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Speaker
SCOTT HAMILTON
Subjects
motivation, sports
Video Clip
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Clearly one of the most sought after keynote speakers and most
popular figure skating stars in the world today, Scott Hamilton is
also a role model, a humanitarian, and a cancer survivor. As a
public speaker, he exudes enthusiasm and inspiration. 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, has touched him with a special insight into
life and the human condition.
During the last five years, Scott has inspired audiences at various
events throughout the country, speaking to a wide variety of groups
and organizations about his life, and overcoming cancer. Never
ceasing to impress, his clarity about living the life he’s been
given, has inspired thousands upon thousands of people at numerous
engagements for such organizations as Hilton Hotels, Healthcare
Management Systems, Elekta, Inc., the Virginia Commonwealth
University Medical Center, Liberty Mutual, the Toledo Children’s
Hospital, the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute,
the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, St. Vincent Oncology Center, the
Multiple Myeloma Foundation, Robert Wood Johnston University, the
University of Chicago Hospital, the American Society of
Health-Systems Pharmacists, and the (2003) Twenty-Eighth Annual
Congress of Oncology Nurses at the Denver Convention Center, to name
but a few.
Scott is an avid participant in a wide variety of charitable events,
and serves 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. Additionally, he promotes his Foundation’s web
site chemocare.com
and serves on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics.
Adversity has motivated and strengthened Scott’s outlook on life.
It has created and molded his courageous character. 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. From the beginning, Scott skated with great
confidence and uncommon speed. He began taking formal lessons,
joined a hockey team and within a year, his illness disappeared and
he began growing again ‑although he would always be considerably
smaller than his peers. His miraculous recovery was attributed to
the effects of intense physical activity in the cold atmosphere of
the rink.
At thirteen he began training with Pierre Brunet, a former Olympic
gold medal winner and, despite steady progress, abruptly quit
competitive skating in 1976 due to financial struggles and enrolled
at Bowling Green. But before he began classes, an anonymous couple
who had supported other Olympic hopefuls volunteered to sponsor
Scott. He immediately resumed training.
Over the next several years, his continued dedication paid off. By
1980 he was good enough to capture third place in national
competition and win a berth on the U.S. Olympic squad. In addition,
he earned a solid fifth‑place finish at the 1980 Olympics in Lake
Placid. Then in March of 1981, Scott's dazzling free‑skate program
at the World Championships enabled him to win the title and become
only the second American to do so since 1970. Later that same year,
he took an individual Gold medal at the first Skate America
tournament and was voted Male Athlete of the Year by the United
States Olympic Committee.
Scott held onto his National and World titles in 1982 and 1983. As
the winner of sixteen consecutive championships after the 1980
Winter Olympics, he was heavily favored to take the Gold Medal at
the l984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo and that is precisely what he
did. A month later, he went on to score a stunning victory at the
World Championships in Ottawa, Canada. In April of 1984, Scott
turned professional after being inundated with lucrative contracts
from the major ice shows. The Ice Capades secured his superstar
talents for two years.
Since 1986, audiences have seen him perform in his own Scott
Hamilton's America Tour; with numerous U.S. symphony orchestras; and
15 national touring seasons in Stars On Ice which he also
co‑created and for which he served as co‑producer until his
retirement from the tour in April 2001. His October, 1997comeback to
skating, preceded by a People Magazine cover story profiling his
courageous battle against cancer, and Maria Shriver's highly rated
profile of Scott for NBC's Dateline, was capped
by the live CBS Television Network Special Scott Hamilton: Back
on the Ice. By all counts, the event was one of
the most emotional and riveting evenings of the year.
In addition to producing ice specials for television, ice spectacles
(including Stars on Ice which he still co-produces), he also
co-produced the highly acclaimed off-Broadway production Now Hear
This!
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 and also became a
privileged member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. His
career has since been published in Marquis' Who's Who In America and
Who's Who In Entertainment. In October, 1999, Scott received
critical praise for writing his best-selling autobiography
Landing It: My Life On and Off the Ice (Kensington Books).
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 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympic
Games 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 2002 and
2006 Winter Olympic Games. He also co-hosted the NBC-produced show
titled Olympic Ice which aired daily on the USA Network
during the 2006 Winter Games. Simultaneously, he hosted the
prominently successful Fox Television Network prime time
Variety/Reality show, Skating with Celebrities between
January and March, 2006.
On December 14, 2002, Scott married former nutritionist Tracie
Robinson. On September 16, 2003, the couple gave birth to their
first child, Aidan McIntosh Hamilton.
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56 Poquonock Avenue
Windsor, Connecticut 06095
Voice: 800-875-2893
Fax: 860-687-1062
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