Olympics Doll

Sunday, March 15, 2009;

One of the most popular figure skating stars in the world today, Scott Hamilton is also a role model, a humanitarian, and a cancer survivor. As a figure skater, he is forever bridging the gap between sport and entertainment. As a role model, he contradicts the saying that "good guys finish last". As a humanitarian, he avails himself to any plight that will improve mankind. But, more important, as a cancer survivor he is a constant reminder that with fortitude and determination, anything is possible. Scott's much publicized bout with testicular cancer in 1997, and his November, 2004 diagnosis of a benign, non-cancerous pituitary brain tumor (from which he is successfully recovering), was not the first time he had faced such adversity. Six weeks after his birth on August 28, 1958, Scott was adopted by Ernest and Dorothy Hamilton, both professors at Bowling Green State University. When Scott was about two, he contracted a mysterious illness that caused him to stop growing. For the next six years, doctors prescribed a variety of unsuccessful treatments. After his illness was mistakenly diagnosed as cystic fibrosis and he was given six months to live, the Hamiltons took their son to Boston's Children's Hospital where his ailment began to correct itself by special diet and moderate exercise.In July of 1990, to add to a remarkable list of achievements which now includes over 70 titles, awards and honors, Scott was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. He was distinguished in this induction by being the only Olympic athlete from any Winter Olympic games held since 1924 to become a 1990 Olympic Hall of Fame class member and one of under a 100 Olympic athletes ever to be honored as of that date. In that same year, he also became a privileged member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and his career was selected to be permanently published in Marquis’ Who’s Who In America. In 1992, Marquis began publishing his biography in Who’s Who In Entertainment and in 1994 he was added to their Who’s Who In The West edition.In 1997, Scott was the recipient of yet one more distinguished honor when on March 14th in front of a soldout crowd of 17,000 at New York’s Madison Square Garden; he became the first figure skater ever to be inducted into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame. Until that night, the Garden had not added a member to their illustrious “club” of 46 legends in five and a half years. Humbly accepting the accolade, which professionally represented over 50 appearances by Hamilton at Madison Square Garden during the last 21 years, Scott is now in the permanent company of such luminaries as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, the Rolling Stones, and Frank Sinatra.Scott received notable critical praise for the writing of his autobiography Landing (Kensington Books, October 1999), an intimate, candid and insightful look at his professional and personal life on and off the ice. During the summer of 1999, he made his feature motion picture acting debut in On Edge (2001) starring Jason Alexander, Kathy Griffin and Wendie Malick, a hilarious mocumentary of figure skating in which Scott portrays Ricky Metford, a frenzied, offbeat former coach and judge. He created a character voice for a segment of the popular animated television series King of The Hill, and appeared as a special guest star in a 2003 television pilot Hench at Home written and produced by popular actor Michael J. Fox. Scott continues to appear regularly on various television talk shows, national news shows and variety shows.During a fourteen-year tenure with the CBS Television Network as one of their most articulate sports analysts, Scott’s coverage of the figure skating competition at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway and the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, were heralded as an incisive, exuberant and refreshing. Similar accolades were bestowed upon Scott for his NBC Television Network commentating and coverage of figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah during February 2002.Scott has also become a much sought after motivational speaker at various events throughout the country, speaking to a wide variety of groups and organizations about his life, and his overcoming cancer. When he is not performing or participating in a wide variety of charitable events, or acting as an official spokesperson for Target House at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as his own Scott Hamilton C.A.R.E.S. Initiative (Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship) at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Center in Cleveland, Ohio, or promoting his newest web site Chemocare.com (in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic and CARES), or serving on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics, Scott can be found on the golf-course and enjoys spending time with his wife Tracie and their son Aidan at their home in Los Angeles, California.

An Olympic Gold Medalist. A cancer survivor. One who perseveres through the hardship with gold olympic medals. An excellent humanitarian, olympian

Labels: Scott Hamilton

{{ 3/15/2009 09:52:00 PM -
ThE Olympians! <33