo. Because this picked me up, right? So Jim went. Jumbo, Jim, Jumbo. And he picked me up, and I actually talked to him on the phone a long time ago. We were still. We're living in Franklin, and I got his number. Somebody gave me his number, and I called him, and we.

[Interviewer]

That's cool.

[Scott Hamilton]

He had. He was an older, you know, by then, but he was like, I have so many good memories of your mother and father. And they. They embraced me, and they helped me so much in my college journey. And, you know, they were just great people.

[Interviewer]

Wonderful.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You mentioned the word fair, and that's the only time that you really get angry if something's. If something's unfair. And you also mentioned bullying when you were a kid. And that is very unfair. I hope everybody on both sides of the aisle can agree that bullying is unfair and whenever we have an opportunity to wipe that out.

[Scott Hamilton]

No, you have to. I, I, and again, I think that anytime we see sort of, you know, that behavior, you know, just really harsh words being spoken on somebody else, I think it, I think people generally just, either they jump on board or they, they push back hard. And it's like I, I really just love this country and I love the opportunities that have been afforded me in this country. And, and I, I do know that there's so many aspects of it that are broken that, you know, hopefully someday, you know, we'll, we'll get rectified. But I do believe that, you know, sort of, if I, if I gonna say anything political, I think we have, everyone has 99% of their being has something in common with somebody else and maybe the 1% doesn't. And that's a choice.

[Commercial Announcer]

The World cup champion will be crowned this week and you can trade the tourney through the finals on kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Right now, Spain is trading at 58% to beat Argentina. Meaning 100 trade pays out $166 if they win. On Cauchy, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code hoops to get $10 when you trade $10. K a l s h I kalshi trade the beautiful game 18 only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more for more information, see kalshi.com regulatory

[Interviewer]

it absolutely is.

[Scott Hamilton]

Everything that we are, that we are, I think is a common sort of existence. And you know, I do think that, you know, I just love everyone. I don't, I don't, I don't.

[Interviewer]

I truly believe most people do. I think the, you know, the extremes are quite loud, but they're definitely the minority. Most people, even if you have some different ideals and politics, even we can realize that we do have so much more in common if we're willing to take a minute to look and just, just be kind and let go. I do think though, with, with bullying, it's, it's a conversation that obviously is so much bigger now than it was 10, 20 years ago. I mean, was that something that you

[Scott Hamilton]

experienced in the Internet? Right? You get on social media. And the bullying that happens, you know, on social media. Oh, but I love it. I think it's hilarious. I, when I wrote finish first, I wrote that about years ago, and I, I, I did a speech around, you know, the book, you know, to kind of. Because that's what you do, right? You write a book and then you speak about, you know, and so there was one area about criticism. And I said, here's, here's what I love about criticism. And I started showing all the mean tweets that I got when I was in pyeongchang, and it was hilarious. It's like, you know, he sounds like Bobcat. Coldthwait. It's like, I don't sound like Bobcat, but there's all these references of being like, did they pull him out of a crypt every four years? I mean, all these, like, nasty, mean things. And they're so funny. But the first time I did this speech was at a college, and the kids were looking at it. They're like, oh. And they, I could I go, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is funny. Please, this is funny. A couple things. One, they'd never say it to my face.

[Interviewer]

Never.

[Scott Hamilton]

Right, right. Okay. And the other thing is, is it, it takes some ingenuity to insult somebody on the Internet. I mean, and some of it's really creative, and it means nothing. It doesn't affect my life at all, and neither it shouldn't affect yours.

[Interviewer]

Well, that takes time and wisdom, and I think. And when you've received it enough. But for most people, like, even when Dave and I got married or started dating, I'm like, you probably want to remain private on any social media account. You probably shouldn't read the comments. And it was shocking him at first. It's like, what? They don't even know you. They don't know me. But I'm like, I know they are crazy, so we let them, right? And it's kind of up to us if we choose to receive it. But you, even when you're winning the gold medal, there are people, you know representing our country. There are still crazy people who are going to find something wrong with that. That's no different than today.

[Scott Hamilton]

And I use the example. There was one judge from the Pacific Northwest who told my coach, he goes, you know, Scott is really looking so much better, and he's come a long way, but he's just going to have to accept that he's too short to be competitive internationally. And my coach told me this, and I was like, wait a Minute. And then we go back to. I won in 84. The last American to win before me was 1960. So this the 1960 Olympic gold medalist. Guy named David Jenkins, a great guy, phenomenal guy, incredible athlete, my size. So she didn't like short people. So my job was to keep her off my panel. Yes, yes, yes. So that's it. Because she didn't like short. That was not. I was not her preference. She'd rather have a tall skater. That's fine. That's on her.

[Interviewer]

But this is ice skating gymnastics, where it's subjectivity, leads, and bias. And then that is where, to me, it's been so frustrating, and it's just easier. Okay, Michael Phelps, who hits the wall first? Like, it's so simple. So that said, you overcame a lot, because there's so much bias within every human being, of course, but as a judge, probably did their absolute best to make sure. But things like that, you had to overcome.

[Scott Hamilton]

Well, strategically, you don't want to alienate yourself from any judge. Right? Strategically. So when you go to the Olympics, you have nine judges from nine different countries, and they're all from different cultures, too. So whatever I do musically, whatever I do stylistically, I have to make sure that it's not something that's so foreign to a judge that I desperately need, that they're going to just dismiss me. Right. There was one judge who I really loved, and we had a great relationship, but for whatever reason, she would give me really bad marks. And it was like, why? I couldn't figure out why, but it was one out of nine, so it didn't really matter at the end of the day. But. But you. You have to understand that in that there's. There's critical. There's a critical element to it. So you have to look at that honestly. It's like, well, in order for me to win here, I've got to be smart, and I can't be offended for the sake of being offended. And I got to step into something with the level of reality, Right? So in that, I tried to always sort of make sure that there was always whatever criticism I got, I'd have to basically filter it. So there's only two kinds of criticism. Can you name them?

[Interviewer]

No.

[Scott Hamilton]

Opinion.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Scott Hamilton]

Fact.

[Interviewer]

Yes. Got it.

[Scott Hamilton]

So if somebody says something based on opinion, and if it's just their preference, it's like there's this little button in the corner of your keyboard up in the upper right corner. It says delete. You just delete it, right? It's fine. Delete. Done. Over. Didn't have to. You don't have to be offended. You don't have to do anything else because it means nothing. But if someone criticizes you and it's right, that's food. That's a gift. You have to be able to accept it.

[Interviewer]

Unless their opinion influences with points, with scoring a difference between gold and silver.

[Scott Hamilton]

Yeah, yeah. There's always nuance. Right. But in that, it's like they don't

[Interviewer]

like Americans because of the conflict in the Middle east right now. You know what I mean? Like, those things, you can't control it certainly. Right. You can only worry about what you can control. But I think. I mean, there have been many instances, right.

[Scott Hamilton]

And many sports, there's tons where you look at it and they go, that's painful. Like, you know, look at, like, you know, the French judge in the dance event in this last Olympics, you know, she had Maddie and Evan eights. And. Okay, that was. That's. That's egregious. He probably should sit down for ever.

[Interviewer]

Right?

[Scott Hamilton]

But it's like that. Right? So. But in that, it's like, Dick Button was always my commentator, and he'd always have a criticism, and I knew that he was going to be my commentator, and I knew that whatever he told the public was that's how they're going to receive it. So if he criticized a part of my skating, I would work on that. So he could never say that again.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Scott Hamilton]

And so four years of being and US Champion, and going into the Olympics, I attended to every single criticism to make sure he couldn't say it again. And by the time we got to the Olympics, he was my greatest cheerleader. So it's like, in a way, that's kind of how you win people over. You just sort of eliminate, you know, in a healthy way, things that you. That may be criticism, like, you may think it's harsh, but it's also there to build you up in a. In a unique way. Like, you know, it's. It's. I always ask my kids, what's the greatest strength? And it's a lack of weakness. Right. So find out where you're weak and get strong. You know, there's that. So there's all these philosophical things that I've learned over the years that, you know, we incorporate in different things, but it just comes down to, you know, and I see everything that's going on in our world. It's like we've got everything to gain just by loving each other. It's just. Don't make it hard we do that.

[Interviewer]

I know. You guys have a drive back home. I'd like to end on this because, man, no matter what, no matter how many years it's been, you are still the face. The most recognizable.

[Scott Hamilton]

I've got enough face ins back here.

[Interviewer]

There's a lot there, and it's perfect. Old ladies and young ladies think that.

[Scott Hamilton]

Megamind. Yeah, there it goes.

[Interviewer]

No, honestly. And I think about your journey to get to 1984, and then you're homeless, on your buddy's couch. And then the journey since then to build something that benefited so many, yes, the fans, but so many other skaters, you know, changed the skating world forever. And your family as well. When it's all said and done, Scott, you know, what do you hope your great, great, great grandkids learn about you?

[Scott Hamilton]

Well, if I've learned enough to know that our time here is very brief. I have an hourglass. It sits behind my desk in my office. And it reminds me that we have, you know, sand. Only so much. Each grain is a day, whatever, and it's like sand. We have sand, we want more sand. We want as much sand as we can possibly have. But when the sand runs out, that means that next is next, you know, so my. My main job is to make sure that I do everything I can to prepare my children for their lives and hope that I was a good influence. But by the time we get to great grandchildren, they may never even know who their great, great grandfather was, you know, and that's okay. You know, time marches on. Like, I know a lot about my family, but I don't. You know, again, it's just we're here for a minute, and the only reason we're here is perpetuate the species and allow them to go in, is we hope good humans to do great work and to bless the world in some unique way. That's our dream for our kids. Not, you know, that's not always our kid's dream. But at the same time, it's like winning an Olympic gold medal is, you know, you're a name in history. They may never know a thing about you, but they'll see it on a list. Maybe, you know, if the Olympics can survive being as big as it is right now, sometimes it's, you know, it puts it at risk. But I don't know, I think if anything, you know, I just want this season I'm in right now to be one of some level of impact. You know, I kind of stepped away while I was raising a family, and I would. I wouldn't be working that much. I'd work, you know, publicly. I would do a lot of corporate speaking and things like that, but generally I was home. I tried to be home as much as possible, and I just wanted to be present in my children's lives and, and, and do the best I can to prepare them for next. Knowing that their identities are unique and theirs. They're not mine. I had very little memorabilia around the house because I didn't want.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

But now they're. It's funny because now they're adult and they're starting to ask questions, the different questions like, how'd you do that and what you do there? And, and, you know, my oldest birth son is training to be an athlete, and so he's, you know, he wants to know a little bit more about my journey. And then my. My youngest son has fallen in love with the figure skating world and is really trying to help me get back on the horse as a influential public person and to create more opportunities for skaters and, and to also, you know, just be able to share whatever I have to say with more and more people. So I appreciate the opportunity.

[Interviewer]

It's beautiful. And you have chosen to create, in more ways than one, this incredible family and then a family, the family that you were with for all those years on the ice, like, it's really, it's wonderful.

[Scott Hamilton]

It's hard, you know, and when Sergei Grinkov died, I'll never get over it. 28 year old, you know, beautiful family. You know, Katya comes every year to several shows that I put on throughout the year to raise money for cancer. So I still see Katya a lot. I don't see Dasha as much as I'd like to, but, you know, Katya's other daughter, Lisa, is around quite a bit, and I really, I love her too. You know, it's just, you know, there's so many things that happen. Life.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Hamilton]

Happens that you hope to learn from it, be strengthened by it, and at the same time try to be a good human and help other people get through it.

[Interviewer]

We just have to keep sharing.

[Scott Hamilton]

That's the beauty of it.

[Interviewer]

When you just put it out there. Others are like, oh, wait, gold medal, fame, fortune. And there's still life and there's still reality and there's still health issues.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And they're still scary. Can you still do a backflip right here?

[Scott Hamilton]

If I try to do one there, I would end up back here. I was 51 years old. It was the last one I did.

[Interviewer]

You're 67. That's insane. By the way, you. You look. You look great.

[Scott Hamilton]

Thanks a lot. Thank

[Commercial Announcer]

you. The World cup champion will be crowned this week and you can trade the tourney through the finals on Kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Right now, Spain is trading at 58% to beat Argentina, meaning 100 trade pays out 100 $166 if they win. On Kalshi, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code hoops to get $10 when you trade $10. K A L S H I Kalshi trade the beautiful game 18 only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kalshi.com Regulatory marketing

[Scott Hamilton]

is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great.

[Commercial Announcer]

You love the host.

[Scott Hamilton]

You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to Libsynads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.