#185 – A Gold Medal for Positivity with Scott Hamilton

I’m sorry.

Wes Moss [00:00:40]:

And I don’t know if I want to start with sports or life, but I do want to cover it all.

Scott Hamilton [00:00:49]:

Wow. How much time Wes have. Yeah, it’s kind of complex, but part.

Wes Moss [00:00:53]:

Of the reason that I wanted to have you here today on retire sooner podcast is that it’s been an adversity filled couple of years.

Scott Hamilton [00:01:06]:

Yeah, absolutely.

Wes Moss [00:01:07]:

For a lot of people.

Scott Hamilton [00:01:08]:

Yeah. It’s funny because people just sort of, like, they just went into identity stuff, right? They went into I’m this or I’m that, and everybody, through social media and everything else, has to identify as this or that. And then they all kind of hunker in their corners, and then friendships are lost and, like, lifelong friendships. I’m looking at this going, what happened? So many people that I really love just sort of went away. And it was really funny that a friend I’ve known for 38 years, Wes, haven’t spoken since around Covid, the beginning of COVID And it was like, I moss this guy, he’s one of my favorite friends ever. And I was in Detroit with my son for a hockey tournament, and my phone rang, and it was him. And it was like, man, we haven’t talked in so long, and I’ve missed you, and what are you doing? And I go, well, I’m in Detroit with Max, doing a golf mean, a hockey tournament. And he goes, I’m in Monroe doing a show tonight.

Wes Moss [00:02:03]:

What kind of show?

Scott Hamilton [00:02:04]:

He’s a comedian.

Wes Moss [00:02:05]:

Comedian.

Scott Hamilton [00:02:06]:

So we went to a show, max and I, and we totally reconnected, and it was like, it’s all this political stuff and all this other stuff.

Wes Moss [00:02:12]:

So it was Covid and then politics.

Scott Hamilton [00:02:14]:

And it’s all the stuff that Covid does, right. Covid says, if you’re this or you’re that or you gotta do this, you got to do that. And it was very divisive, more than it know, things like that you would think would bring a community together to say, how can we help each other and how can we support each other? That one felt really different because it became so political. But I think we’re past the worst of it now, and we can get back to know.

Wes Moss [00:02:37]:

I think what people know about you, if you’re just tuning in to this episode, is kind of the tip of the iceberg. It’s like, oh, I know Scott Hamilton from the Olympics, and he won a gold medal, and he’s been a commentator on all the so many Olympics for figure skating. And maybe I heard he went through some tough stuff, but that is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your life and all of the things that you’ve overcome. And I wanted to find someone with a message to speak to our audience, because I think we’re in a period of time where we’ve gone through two and a half, three years of a pandemic, and then we’ve gone through the last two years of stock market hasn’t been great. The bond market has been really bad. Politics is in shambles in the United States.

Scott Hamilton [00:03:32]:

Talk about religion and politics today. So we’re going to be.

Wes Moss [00:03:37]:

But people feel as though two wars, we’re in the middle of two wars still. Middle East, Ukraine, Russia. So it feels like a fragile time. And I wanted to remind people and show people someone that has been through just great adversity and is still shining on the other side. I know you opted for no makeup today.

Scott Hamilton [00:04:06]:

Yeah, I opted for no makeup today. I’ll be shining with. My health issues are a prop, but.

Wes Moss [00:04:12]:

Start with that, though, because you started born into health issues.

Scott Hamilton [00:04:16]:

Yeah. It was really wild because I was always little. I was adopted at six weeks of age. I was an unintended, unwanted baby, but chosen by two school teachers from northwestern Ohio, originally from the Boston area, and my dad was a PhD professor of biology. My mom was teaching second grade, but spent our whole family’s in education. So I get adopted into this family in Ohio. In Ohio. Bowling Green, Ohio.

Scott Hamilton [00:04:41]:

Isaac Azumba it’s the weirdest chant, like fight song in all of oh, for Bowling Green. Isaac Azumba Zumbas anyway, so at age four, they realized that I was always tiny, but I was really not growing, and I wasn’t developing properly. And so for the next four years, between bowling Green and Toledo and Ann Arbor and Boston, I was in hospitals trying to get to the source of my issue. They took me off flour, sugar, dairy, all this stuff. Just trying to figure out if I had food allergies or finally, after all these misdiagnosis, or lack of diagnosis or whatever these things. I ended up in Boston. I had every symptom of a disease called Schwachman diamond syndrome, which is a celiac disease that prevents kids from growing and developing.

Wes Moss [00:05:24]:

Schwachman diamond?

Scott Hamilton [00:05:26]:

Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:05:26]:

Yeah.

Scott Hamilton [00:05:26]:

So Dr. Schwachman himself was looking after me. So I said, oh, finally, we have a solution to my issues and we’ll have a way forward. And he said, I’ve exhausted every test. He doesn’t have it. He has every symptom, but he doesn’t have the disease. So he sent us home with instructions that we need to just live a normal life and just see what happens. Maybe I’ll grow out of this thing, maybe, whatever.

Wes Moss [00:05:50]:

But not a lot of hope either.

Scott Hamilton [00:05:52]:

No, there was no path forward. It was just like, go home and see what happens. That was kind of like his medical advice. So after four years of being in and out of hospitals, to leave without any sort of identity to whatever this has been, it just was sort of, like, exhausting and shattering for my parents. And so our family physician, who lived down, like, three doors down the street from us, he came and he had a one man intervention to my parents, and he just said, you need a morning to recharge your batteries. This has been a physically, emotionally, spiritually exhausting for you guys. Financially, it’s been a disaster, and you need to shore yourselves up.

Wes Moss [00:06:33]:

You had a feeding tube.

Scott Hamilton [00:06:34]:

Yeah, that was toward the end. That was because they put me on a supplement, because they felt like that was the only thing keeping me alive. And so it was absolutely terrible. And I wouldn’t drink anymore, and I would tell my mom, I’m going into the bathroom to drink this, because in case I gag and I would just dump it out in the sink or the toilet, and then they go, you need to drink this. And it’s like, no, I’m not going to.

Wes Moss [00:06:58]:

So, like, making you drink this, like spinach.

Scott Hamilton [00:07:00]:

Chalk. No, it was chalk. It was not even, like, chocolate or vanilla chalk. It was just chalk. Chalk. Chalk. So our family physician came and goes, I think I have a compromise, because you need this supplement and you’re not going to drink it. I know you’re not going to drink it.

Scott Hamilton [00:07:16]:

So they put a tube up my nose, down my esophagus, and they would feed it to me that way. So on the day of the intervention, he said, you need a morning off, and here’s how you’re going to do it. Brand new facility at Bowling Green State University. It’s an ice arena where they teach children how to skate. From eight to noon every Saturday. So that’s what he should do. And so is it safe? Yeah. Lots of kids.

Scott Hamilton [00:07:40]:

Yeah. So perfect. So I walk into this, learn to skate with about 120 well kids, and it’s like, whoa, this is awesome. And after several weeks, I realized I could skate as well as the well kids. And then several weeks more, I realized I could skate as well as the best athletes in my grade. And for the very first time in my life, I had self esteem because I was always the shortest one, the weakest one, the last one, chosen all those kind of cliches, but that was kind of how I lived. And now all of a sudden, it was like, I can do something as well as the best athletes in my grade. Okay, I’m a rink rat.

Scott Hamilton [00:08:14]:

That’s all I’m going to do from now on.

Wes Moss [00:08:15]:

And this has started around age eight or nine.

Scott Hamilton [00:08:18]:

Yeah, nine at nine. So I was late to the game, but my build and my physicality and my personality were absolutely perfect for skating.

Wes Moss [00:08:28]:

For skating. And skating then made you, almost gave you an identity and gave you some health, didn’t it?

Scott Hamilton [00:08:35]:

Yeah. All of a sudden it happened pretty quick, and I really don’t know why or how, but all of a sudden I started to grow and I started to develop muscle and I started developing, and my parents are like, okay, we found something that works. You’re a skater.

Wes Moss [00:08:54]:

Keep skating.

Scott Hamilton [00:08:54]:

Yeah. And so I went through a lot of the bullying of being a figure skater in a small town, and all the other boys are playing hockey. And so I told my mom, I’m going to play hockey. And she goes, you’re a figure skater? I go, no, I’m going to figure skate, but I want to play hockey. And she said, well, no, you’re too small. And I go, I can skate better than all of them.

Wes Moss [00:09:12]:

That’s true.

Scott Hamilton [00:09:12]:

You could let me play hockey. So I ended up playing for, I could say, three seasons.

Wes Moss [00:09:18]:

So you did play ice hockey?

Scott Hamilton [00:09:19]:

Yeah, or two neck braces, whatever direction you want to go. And it was there that I realized, I’m twelve years old. I’m never going to be a hockey player. It’s really.

Wes Moss [00:09:29]:

You were just too small.

Scott Hamilton [00:09:30]:

Too small. And I was just getting wrecked because they allowed checking. Like, from day one, you got into this thing. So I just went all into figure skating. And at that time, most of my hockey player friends a I earned their respect because you can skate.

Wes Moss [00:09:44]:

They do, this dude can skate.

Scott Hamilton [00:09:46]:

But it was even better than that. They realized that I had more access to girls than they ever would. And so all of a sudden, it was like, hey, buddy. And it was okay. Here we go. So the skating thing, I was good regionally. I was okay sectionally, because the nation is chopped into nine different regions for figure skating, figure skating, and three regions feed a section, and then the three sections feed the nationals. Right? So it goes nine, three, one, right.

Scott Hamilton [00:10:19]:

So I didn’t make it to nationals my first year in novice, because that’s the entry level event for figure skating. To make it to the nationals, you have to be on the novice level. And so I was third in the figures and third in the freestyle.

Wes Moss [00:10:36]:

Third. Okay, what age are we talking here?

Scott Hamilton [00:10:38]:

We’re talking twelve. Yeah, I was twelve. So you think if I was third in the freestyle and third in the figures, that I’d be third overall? Well, I was fourth.

Wes Moss [00:10:49]:

So you didn’t make it.

Scott Hamilton [00:10:50]:

I didn’t make it. So we made a change. I went to Illinois to train with. So, by the way.

Wes Moss [00:10:54]:

So you weren’t like a prodigy right out of the gate?

Scott Hamilton [00:10:58]:

No, I was good. And I loved the comedians. I always thought if I could be an I show comedian someday, that’d be the greatest gig in the world. I could have a blast and make people laugh and do all those things. And all my heroes were the ice show comedians. It was like Freddie trankler from the Ice Capades and Terry head.

Wes Moss [00:11:17]:

So you really liked the Colin Beatty?

Scott Hamilton [00:11:21]:

I liked all the ice show comedians. I thought they were just. They ruled the world. And so I thought, I want to be an ice show comedian. And what was really fun was, as I got into my skating, I realized that being funny was kind of a superpower. If you could make people laugh or you could do things within your competitive programs, then you’re introducing an element that’s kind of missing, because it’s very serious, very formal, very structured, and then to kind of cut it up a little bit in the middle is, oh, that’d be a lot of fun. So we did that, especially toward the end. I did that in every one of my programs.

Scott Hamilton [00:11:54]:

But going through, like, my first year at nationals, it was Janet Lynn, who was the most popular woman athlete in the world at that time. She was competing in her last us nationals. So they put the novice boys event as the event right before that event. So the most popular woman athlete in the world in her last nationals, standing room only, in an arena in Minneapolis.

Wes Moss [00:12:20]:

How many people?

Scott Hamilton [00:12:21]:

17,500. A lot. Yeah. And I had to step in front of 17,500 people, and I ended up falling five times in my little three minute program, and I came in dead last. I was 9th out of nine. Next year, I went back figuring out, I’m going to show them what I’m made of. I was 9th out of ten, and then we figured I’d go up to Junior, so I went up to the junior level, figuring out what’s the worst thing that can happen. I’m last place guy again.

Wes Moss [00:12:51]:

So this is like age 14.

Scott Hamilton [00:12:52]:

Yeah, I’m going up like 1314 now I’m 15, I guess I was 16 going into my first year in junior.

Wes Moss [00:13:04]:

So you’re still progressing, but again, you’re.

Scott Hamilton [00:13:06]:

Not like, oh, I’m last place guy? Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:13:08]:

They’re not like, oh, this guy’s going to the Olympics.

Scott Hamilton [00:13:11]:

No, my mom thought I was going to the Olympics.

Wes Moss [00:13:14]:

You thought you were going to ice show comedy?

Scott Hamilton [00:13:15]:

Yeah. No, I was just competing because it was a means to an end, and it kept me in skating because that was the only thing you could do back then except for the ice shows, like the club ice shows and things like that. So I did what I was told, nothing more. And that’s significant because I would do as I was told and nothing more, which means that I wasn’t getting the most out of each training session. So I was definitely participating in me being a last place guy because there were other guys that were working harder, that had better work ethic who had sort of this driving ambition to win. Win. For me, it was as much a social activity as it was.

Wes Moss [00:13:54]:

You were kind of just having fun.

Scott Hamilton [00:13:56]:

I was having fun and I would show up, but I wasn’t showing up with intention of rocking it. Right. So I go into the junior level and I go to nationals, and my mom said I had to make it to nationals that year because they were in Oakland, California. And she wanted.

Wes Moss [00:14:13]:

She wanted to go to Cali.

Scott Hamilton [00:14:14]:

She wanted to go to San Francisco and ride the cable cars and do all that. It was a family vacation, so especially with where I was competitively, I wasn’t going there. It was a family vacation, so I ended up coming in 7th. So the two guys that I beat were mortified, I’m sure, like, Hamilton beat you. Really? Ooh, that’s rough, dude. You must be so embarrassed. That’s going to light a fire under your tail. If he can beat you, you got to get better.

Scott Hamilton [00:14:40]:

So it was right after that that my mom said, family meeting. And it was like, okay, family meeting. We never had a family meeting before. And in that, she was very cheerful, very upbeat. She said, I’ve just come from the doctor, and I’ve been diagnosed with a disease called cancer, and we’re going to have to make a few changes around here. And then I was becoming the next year, I’d be a senior in high school. And she just said, and you and I go, yes, ma’am. And she said, we’re basically bankrupt.

Scott Hamilton [00:15:13]:

We’ve put everything into your skating. We’ve got really not much left, but we’re going to get you through your last competitive season this year, and then next year you’ll go to college, because we’re both professors now, so they made.

Wes Moss [00:15:25]:

An okay living, but it was expensive. A, all those medical years with you.

Scott Hamilton [00:15:31]:

B, traveling, it just drained them. It just really drained them. So I went back to Illinois to train for my season, and my main coach had retired. So a new coach came in, and he was pretty structured. That’s a nice way of saying he was a hard. He was a totalitarian dictator. So I had to succumb or suffer. So I just did whatever he told me to do, and I worked a little harder, and I show up a little bit better, and I had more intention.

Scott Hamilton [00:16:01]:

And I went to the nationals that year, and it was going to be my last competition ever. And about two weeks before, I’d landed my first triple. And so my coach said, what have we got to lose? We’ll just put it in the program. Okay, we’ll put in the program. And so my mom arrived. It was in Colorado Springs, and she had had her left breast removed, mostly inside of her left arm to the cancer. And then she was wearing a wig because she lost all of her hair to chemo, but she had the biggest smile on her face, and it was like, are you okay? And she goes, I’m actually great. And I thought maybe it was the drugs they put her on or something.

Scott Hamilton [00:16:33]:

I had no idea. So she was wearing a sling so people wouldn’t bump into her. And she was still. I could tell she was pretty uncomfortable. And I went out to do my long program, and I was in a better position than I’d been in the past because I’d actually worked harder because the Coach scared me to death. And I was going out for a warm up, and he grabbed the back of my pants, and he pulled me off the ice, and I was like, yes, sir. And he said, don’t warm up your triple salcow. And I said, why? And he said, because we don’t really want to know if it’s there or not.

Wes Moss [00:17:02]:

So for our audience, what is a triple salcal?

Scott Hamilton [00:17:05]:

So you go backwards, you’re gliding on your left foot. Just put weight on the inside of your foot, at your inside edge. So you’re going backwards on your left inside edge, and then you’re rotating counterclockwise, three revolutions, and landing backwards on your right foot. Sounds easy. Yeah, it’s not easy.

Wes Moss [00:17:27]:

Were people doing triples back then?

Scott Hamilton [00:17:28]:

Yeah, there are a lot of really good, talented skaters. Like, really talented skaters that year, especially because.

Wes Moss [00:17:35]:

As a spectator, you hear the triple axle. The triple. Is there a triple something?

Scott Hamilton [00:17:40]:

Triple. Lindy was in a Rodney Dangerfield movie, so that was not be. No. Yeah, it was a diving movie back to school. That was a triple Lindy.

Wes Moss [00:17:53]:

And then there’s the jumps are.

Scott Hamilton [00:17:55]:

There’s six takeoffs, right? They’re the same in the air. And the landing, it’s the takeoff that makes them different. Right. So there’s three edge jumps and three toe jumps. Right? Which are the axle, saokao and loop are the three edge triple loop. Okay.

Wes Moss [00:18:08]:

I don’t remember.

Scott Hamilton [00:18:09]:

Okay. And then the toe jumps, which are the vaulting jumps, are the toe loop, flip and Lutz.

Wes Moss [00:18:14]:

Oh, the Lutz, is it there a triple? There’s a double triple Lutz. What is the Lutz?

Scott Hamilton [00:18:19]:

The Lutz is you’re going. The Lindy Lutz is you’re going backwards on your left outside edge, and then you have to reach back. You put your toe in the ice, and then you have to rotate counterclockwise. So you’re going against that forward arm. You’re going against it to rotate three times around and then land backwards on your right foot.

Wes Moss [00:18:37]:

So you’re able to at least attempt these in competition.

Scott Hamilton [00:18:43]:

Yeah, so I didn’t warm up the triple sow. I went out to do my long program for that competition.

Wes Moss [00:18:47]:

Your mom is there.

Scott Hamilton [00:18:48]:

My mom’s in the corner. And I landed my first jump, which was normal. And then usually the most difficult jump in my program. Like, my view at the end of that jump was of the ceiling, because I was usually laying flat on my back. So this time I just decided, I’ll throw a triple sow, because what have I got?

Wes Moss [00:19:05]:

What have I got to lose? Yeah.

Scott Hamilton [00:19:06]:

And so that’s kind of the way you do things, with an open hand instead of a clenched fist. And I landed it, and I got so excited, I forgot to mess up the rest of my program.

Wes Moss [00:19:15]:

You nailed that program.

Scott Hamilton [00:19:17]:

And I won junior nationals. So now I had eight embarrassed guys instead of just two from the year before.

Wes Moss [00:19:22]:

Like, where did this guy come from?

Scott Hamilton [00:19:24]:

Where did this guy come from. But what I didn’t know is that my mom, on the way to the competition, had met a couple in Chicago who heard about me and had wealth, no children, and decided they wanted to sponsor me. So she already knew that it wasn’t my last competition, but I didn’t, and she didn’t really want to mess me up with any of that information. So the only string attached was I had to move to Denver. Instead of trading in Illinois, I’d be trading in Denver, and I’d be taking from a guy who that year was coaching a girl named Dorothy Hamill to an Olympic gold medal. So basically, I won the lottery. And so the next year, I went up to the senior level, because that’s what you do when you’re a junior champion.

Wes Moss [00:20:08]:

Those kids are, what, 18 and up?

Scott Hamilton [00:20:10]:

Yeah, usually. Well, it’s not an age thing. It’s a test thing. You have to test to get into that level. And so I went up into seniors, and I was sponsored, had my very first apartment, and I turned 18 years old. It’s called the trifecta. I wes such a loser. I had all this stuff going for me, and I was too immature, and I was too stupid to take advantage of it.

Scott Hamilton [00:20:35]:

So I went to the nationals. My mom was there, and I fell on my first jump so hard that my leg sort of went into, like, a sciatica thing. My right leg, my landing leg was kind of, like, weakened and sort of numb. And so I crawled through the rest of the program, and I went back to my 9th place back thing. Several months after that competition, I’m back home because my mom had taken a turn for the worst.

Wes Moss [00:21:09]:

Was there any thought of going to school at that point, or you knew you were skating?

Scott Hamilton [00:21:14]:

Well, at that point, I’d graduated high school. I went into the senior level, and it was sort of an all in type of thing because I was in a training center where all the other skaters were sort of all in. Some were doing, is this a new.

Wes Moss [00:21:27]:

Coach, or is this the same hard ass coach?

Scott Hamilton [00:21:29]:

No, this is the coach that coach. Dorothy.

Wes Moss [00:21:31]:

Dorothy. Ammo.

Scott Hamilton [00:21:32]:

Gold medal. So I went first year. It was like, loser. And then months later, I go back home, and my mom had taken a turn for the worse, and I was in a room to about 330 in the morning, and I was sleeping on the couch in my dad’s home. I was sleeping on the couch in the family room because we had a lot of people there to support us. And my brother in law woke me up that next morning, and he said, your mother is gone. And for me, she was everything. She was like the person in the world I love the most.

Scott Hamilton [00:22:05]:

And we had such a great relationship, and I just adored her. And now she was gone. And I just had to figure out how am I going to do life without her? And it was in that that I decided I didn’t have to, that I could take her with me wherever I went, and I could have her hold me accountable. So instead of being loser, man, I went to the rink every day with a passion. And with her. With her. I’m going to be late. No, honor her.

Scott Hamilton [00:22:33]:

Be on time. So I honored her. I don’t feel like doing a long program run through today. It’s summer. I’m in altitude. Who cares about summer long programs? Do the full run through. Honor her. So I did the full run through.

Scott Hamilton [00:22:44]:

And so in that, I was in the best shape of my life. And from that 9th place, horrific finish that she saw as the last time she ever saw me skate in competition. The next year, I’m on the podium at senior nationals, and two years later, I’m on the Olympic team in Lake Placid. And then for, I’d switch coaches. My coach in Denver lost interest in me a little bit. And so another coach who wasn’t nearly as qualified or as high ranking as that coach said, I’ll coach you up. You’ll be fine.

Wes Moss [00:23:20]:

By the way, you’re at this point a few years away, several years away from winning a gold medal. Why did that coach lose interest?

Scott Hamilton [00:23:27]:

I think it’s because he wanted to go to another facility. He wanted to leave the rink where he was and go.

Wes Moss [00:23:36]:

He didn’t like gold medals.

Scott Hamilton [00:23:37]:

Well, no, he wanted to go to a place that had all the political power and was close to us, figure skating headquarters and had all the toys, like where he was. He was really just trying to make it work. He really wanted to get back to another place. And honestly, I wasn’t really. After the year I made it to world and I was on the podium that first year after I lost my mom the next year, I core my ankle up really bad, and it was playing catch up the whole season.

Wes Moss [00:24:04]:

So he didn’t think this is like an Olympic.

Scott Hamilton [00:24:08]:

And he still saw me as kind of like that guy that came in 9th two years before. And so I met with him. I said, if you want me to stay, I’ll stay, but if you don’t, I can go take from Don laws. And he goes, I like Don. Don’s a friend of mine. If you went to take from him, I wouldn’t be upset.

Wes Moss [00:24:23]:

Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:24:24]:

And he never said no.

Wes Moss [00:24:27]:

Yeah, he’d be great.

Scott Hamilton [00:24:28]:

Yeah, I went to Philadelphia. Yeah, I went to Philadelphia and made it to the Olympics that year. And then starting in October.

Wes Moss [00:24:36]:

That was placid, right?

Scott Hamilton [00:24:37]:

That was like placid. That was so much fun. You were how old? 2021. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:24:43]:

Just a kid.

Scott Hamilton [00:24:44]:

Still? Still, yeah. I mean, totally oblivious. How am I going to do this on my own? Don’t worry about that right now. You’re sponsored and you’re a skater, by the way.

Wes Moss [00:24:54]:

Back then, are you just making, like, a little tiny bit of money to serve? You didn’t have weedies at that point?

Scott Hamilton [00:25:00]:

No, I was delivering pizzas, and we’d get a little bit of a stipend for doing these big tours, so I would have enough money to kind of get me through the year with gas.

Wes Moss [00:25:09]:

You’re delivering pizza and on the Olympic team?

Scott Hamilton [00:25:12]:

Yeah. Well, actually, I got fired from my pizza delivery job because what pizza place was it? It wasn’t a chain. It was like a local pizza place. Yeah, I loved it, too, man. It was the best pizza. They had the best cheesesteaks I’ve ever eaten in Philadelphia. It was awesome. And I would deliver, and then I had to go.

Scott Hamilton [00:25:30]:

I was an alternate for a competition in Japan, and I had to go because I got called up, like the week before, and I told my boss, I go, look, I have to go to Japan. And he’s like, he didn’t believe me. It’s like, how many people at work for him? I’m going, oh, by the way, I can’t work next weekend because I’m going to Japan. He’s like, you’re a terrible person. You’re fired. Get out of my sight. I never want see you again. It’s like, andy, I’m sorry, I just have to go to Japan.

Scott Hamilton [00:25:53]:

He’s like, I don’t believe you. Get out of here. And then all of a sudden, I make it onto the Olympic team. I’m getting all this media in Philadelphia, and I get a call from Andy saying, you can have your job back whenever you want. And I was like, oh, that’s a perk of winning, is like, you get your job back delivering pizzas.

Wes Moss [00:26:13]:

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Scott Hamilton [00:26:47]:

And here’s a crazy part. So my former coach Carlo, who was at that rink in Denver, he got his job that he wanted in Colorado Springs, so his rink became vacant. So my coach, my new coach, Don laws, he took over the old rink in Denver.

Wes Moss [00:27:02]:

So you got to go back to.

Scott Hamilton [00:27:03]:

Denver, back to Denver. And that’s like, never burn a bridge because you could end up right back where you were before. So I went back and I had tons of friends there, and I had a really good life.

Wes Moss [00:27:14]:

By the way, training with skating, the altitude, does that help you too? It can a little bit or not with skating as much?

Scott Hamilton [00:27:21]:

Well, every Olympics are at altitude because of the skating. So it kind of helps you be prepared for the Olympics. But all those world championships are generally at sea level or below after the 80 season, 81 starting in October actually, of 1980 at Skate Canada in Calgary from that competition on and never lost again as an amateur.

Wes Moss [00:27:48]:

So that’s when you started to take off. You get to the Olympics in Lake Placid. Now, you did not win there yet.

Scott Hamilton [00:27:54]:

No, I was fifth.

Wes Moss [00:27:55]:

Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:27:55]:

But I thought if I was 8th, that would be really.

Wes Moss [00:27:58]:

You did. You felt good about Lake Placid, and then how did you ascend to the best guy in the world?

Scott Hamilton [00:28:06]:

Well, a lot of it’s attrition. So you have the five guys, okay? The four guys in front of me. Right? So I’m fifth. Robin Cousins, the gold medalist, turned professional. Jan Hoffman, the silver medalist, went to medical school. Charlie Tickner, the bronze medalist, went, turned professional. So all I had to do, Wes, wake up and I’m right, second in the world. Okay, so that’s a good cup of coffee.

Scott Hamilton [00:28:29]:

And the guy that I needed to beat.

Wes Moss [00:28:31]:

Yeah, who did you have to beat? And this is in 84 in Sarajevo.

Scott Hamilton [00:28:36]:

This is 81. This is going into that first four years. Four, yeah, this is going into that next four years because they retired right after the world championships in 1980. So now I’m like second in the world with like four years to go for the next Olympics. And it’s like, wow, that’s like a minefield or like a gauntlet.

Wes Moss [00:28:53]:

Not get hurt.

Scott Hamilton [00:28:54]:

Yeah. So the guy had to beat, ironically, was. Remember when I fell five times and came in dead last in novice nationals? He was twelve years old on the senior men’s podium because he was a genius.

Wes Moss [00:29:06]:

He was like a prodigy.

Scott Hamilton [00:29:07]:

Prodigy. And he was brilliant at compulsory figures, of which I hated compulsory figures. So I had to repair my relationship with figures. And so I did that and kind of fell in love with them. And it was really awesome because I started to get good at them. And then we went head to head. That year I won nationals in San Diego, and then we went to the worlds in Hartford, Connecticut, and he was in first after the short, and I was in third after the short, and I won the long to pull up to first, and he was second. So it wes a really good run.

Wes Moss [00:29:41]:

All of a sudden now you’re number one.

Scott Hamilton [00:29:43]:

And then the whole next year, undefeated on 82. And then going into 83, the year before the Olympics, things were kind of shaken up a little bit. We had boytano coming up. We had Orsa coming up. You had this guy from Europe named Norbert Shram who was kind of turning heads, and it was like, whoa, it’s game on. I got two years to go, and this is going to be tight. And so I won in 83 that whole season, and then going into 84, it was kind of mine to lose. And so had a great fall season, won nationals.

Scott Hamilton [00:30:21]:

My goal was to win nationals, every single aspect of the competition by every judge, and I did that. That’s kind of a cool goal. And then I went to the Olympics and I didn’t skate as well as I trained all year, but I was able because I knew, I did the math. Looking at the entire field strategically, I knew the way that they scored the competition. If I was top three in figures, short and long, I couldn’t lose the gold medal mathematically.

Wes Moss [00:30:52]:

As long as you were top three in all of them.

Scott Hamilton [00:30:54]:

All three.

Wes Moss [00:30:54]:

But you didn’t necessarily have to win any of them?

Scott Hamilton [00:30:57]:

No.

Wes Moss [00:30:58]:

Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:30:58]:

Because I knew that I’d be top three in figures, and then the really good free skaters were going to be down in figures, and then if I was top three in short, that would keep me ahead. And if I was top three and long, I’d be ahead of enough where they couldn’t catch me in a long program. So I won the.

Wes Moss [00:31:15]:

And by the way, the long program is long.

Scott Hamilton [00:31:17]:

Well, back then it was. Well, it went from five minutes in Hartford that first year, I won worlds to four and a half minutes.

Wes Moss [00:31:26]:

I’ve looked up some clips of you, and I guess maybe it was the.

Scott Hamilton [00:31:29]:

Maybe it was just boring that you thought it was that long. No, I think it was.

Wes Moss [00:31:33]:

What about, what was it in 19, 80, 80?

Scott Hamilton [00:31:35]:

Wes, five minutes.

Wes Moss [00:31:36]:

Okay. And I remember thinking, like, how do you do this for this long? It’s hard doing your triple luts. It looks like you’re sprinting for five full minutes.

Scott Hamilton [00:31:49]:

Yeah, it’s kind of. You choreographed out of breath. You’re out of breath at the end. You’re toast. Done. You’re toast. It’s just.

Wes Moss [00:31:56]:

So how did you do in each one of those? Did you do one, two, three, then?

Scott Hamilton [00:32:00]:

So I won the figures, which did great, because I beat a guy that was beyond fantastic in figures. He’s probably the best figures skater probably.

Wes Moss [00:32:08]:

Ever in figures is what?

Scott Hamilton [00:32:10]:

The eight? The compulsory eight. You trace eight around.

Wes Moss [00:32:14]:

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:32:15]:

And they’re all different shapes and sizes and turns within those eights. And sometimes they’re three circles. It’s really complex and it’s all technique and it’s all repetition. And by the time I got to loop. So loop is the circles are about as big as you are tall, right. So they’re much smaller circles. And so you have to do a loop at the top of each circle, right. So it was a three circle figure.

Scott Hamilton [00:32:40]:

So you push off, you change edge. You do a loop in the top, and then you push off and you change edge and you do a loop at the bottom, and you do that three times. And the way I remember it, because the guy that I was competing against again with the great figures guy, I beat him five to four, five judges to four on the first figure, which was huge, because nobody thought anyone would ever beat him in figures. And then the next figure, I beat him seven to two. He crushed the guy. And then when I got to the loop, it was like the three tracings were like one line. It was beautiful. I looked at it.

Scott Hamilton [00:33:14]:

I was like, this is like the greatest thing I’ve ever done. I want to frame it. I want to take it home. I want to take a picture of it. It was so perfect that it was like, I can’t believe I just did that. And I beat him nine nothing. So going into the short program, I was really adrenalized. And it’s the Olympics.

Scott Hamilton [00:33:32]:

You got the rings on the boards. All the media was telling me if I didn’t win, it was so much pressure. It was humiliating for I’m the only lock. You’ve got to win. You’ve got to win. If you don’t win, it’s a loss. So I go into the short. I couldn’t feel my legs in the short program practice.

Wes Moss [00:33:49]:

Because you were nervous?

Scott Hamilton [00:33:50]:

Because I was scared to death, because now I had everything to lose. And the short program is if you miss one element, you’re done, right?

Wes Moss [00:33:59]:

If you’re supposed to do a double. And you don’t. Your score is terrible.

Scott Hamilton [00:34:05]:

There’s seven required elements, and if you miss any of them, it’s like you’re giving points to the rest of the field. The cliche is you can’t win a competition in the short program, but you can most certainly lose one. So I went out. I was so nervous, I couldn’t even land a jump. And people were screaming, and it was crazy, and there were signs everywhere. And I was like. And if I had to skate first after the warm up, I would have been in trouble. But I found an empty dressing room in the backstage, and I found a mirror, and I remember shouting every expletive you’ve ever heard in your life, like, to the point where I had no voice left because I was screaming at the top of my lungs to purge all the adrenaline out of my body.

Wes Moss [00:34:57]:

So you’re just screaming there like a crazy person.

Scott Hamilton [00:34:59]:

Like a crazy person. Mother. Yeah. How can you come this far? And I just got it all out, and I went out to skate my short program. I was kind of woof. I was a little tired, and I hit the combination like it was butter. And then double axle was gorgeous. And I got so excited that the footwork, I almost kind of clipped the wall.

Scott Hamilton [00:35:22]:

Coming around, picking up speed for the footwork, got down to the end. I almost clipped the wall on the other side. And then I go into the camel spin, which was my least favorite. It’s like, wes, have 1ft down and your legs back behind you, and it’s like your body and your leg are kind of parallel to the ice. And I hated that spin, but I got better at it. And I was so, like, adrenalized that I went into that spin. I hit the toe too soon, and it went, instead of going one, two, you have to do five revolutions on each foot. It went one and a half, two.

Scott Hamilton [00:35:58]:

And I’m like. I’m, like, doing everything I can to get this spin around. And then I changed feet, and I got the required revolutions in. But my coach.

Wes Moss [00:36:08]:

Not as good as you wanted.

Scott Hamilton [00:36:09]:

Not nearly as good as I wanted to. And so Brian Orser, man, he skated great. He was amazing. And we had a broken tie, actually, for the short program, so he won the short. I was second. So now I hadn’t lost a long program in almost four years. So we’re going into the long program, but going back to practice, which was really funny. We’re in Sarajevo, I’m on practice, and I look up in the stands and there’s Brian Orser.

Scott Hamilton [00:36:37]:

Up in the stands and it’s like, okay, watch this. So I do a clean run through of my long program.

Wes Moss [00:36:43]:

Like, perfect form it.

Scott Hamilton [00:36:45]:

Four and a half minutes. Four and a half minutes clean. Like, hit every single jump. And I’m bowing to the audience that’s there at practice. And I looked up at him and I was like, oh, crap. He’s going to beat me in the long program. He’s going to win the long program. I go, oh, come on.

Scott Hamilton [00:37:01]:

I worked too hard for this. And by the time we got to long, the whole right side of my head was just filled. I had a cold, and it was just filled with, and I couldn’t hear out of my right ear. And I was just off balance. And I didn’t use that as an excuse on the night. Nobody knew I was sick. I didn’t even bring it up during the competition. I just skated.

Scott Hamilton [00:37:19]:

I didn’t skate as well as I could, but he won the long. I was second.

Wes Moss [00:37:24]:

So he did win that one.

Scott Hamilton [00:37:25]:

Yeah. So he pulled all the way up to second, and I stayed first. So I won an Olympic gold medal, which to me, to this day, still.

Wes Moss [00:37:37]:

Doesn’T make it two skating questions, because then I want to get into some of the. Then you went through some serious struggles after that.

Scott Hamilton [00:37:43]:

Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:37:44]:

This is just for the guy watching a commercial for the Olympics. I see a gymnast do a triple whatever, and Simone Biles does a triple off the vault and lands it. I see you do a triple lutz. That’s my first question. The second one, maybe this is easier at first. How the hell do you not fall down, throw up dizzy? When you do those million spins, your.

Scott Hamilton [00:38:13]:

Body gets used to it. So your body can adjust to just about anything so you don’t get dizzy when you do.

Wes Moss [00:38:19]:

I mean, you’re doing like, what, 20 when you’re ripping around in a circle.

Scott Hamilton [00:38:22]:

When you do, like, a combination spin, especially now, you have to hold each position for, I think, I don’t know how many revolutions it is. I’m supposed to know this, like 20 seconds? No, each one is, you got to hold it for at least two revolutions, sometimes three. And then if you want the bonus points, you hold one position for nine revolutions. So in a spin like that, you could do 25.

Wes Moss [00:38:51]:

And again, you get used to it. I always think, how do you not just fall down?

Scott Hamilton [00:38:54]:

Well, I always rotate it counterclockwise, jumps and spins. So if I rotate, why does that help? Because, well, your body gets used to rotating in a certain direction.

Wes Moss [00:39:04]:

Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:39:04]:

So if I were to try to do a spin clockwise.

Wes Moss [00:39:07]:

You would get this.

Scott Hamilton [00:39:08]:

I would totally get sick. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:39:09]:

Okay. So that answers that long standing question that I’ve had since I was like five.

Scott Hamilton [00:39:13]:

Your body can get used to anything. It’s really amazing. It’s really miraculous, actually.

Wes Moss [00:39:17]:

And then when you are doing your. And I guess this is for ski. Anybody that’s jumping and flipping, I think about Sean White. And.

Scott Hamilton [00:39:26]:

Do you.

Wes Moss [00:39:26]:

Are you conscious of that? Or is it more like, you know, you have to get a launch point, you tuck, and all of a sudden you’re landing. Or do you feel it while you’re in the.

Scott Hamilton [00:39:37]:

So when was the last time you were able to. Are you a golfer? Yeah. Okay, so golf ring, it goes like one, 1000 to 1000, right? So it’s about 2 seconds in a golf swing, right. If you have good rhythm. So in a jump, a skating jump, by the time you take off to the landing, if it’s gigantic, it’s 0.7 seconds.

Wes Moss [00:40:04]:

The three.

Scott Hamilton [00:40:05]:

Yeah. Okay, so you’re going from zero to three revolutions to zero in 0.6, usually seconds. So how many things can you think about in 0.6 seconds? Nothing. It’s repetition. Repetition. It’s timing. It’s repetition. It’s repetition.

Scott Hamilton [00:40:22]:

More repetition, timing and getting into a rhythm and a consistency that allows you to kind of rise above any negative thoughts that you might have.

Wes Moss [00:40:31]:

Because it looks impossible.

Scott Hamilton [00:40:33]:

It is impossible. But then you have to make it look easy. And then once you make it look easy, nobody really thinks that it’s hard anymore. They just think it’s skating.

Wes Moss [00:40:41]:

It’s like, hey, we’re going to do four.

Scott Hamilton [00:40:44]:

Nathan Chen, I mean, what he does.

Wes Moss [00:40:46]:

Somebody do four spins?

Scott Hamilton [00:40:47]:

No, he did like six in a program for quads. He did six quads in a program.

Wes Moss [00:40:53]:

And that’s like a quadruple actual. Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:40:55]:

Yeah. So that’s insane. That’s freaking mutant stuff, right? So Nathan was like, he was so far ahead of everyone, and it was great to see him do as well as he did.

Wes Moss [00:41:09]:

Are you still commenting?

Scott Hamilton [00:41:10]:

Will you be commentating? Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:41:15]:

Why do we have you back commenting? You’re the best commentator on NBC.

Scott Hamilton [00:41:19]:

I think it was a lot of think, you know, when Johnny and Tara came in and Sochi, they turned a lot of heads. And I think that the network just thought, know, fresh faces, fresh approach, fresh, look fresh, fresh. And they’re really very gifted in a lot of the social media aspects, which. It draws more focus because you don’t.

Wes Moss [00:41:40]:

Have enough instant chat followers. You’re not allowed to be the commentator anymore.

Scott Hamilton [00:41:46]:

I think it was just. There was such a breath of fresh air that I just felt like the network just felt like it was time for a change. So I went into more of a pregame, post game role.

Wes Moss [00:41:58]:

Oh, so you are doing something with the network.

Scott Hamilton [00:42:01]:

Wes did a thing in Pyeongchang, and I actually did Beijing Olympics in my basement. They set up a room in my basement.

Wes Moss [00:42:10]:

Well, that was still in the middle.

Scott Hamilton [00:42:11]:

Of COVID Wasn’t like nobody, really, except for the interviewers, went to Beijing. Everybody was in Stamford, Connecticut. But I stayed home, and I did it in my basement. And it was really cool because I had enough Internet capacity for them to put a remote control camera and lighting in my basement. And they did, like, a backdrop, which was match the studio that they were doing this Olympic icing.

Wes Moss [00:42:38]:

So it looked like you were there.

Scott Hamilton [00:42:39]:

Yeah. So it felt like I was there. And it matched enough where I would get up, I would go grab a cup of coffee. I’d go down into my little basement studio. It was like an empty bedroom. And I would do the rehearsal and walk through the elements of the show. I’d go back up, make breakfast for my kids. They’d go to school.

Scott Hamilton [00:42:59]:

I’d go back down, do the Olympics, and then I’d come back upstairs, I’d make myself breakfast, and then go back down. Wes have a meeting for the next day. And that was how I did the Olympics. It was so easy. I felt guilty.

Wes Moss [00:43:14]:

It was only two weeks, right?

Scott Hamilton [00:43:16]:

Yeah, 16 days. But do you realize. And here’s the crazy thing. They still haven’t had an award ceremony for the first event held at the Beijing Olympics.

Wes Moss [00:43:26]:

Why not?

Scott Hamilton [00:43:27]:

Because Camilla valieva failed a drug test, and they can’t make up their minds on what they’re going to do. So the current leadership at the IOC broke the Olympic charter by not making a decision because they couldn’t decide what to do.

Wes Moss [00:43:43]:

So it’s still in limbo.

Scott Hamilton [00:43:44]:

It’s still in limbo.

Wes Moss [00:43:45]:

Why wouldn’t.

Scott Hamilton [00:43:46]:

Well, what they did in order to prevent that from happening again, you’re not allowed to go to the Olympics unless you’re 17 years old by such and such a date.

Wes Moss [00:43:53]:

Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:43:54]:

And that gave WADA, the World Anti Doping association jurisdiction over every athlete right now because she was so young. Yeah. How old was she? She was 15 when she did the doping test, but she was 16 at the Olympics.

Wes Moss [00:44:07]:

Okay.

Scott Hamilton [00:44:08]:

So they said they didn’t have jurisdiction, but still, it’s like, it’s their event. It’s like we have to keep the Olympics clean. So if someone regardless of their age, fails a drug test, then they need to sit down and take a. And if they participate, having failed a drug test, then I do think that those results should be thrown out. That would give the United States an Olympic medal team competition. I’m not being a homer. I’m just saying it’s the right thing to do.

Wes Moss [00:44:38]:

Yeah, it’s okay to be a homer.

Scott Hamilton [00:44:41]:

Usually I am.

Wes Moss [00:44:43]:

The other thing about it, we sometimes forget because we think about sports in America as most popular sport is Texas versus Philadelphia or whatever it may be, Miami versus the Eagles. But the thing is about golf and about figure skating and the Olympic sports, snowboarding, it’s you against the entire world. So you’re not just competing in the United States, you’re competing against the best people in every single country around the world, which I always get reminded of when I start talking about the Olympics. After all of this, though, it wasn’t as though you went to the Olympics, got a gold medal, and then everything was awesome.

Scott Hamilton [00:45:30]:

No.

Wes Moss [00:45:31]:

So you faced a. I know you’ve given. I remember hearing you say you gave away a medal.

Scott Hamilton [00:45:37]:

I got rid of my gold medal because it just sort of offended me, and it was really wild.

Wes Moss [00:45:44]:

Why did it offend you?

Scott Hamilton [00:45:45]:

Well, now I understand because I came to faith that it could become an idol. But it wes in that it was like I saw so many guys get stuck. Like, that’s it. And it was so ironic that so many Olympic athletes. Yeah. They get stuck in that moment so much that that’s their entire identity.

Wes Moss [00:46:03]:

And it’s hard to go beyond.

Scott Hamilton [00:46:05]:

I mean, they can’t. They’re stuck. Right. And a lot of people get stuck in that. And I’m not judging them. I didn’t want that to be my journey because I still wanted to be an ice show comedian. Right. So after that season, I joined the Ice Capades.

Scott Hamilton [00:46:21]:

Right. And the president of Ice Capades is somebody I truly respect and admire. We actually became really close friends. But when I signed, he said we had to sign you because we didn’t want you to go to our competition. But I know how it’s going to go. You’re going to party, you’re going to think the work is done because it’s so easy. You’re going to miss shows. I go, no, I actually want to build a career.

Scott Hamilton [00:46:43]:

So I’m going to be the best employee you’ve ever had. So for the next two years, I never missed a show, never missed a press call. I was a model employee. I signed a limited contract, so I wasn’t doing 33 weeks. I was doing 20, but I’d end up doing 23 each year because there were other athletes that got hurt or got sick, and I would step in for them. So I was beyond what I promised them I would do. I went above and beyond that. So after two years, I had a third year option, and the president of the company was there at the event on my last night, on my second year, and I was like, here comes my third year option.

Scott Hamilton [00:47:19]:

It’s going to be awesome. And the end of the show, he came up and he said, you did it. You did everything you said you were going to do. You are probably easily one of the most reliable, and you stay at the top of your game, and congratulations. And I said, thanks. And then he put his arm around me, started to walk. I go, so, you know, we went through a sale, and I go, I can’t wait to meet the new owner. And he said, well, he doesn’t want to meet you.

Scott Hamilton [00:47:47]:

I said, why? And he said, because they only want women stars. So after two years of performing perfectly, I lose my job. And in that, I had to figure out what was next. And my management was IMG. And they came and they said, look, we’d love you to help us put a tour together. And I said, let me check my calendar.

Wes Moss [00:48:11]:

It’s kind of open.

Scott Hamilton [00:48:12]:

Yeah, it’s a little bit open. So we built a show called Stars on Ice.

Wes Moss [00:48:17]:

You started that?

Scott Hamilton [00:48:18]:

I found it.

Wes Moss [00:48:19]:

You founded it with IMG.

Scott Hamilton [00:48:20]:

Yeah. And so that’s still going. Ice Capade is not so much. They needed more men to sell tickets. Passive aggression, but it’s that, right? So I was given this incredible career. I thought if I skated four years, that I was fooling a lot of people. And now I’m in year 13, my profession.

Wes Moss [00:48:40]:

Still doing it. Yeah.

Scott Hamilton [00:48:41]:

And I couldn’t stand up straight anymore. And that’s after 50 cities of pain. I went into an emergency room. Just say, I think I’ve got an ulcer. Just give me some medicine. I got a show tonight. I got to get back to work. And the doctor said, we found a mass.

Scott Hamilton [00:48:56]:

And I was like, I don’t know what that is. And he said, it’s either benign, malignant, or something else. It was like two months shy of the 20th anniversary of losing my mom, and I’m realizing I’m being diagnosed with the same disease, the same cancer that your mom. No, she had. Breast cancer. I didn’t know what I had. It was my abdomen. So I did the show that night.

Scott Hamilton [00:49:18]:

Next day, I went to the Cleveland clinic, and they did a biopsy, and they found that I had stage three testicular cancer. So I had to stop skating. I had to go right into chemotherapy. And then I did that for four months. And then I did a 38 staple surgery. Surgery. And they removed the offending soldier. And then it was sort of back to life.

Scott Hamilton [00:49:43]:

So I was back on tour the.

Wes Moss [00:49:44]:

Next year, but it took a year to recover?

Scott Hamilton [00:49:48]:

No, I didn’t give myself a year to recover. So I was diagnosed on March 16, 1997. At the end of November 1997, we did our first show of stars on.

Wes Moss [00:50:02]:

So it wasn’t even a year.

Scott Hamilton [00:50:03]:

No, my first show back was October 29. We did a back on the ice special with CBS.

Wes Moss [00:50:08]:

So that’s after surgery, after every radiation.

Scott Hamilton [00:50:11]:

I had no business doing any of this stuff, but I did it because that was my carrot. I wanted to get my life back. I wanted to get back on tour. I had to get my life back. And so all of that attention that I was getting as a cancer patient and survivor spilled over into that touring season. And it was really unbelievable, the crowds that showed up and the compassion that people had towards me and for everything that I had done.

Wes Moss [00:50:39]:

Knowing what you had gone.

Scott Hamilton [00:50:40]:

Yeah. And so I was just back on the road, but my life was different.

Wes Moss [00:50:48]:

Had you started a family at that point?

Scott Hamilton [00:50:50]:

No, I was in a relationship, and I just realized that there’s something about this that just wrecked me, that just broke me. And my mom didn’t have a second chance, and I did. So what am I going to do with my second chance? And I needed to work it out, so I stepped away from my went. I just got my car and I started to drive, and I ended up in LA. And I realized when I got there, that’s a really great place to be alone. La. No, it’s fences and hedges and walls and people basically live in their cars. It’s a great place to kind of.

Scott Hamilton [00:51:26]:

If you want to be alone, you can be easily alone in LA. So I did that, and then I would go back to tour, and then I did that. And it was on three years to the day of my diagnosis that I met a girl backstage in Memphis who would become my wife. And nine months and two days after we got married, my first son was born. And I did the math, and now we’re living life. And then he was about 14 months old, and I became symptomatic.

Wes Moss [00:52:02]:

Did you recognize, when you say symptom, did you know?

Scott Hamilton [00:52:05]:

Yeah. My energy. Oh, man, I couldn’t even get out of bed in the morning, zapped. And then my peripheral vision started to change where I couldn’t. It was like my. And so I went in because I was preaching at that point, because I had all those years of advocacy for men’s health now with testicular cancer, that if there’s something going on, you need to get to it right away. And so I had to practice what I preach. And I went in, they did a head scan.

Scott Hamilton [00:52:32]:

They found a brain tumor. And I was doing a show in Cleveland to raise money for cancer research at the time. My goodness, I was 46.

Wes Moss [00:52:45]:

When they say, you’ve got a brain tumor, do you immediately just think, like, that’s it.

Scott Hamilton [00:52:50]:

I think I’m going to die. So I had to tell my wife, and I have this 14 month old son now. And she was arriving at the hotel as I got back from the doctor, and she said, what’s going on? Go outside, upstairs. And so we got up to the room and my son Aiden’s, we put the phone down on the floor and he’s like banging the cradle on the phone. He’s so cute at that age. They’re just going. And she said, what’s going on? I said, I have a brain tumor. I didn’t know how else to tell her.

Scott Hamilton [00:53:15]:

And she just grabbed both of my hands without skipping a beat, and she started to pray. And it was like, ah, that’s what that is. Power in the storm. Wow. It was the most powerful moment of my life. And I’ve had a lot of big moments. Right? That was the biggest. And so she prayed and prayed and prayed.

Scott Hamilton [00:53:38]:

And then we just said, our mantra is, it is what it is, whatever it takes. So they could.

Wes Moss [00:53:43]:

It is what it is, whatever it takes.

Scott Hamilton [00:53:45]:

And so a week later, they had to do a biopsy. And so they put a little hole in the top of my head and they went down through and they grabbed a piece of it. And a lot of bad things could happen, that surgery. A lot of bad things. And they have to tell you. Right? So I woke up.

Wes Moss [00:53:59]:

They are messing with the computer.

Scott Hamilton [00:54:01]:

Yeah. So I could wiggle my fingers and toes.

Wes Moss [00:54:03]:

Do I see any?

Scott Hamilton [00:54:04]:

Yeah, it’s just a hole. A little hole right there. Yeah, I see that. And they said I could lose speech. I went, test. I go, okay, I can speak. So I guess it worked. And then the doctor came in, he’s happy.

Scott Hamilton [00:54:15]:

And my wife came in. We know what it is and what is it? And they go, it’s a craniofingioma. I go, like, I’m supposed to know what? A craniopharyngioma. Here’s some information. So they gave my wife some information. Tracy’s looking at it before WebMD. She said, oh, my goodness, listen to this. Craniopharyngiomas are usually detected very early in a child’s life due to a lack of growth and development.

Wes Moss [00:54:38]:

So the tumor had something to do with you not growing as a kid?

Scott Hamilton [00:54:43]:

The tumor was my childhood illness, because I was born with it.

Wes Moss [00:54:48]:

You had it all those years. For 47 years, you had that tumor.

Scott Hamilton [00:54:53]:

And for whatever reason, the years that I skated, it didn’t do its mischief. But as soon as I stepped away to be a dad, it started to grow. It came right back. And so they did.

Wes Moss [00:55:03]:

How did they get rid of it?

Scott Hamilton [00:55:04]:

Gamma knife radiation. So they radiated my whole brain, and then I lost all kind of hormonal activity. So I’m on all these different pharmaceuticals replacement stuff, and I’m on that every day. And then I went back to life.

Wes Moss [00:55:18]:

So they were able to get it.

Scott Hamilton [00:55:20]:

Well, they zapped it. They nuked it with radiation. So, yeah, it’s a whole big process where they screw a halo to your head. And I kept telling him, all righty tidy, lefty loosey. Come on, guys. Do this right clockwise, counterclockwise. It was a lot of pressure. And then they put you out this weird helmet on you, and then they shove you into a machine, and then it’s 201 points of low dose radiation, all culminating on the tumor.

Scott Hamilton [00:55:47]:

So that was the best they had to offer. So I did that, and then the tumor went away. And then I decided, I guess, six years later, that I wanted to get back into skating just to be the 10th anniversary of a big cancer benefit. So I started training again. I hadn’t been on the ice for five years, so I started training again and trying to figure out how to do these jumps and how to get my. How did I used to do this exactly? And it was hard, so I did that. And it was about three weeks before the event. I’m in a cab with a buddy of mine, Bobby Goldwater, who used to be an executive at Madison Square garden, and he said, how’s the training going? I go, pretty good.

Scott Hamilton [00:56:22]:

And he goes, how’s the backflip? And it’s like 51, Bobby. Why would I do that? He said, sorry. When was the last time you did a show without one? It was like, oh, snap. There’s going to be expectation. So I called my trainer, and I said, I go get me a gymnastics coach immediately. And so I went back to Nashville, started working with the gymnastics coach who wes my age, who thought I was.

Wes Moss [00:56:47]:

To try to reinstate. How old were you when you first did the backflip?

Scott Hamilton [00:56:49]:

I was 26.

Wes Moss [00:56:52]:

And then you got famous for it.

Scott Hamilton [00:56:54]:

Yeah. And now it’s 25 years later, and I’m trying to figure out how to do.

Wes Moss [00:56:58]:

How to do it again.

Scott Hamilton [00:56:59]:

And so I was getting over on it, and I actually got it into the show, and I landed it, which was miraculous. And then it was right after that, I tore everything in my right shoulder. So I’m in physical therapy post surgery for that, and the symptoms came back, and I was like, come on.

Wes Moss [00:57:22]:

You could tell it was the same.

Scott Hamilton [00:57:24]:

Cancer or the same brain tumor. I knew it. I knew it. So I went in, and they said, yeah, it’s back, but now it’s presenting itself really well for surgery, so you can’t have the radiation again because it’ll destroy your optic nerves. It’s bad. So no more radiation for you. And I said, okay. So they went up through my nose, and they nicked an artery on the way in, which can happen in a certain.

Scott Hamilton [00:57:49]:

Depending on patients, like, single digit percentage chance.

Wes Moss [00:57:54]:

But of course they nicked you.

Scott Hamilton [00:57:55]:

Yeah. So that one surgery became nine more. Yeah. So all that work I did to build up all of that back, to get back into shape and everything put me into a position to be able to endure what I was about to go. All these nine surgeries. So at the end of the nine surgeries, I went blind in my right eye. I got some of it, might say most of it back, but it’s blurry, kind of around the ends and hops. And then I went back to life and not skating anymore.

Wes Moss [00:58:26]:

So that was your. How many different cancer diagnosis and tumors?

Scott Hamilton [00:58:30]:

Well, I had the cysticular cancer in 97, brain tumor 2004, brain tumor 2010. And then we get to 2016, and it’s back again. And this time I’m thinking, I’ve got options, so I can do the surgical option again. I could do a medical option. Now there’s this targeted therapy, or everything in my spirit said, just get strong. Just get strong. Don’t worry about this thing.

Wes Moss [00:59:02]:

Because you’ve been through this so many times.

Scott Hamilton [00:59:04]:

Yeah. And again, the first time it wes faith. The second time, it was dread fear, dread fear. It was just like getting hit in the summer. This time it was like, don’t worry about this thing. Just get strong. And so I just decided to get strong physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. And in that, I go back for my scan and they go, didn’t grow.

Scott Hamilton [00:59:26]:

It’s like, great, go back for a scan, three months later, it shrunk half. I go, okay, we’re onto something here. And so now it’s like everything I do, if I’m aspirationally, there has to be a physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual component to it. Otherwise it’s like sitting on a chair with three legs. It doesn’t work. So everything in my life is powered by all of that.

Wes Moss [00:59:55]:

So did that eventually then go away?

Scott Hamilton [00:59:58]:

I haven’t looked at it for saying, well, Covid access to hospitals. It got weird.

Wes Moss [01:00:04]:

Yeah, it did.

Scott Hamilton [01:00:05]:

And I realized that if it was shrinking and growing and shrinking and growing, growing. Tricky, tricky growing, shrinking. I’m not even going to acknowledge this thing unless I become symptomatic again.

Wes Moss [01:00:15]:

And you’ve been okay for how many years?

Scott Hamilton [01:00:18]:

Seven. It’s like that. It’s like 2004 to 2010 to 2016, Pattern has emerged. I don’t like this pattern at all. But I just decided the last one. I go, no, I’m the dog. This is the tail, right? I’m not letting the tail wag the dog anymore. I’m going to live my life fully.

Wes Moss [01:00:40]:

Completely, no matter how much.

Scott Hamilton [01:00:42]:

And if I need to deal with it, I will. I’m not stupid, but at the same time, I’m not going to allow it to rule and ruin my everyday.

Wes Moss [01:00:53]:

I looked up last night, how many people have lived in the world over the course of history? Like 50,000 years or something?

Scott Hamilton [01:00:59]:

It’s like 100 billion.

Wes Moss [01:01:01]:

Yeah, it’s like a little over 100 billion. And I think at some point, you said that all hundred billion people have suffered at some point, right? Yet we live in America and we’re always avoiding pain and avoiding suffering.

Scott Hamilton [01:01:22]:

Good luck with that. Right? Yeah.

Wes Moss [01:01:25]:

But we all go through it and you’ve learned to. Do you fear death at this point?

Scott Hamilton [01:01:36]:

Not anymore.

Wes Moss [01:01:37]:

Not at all.

Scott Hamilton [01:01:40]:

I’ve walked out of neuro ICU three times, maybe four. And in that, you get to a point where I really feel like I’m playing with house money right now. So it’s like, it could have ended in 97, it could have ended in 2004, it could have ended in 2010, it could have ended. All of it could have ended. 2010 was really close. But when you get through all that and you realize that our bodies are susceptible, fragile, vulnerable to countless things, equally resilient, ultimately temporary.

Wes Moss [01:02:16]:

Fragile, resilient, temporary.

Scott Hamilton [01:02:19]:

Yeah.

Wes Moss [01:02:19]:

What about just going through. So again, you’ve had so many of these really scary periods of time, and I would think, did you just have no anxiety naturally or do you get.

Scott Hamilton [01:02:31]:

You do get scared out of my mind.

Wes Moss [01:02:32]:

You’re like a normal person that gets scared.

Scott Hamilton [01:02:34]:

Yeah, of course. When I got down for the testicular cancer surgery, because I knew it was like 38 staples and then some, I was scared out of my mind. And my doctor, I actually was texting with me the other day, he just goes, what’s wrong with you? And I go, I’m scared. And he goes, why? And I go, have you ever done this before? He goes, I’ve done seven this month. And I was like, oh, okay, we’re good. Let’s go. So it’s like for anybody going through a health crisis, there are really talented doctors out there that do really wonderful things. And then there are guys that do six a day.

Scott Hamilton [01:03:10]:

All you really want is a six a day guy. I don’t believe in second opinions. I believe in 7th opinions. You just keep shopping, just keep going around and understanding. Because with cancer, and I do a lot of work in cancer, there’s different modalities of. And where you stand depends on where you sit. That’s a Murphy’s law, by the way. Where you stand on something definitely depends on where you sit.

Scott Hamilton [01:03:39]:

And if you’re sitting across from a surgeon, you’re probably going to get cut. That’s his passion, that’s his training. He wants to help you. Radiation oncologist. You’re probably going to get radiated.

Wes Moss [01:03:46]:

Hey, Barbara, do I need a haircut?

Scott Hamilton [01:03:48]:

Yeah, it’s like that, right? Of course you need surgery, but it’s also, if you’re sitting across Mahimonk, you’re probably going to try to find a way to put you on chemo. In everything, there are solutions. And even on the radiation side, I mean, my foundation offices are in a proton therapy center.

Wes Moss [01:04:05]:

Proton.

Scott Hamilton [01:04:06]:

Yeah. There’s only 43 of them in the United States. But it’s a particle beam. It’s not an x ray or photon beam. So traditional radiation goes through the tissue, gets everything and runs out of energy at some point. So it’s released its energy on the cancer. Great. But then there’s collateral damage.

Scott Hamilton [01:04:25]:

With proton therapy, it’s a particle, so it’s the difference between a grenade and a sniper. So they can put that wherever they. And so in that we see the advancement of cancer treatment options instead of getting gamma knife radiation. If I would have had access to proton therapy, it would have been much.

Wes Moss [01:04:43]:

Less destructive to the surrounding.

Scott Hamilton [01:04:48]:

Yeah, because my whole brain got exposed.

Wes Moss [01:04:50]:

Is proton therapy gotten better?

Scott Hamilton [01:04:52]:

Yeah, it’s great. In the was commercialized in the 80s, FDA approved in the. They just keep getting it more dialed in and core, it’s gotten smaller, better, cheaper. It’s an elegant option for people dealing with heart tumors, for people that get.

Wes Moss [01:05:09]:

A diagnosis and they get a cancer diagnosis or they get anything medical, that everybody at some point has a big issue. What do you tell somebody in their fifty s or their 60s when they’re supposed to have lots of time and lots of fun living and life ahead? What do you tell them to get through adversity?

Scott Hamilton [01:05:34]:

Take a breath. Take a breath. Allow the fear to do its work.

Wes Moss [01:05:39]:

What do you mean by that?

Scott Hamilton [01:05:41]:

Well, there’s a quote that says, courage is fear. That said its prayers. And I 100% believe that anytime you’re broadsided. Because in general, bad things only happen to other people. Right. But when they happen to us, we’re not prepared for it. Right. So take a breath.

Scott Hamilton [01:05:57]:

All right, now, okay. Surround yourself with the people that you want to get you through this, and let’s start wearing out opinions. Let’s start finding as many opinions as we can. Who’s the best at this particular situation? The best of the best. I want access. I want an opinion. I want access to that person and you. Leverage.

Scott Hamilton [01:06:18]:

Leverage, leverage, leverage. And you get to work because it’s your life and it’s your longevity. Again, there’s only so many sands in an hourglass, right? And we want to make sure we have as much sand in there as we possibly can put in there. And if we can add some sand, let’s do that. Right? So when I said we’re fragile, resilient, temporary, I meant it. It’s like our dash is the most important thing. And if we can just keep pushing and live healthier and eat healthier and move and exercise and just take responsibility for our longevity, it changes everything.

Wes Moss [01:07:00]:

If you were on a dating app, how would you describe yourself?

Scott Hamilton [01:07:04]:

Here we go. Yeah.

Wes Moss [01:07:05]:

A friend of mine say you were single.

Scott Hamilton [01:07:07]:

Let’s say I was single. All right, single. You’re 50. That’s my favorite thing. I love this. My personal ad would read, short, bald, half neutered, chemoed, radiated, surgically repaired. Retired male figure skater of unknown ethnic origin seeks a beautiful, intelligent woman for long walks, laughter, and an interest in my hobby for collecting life threatening illnesses.

Wes Moss [01:07:30]:

I love how you punctuate. Figure skater. Male.

Scott Hamilton [01:07:33]:

Male figure skater. Because it’s kind of every woman’s dream is to be with a male figure skater.

Wes Moss [01:07:39]:

Did you consult on blades of glory?

Scott Hamilton [01:07:41]:

I was in it. That’s right. You were in it. Yeah, I love. What do you think about that?

Wes Moss [01:07:46]:

What was the move that almost killed? Was it the Iron Lotus?

Scott Hamilton [01:07:49]:

The fabled Iron Lotus? It was just a myth. Nobody had ever seen one before. Well, that’s right. Commentating on getting their head cut off. Right? Yeah. It’s like, I can’t believe I’m seeing this with my own eyes. I think they’re setting up the fabled Iron Lotus. And I had so much fun on that movie.

Scott Hamilton [01:08:08]:

My goodness, I just laughed. And just sitting with Will Ferrell at the top of his game and just getting to know John Heater, who’s brilliant, and spending time with the know, it’s like Amy Poehler.

Wes Moss [01:08:22]:

You always want to be a comedian.

Scott Hamilton [01:08:24]:

I show comedians, and then meanwhile, you.

Wes Moss [01:08:26]:

Get into the funniest Will Ferrell movie ever, one of the top three of all time.

Scott Hamilton [01:08:30]:

Amy Poehler grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts, which is the home of Peter and Kitty Carruthers.

Wes Moss [01:08:35]:

She’s her skating partner. What’s that actor’s name?

Scott Hamilton [01:08:39]:

Will Arnett.

Wes Moss [01:08:40]:

Will Arnett.

Scott Hamilton [01:08:40]:

They were married at the time. They’re not married anymore, but they were married at the time. And they’re brilliant and they’re funny. And it was just such a great environment to be in, and I’m always going to be grateful for that opportunity.

Wes Moss [01:08:55]:

So it was one of them. So much fun. How long were you.

Scott Hamilton [01:08:58]:

I was only on set for two days, but I went in, I got to watch, and I got to go in and watch him shoot some things. And then when I was living in LA, one of the guys I played golf with a lot was Craig T. Nelson, and he played the coach.

Wes Moss [01:09:11]:

Oh, he was the coach.

Scott Hamilton [01:09:13]:

So we were playing. So we were playing golf one day, and it’s like, I hang out with celebrities and movie stars all the time. Not so much. But we were playing golf one day, and he goes, I just got a script for a skating movie, and it’s like, oh, yeah? He goes, I think you’re a part of that. And I go, I am? And he goes, should I do it? And I go, absolutely. And he goes, he goes, I couldn’t stop laughing, reading the script.

Wes Moss [01:09:38]:

It was just so funny. Blaze of glory.

Scott Hamilton [01:09:40]:

But it was all we were doing our after it was an empty arena. We’re in the Los Angeles sports arena, and it was empty, except people mess around, and they were shooting our stuff in a commentary position way up high, and we do our takes and everything else. And then the director came up and they go, Scott, can you come with me? And I go, yeah. Am I in trouble? Because I always think I’m in trouble. He goes, no. Will just wrote an interview sketch that he wants you to do down in the kiss and cry area. And it’s like, cool. Yeah, we did this thing and every time we did a take, he’d do it differently.

Scott Hamilton [01:10:18]:

Okay. Every time he was just. Every time he’d do it differently.

Wes Moss [01:10:22]:

So you were interviewing him?

Scott Hamilton [01:10:24]:

I interviewed him. Chaz and Jimmy.

Wes Moss [01:10:27]:

Chaz. Michael.

Scott Hamilton [01:10:28]:

Michael, yeah. And he goes, we’re taking the skating, like. And then a woman came by with a bottle of champagne. Like that’s ever in kissing, cry, never. And she comes by with a bottle of champagne and he takes the bottle and he smacks her on the rear end and he starts chugging it. So I started talking to Jimmy and he goes, we just tried to remain focused and he gave, like, the figure skating interview.

Wes Moss [01:10:54]:

Play the straight man.

Scott Hamilton [01:10:54]:

Will Ferrell, not so much. He was the kind of the straight guy, but he was so much fun and it was just a great experience.

Wes Moss [01:11:02]:

Tell our audience your philosophy around attitude.

Scott Hamilton [01:11:05]:

Well, I mean, the only true disability in life is a bad. Know, I’ve seen too much, I’ve experienced too much.

Wes Moss [01:11:12]:

The only true disability.

Scott Hamilton [01:11:14]:

The only true disability in life is a bad attitude. I recently met this wonderful guy, Daniel Ritchie, and he was born without arms, so he had to grow up and learn how to do everything without arms. And I love this man. We became such good friends and, oh, my goodness, he’s just so inspiring. And he’s a true testament to that. He got teased and bullied and he just didn’t like his life. And then he understood that he was perfectly and wonderfully made, right? So in that perfectly and wonderfully made, his parents, they never let him say the word can’t or shouldn’t or don’t. He would, I need you out.

Scott Hamilton [01:11:56]:

Mow the lawn. And he goes, work it out. So he did, and we just became dear friends. And I look at him and I thought if anybody had permission to roll up their tent and just. It was.

Wes Moss [01:12:09]:

And he’s not fair.

Scott Hamilton [01:12:11]:

He’s got a beautiful family and he’s very self sufficient. And we had breakfast together recently, and he does everything with his feet. And I hope everyone in the world has access to this guy at some point because he’s absolutely joyful and just positive and amazing and he’s able to rise above whatever his limitations are. He just does that because that’s what we do, right? And so I get so jazzed when I meet people that have overcome. There a guy named Kyle Maynard, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. A lot of people have done that. How many people have done it without arms or legs? He did it without arms or legs. So I hear about people like this all the time and I’m just so inspired.

Scott Hamilton [01:13:02]:

And when I went in to speak after Sarajevo, I meet with the mayor. He says, the governor. I’m sorry, the governor. And he says, be careful of the hometown hero syndrome. And I said, what’s that? He goes, high school quarterback, throws the bomb at the end of the game, wins the state championship. He’s carried off the field on everybody’s shoulders, and he expects the rest of his life to be that way.

Wes Moss [01:13:24]:

Be that way.

Scott Hamilton [01:13:25]:

And I was like. He goes, enjoy the fruits of your labor, but be prepared. Your life is going to change and I want you to be ready for that. And I was like, thank you. The next thing I did was I went to the paralympic banquet and spoke and spoke. And I walk into this thing, the Olympic gold medalist, gold Medalist from the United States of America, and I see everybody there wearing the same medal I won, except they didn’t have arms or legs or sight. And I’m like, I’m nothing. They’re the heroes.

Scott Hamilton [01:14:01]:

They rose above something and I just. I’m able bodied. It’s almost not fair, but they’re the. And I think that’s why my medal lived in a brown paper bag in my underwear drawer for eight years before I could finally get rid of it.

Wes Moss [01:14:16]:

You gave it to the Olympic museum?

Scott Hamilton [01:14:18]:

I gave it to the US figure skating hall of Fame.

Wes Moss [01:14:20]:

Hall of Fame. As we think about your career has been interesting, to say the least, as an athlete and then an entrepreneur, because the stars on ice. And then. Now I know you’re speaking and you have a podcast now. What are you doing now? Are you kind of semi retired?

Scott Hamilton [01:14:42]:

No, I’m busier than I’ve ever been. My wife the other day pulled me aside and goes, are you crazy? I go, yeah, I think I’m crazy. It’s nuts. It’s like I have a cancer foundation. I didn’t choose cancer, it chose me. Right. And everything I’ve learned is in the response, how do we respond to things?

Wes Moss [01:14:59]:

How do we respond?

Scott Hamilton [01:15:00]:

And so in that, it’s like, if I can change the way cancer is treated forever, then I’ll know why I was born, right? My mom never had a chance. Never had a chance. And they filled her full of everything they could think of for two years, and she suffered and she died. But 20 years later, I’m diagnosed and two guys in Indiana figured it out. So I have a cancer foundation called Scott Hamilton Cares foundation, and it’s the care.

Wes Moss [01:15:27]:

Scott Hamilton cares.

Scott Hamilton [01:15:28]:

Scott Hamilton Cares foundation. It’s scottcares.org, if anybody wants to check it out. But the core stands for the Cancer alliance for Research, Education, survivorship. And I did a ton of really cool things with the Cleveland clinic, and then I launched as an independent foundation. And now all we do is we fund immunotherapy, research. Our bodies created the cancer. Why can’t we teach our bodies how to destroy it?

Wes Moss [01:15:55]:

Where are we in that really close?

Scott Hamilton [01:15:57]:

Yeah, because we put our stake in the ground there nine years ago, and then two years after that, car t came out, which is a t cell therapy for lymphoma. And using that platform, they feel like they’re going to be able to cure a lot of different cancers over the next five years. Yeah, we did the thing at Children’s national Hospital in Washington, where we funded initially 100% of their immunotherapy, and now they have a lot of funding coming in for immunotherapy. And we were talking to their head of research, and he goes, so how long have you been doing this? And I told him, he goes, how did you know? How did you know that immunotherapy was the next? And I just said, I’m smart. No, I pay attention. I could see where things were going, and I was meeting research scientists that had been working on this for a long time. And to me, it just felt logical.

Wes Moss [01:16:49]:

So for you, because Scott Hamilton cares is a calling of your faith in your life. So you will do that forever. So there’s no real retirement for you.

Scott Hamilton [01:17:01]:

Well, do you ever think of that? Figure out cancer?

Wes Moss [01:17:05]:

Do you think about the word of not working? Or you may just work until you can’t work anymore?

Scott Hamilton [01:17:09]:

I don’t know. I think a lot of it will depend on family, because I want to.

Wes Moss [01:17:13]:

Hear about your kids, too. You’ve got one mma fighter.

Scott Hamilton [01:17:16]:

Yeah. 22 year old son. Let me see if I got a picture right here. I could show you. 22 year old. This is us.

Wes Moss [01:17:25]:

This is the Hamilton family.

Scott Hamilton [01:17:27]:

So right there is John Paul. He’s 22 now.

Wes Moss [01:17:32]:

Clearly a biological son of yours.

Scott Hamilton [01:17:34]:

Very close. Yeah, I can’t deny him. That’s Aidan. He’s my first born. And then there’s Evelyn. Evelyn, my daughter, who’s now 20. And then that’s Max right there. He’s now 15 about.

Wes Moss [01:17:49]:

He’s the one that. He has a podcast now.

Scott Hamilton [01:17:51]:

Yeah, he’s on fire right now. But they’re all busy. Evelyn’s, and she’s studying political science. I think she wants to go back to Haiti and fix it. Jean Paul is in the workplace, and he really loves music. My son Aiden is training MMA. He wants to be an MMA fighter. And then Max is going to probably end up being in some form of ministry, because he just loves the Lord.

Scott Hamilton [01:18:17]:

And, man, he’s on fire right now.

Wes Moss [01:18:21]:

And he’s only 15.

Scott Hamilton [01:18:22]:

He’s 15, but he’s speaking. He’s preaching all over the place. He’s doing a youth camp next weekend where he’s doing three different sermons for kids his age.

Wes Moss [01:18:33]:

What about his podcast, the name?

Scott Hamilton [01:18:35]:

Oh, it’s called the social trap. He realized a lot of people are getting stuck in social media, getting stuck in kind of like, life comparisons. Am I doing okay? How am I doing compared to the world of fomo?

Wes Moss [01:18:51]:

World of fomo.

Scott Hamilton [01:18:52]:

What’s fomo? And it’s just all artificial. Nothing’s real anymore. And so these kids are suffering. When you look at suicide rates now, it’s awful. It keeps getting worse, and hopelessness. And it’s all because we’re all comparing ourselves. And you look at sort of where our culture is today and where we are politically divided. For what? We’re all human beings.

Scott Hamilton [01:19:20]:

We all love each other. If we could just get to a point of just stepping away from being labeled and just getting into the fact that we’re human beings. It’s like when the earthquake happened in Haiti. They say estimated 250,000 people died in 30 minutes. Think of that. That’s unthinkable. My wife had to get there. That’s what we’re designed to be, compassionate, sacrificial human beings.

Scott Hamilton [01:19:50]:

And if we could all just do that, my goodness, the world would change in a second. It would. But with all these, I got a question. It was actually on social media. Every now and then when I’m bored, I’ll go on Twitter and I’ll look around, and I go, if you could change the world in one way, what would you do? What would you do? Eliminate social media. Yeah.

Wes Moss [01:20:12]:

Amen to that. And you can follow the retire sooner podcast at retire soonerteam.

Scott Hamilton [01:20:19]:

No, but podcasts, it’s different than getting into all that stuff, not social media. When you look at the social dilemma and all the algorithms, and if you want a little of this, we’ll give you a lot more. And in that, it puts more fuel on the fire of whatever you’re searching or whatever you’re passionate about, it’ll just keep throwing it at you to the point where that becomes your existence. And in that, it’s like, okay, come on, people, we’re human beings. And I just think again, I lost my mom to cancer. I survived. What do I do? I really want to make sure everyone survives cancer. Right? I got a skating academy.

Scott Hamilton [01:21:00]:

I do it as a volunteer. Why do I do that? Because skating gave me an identity. It gave me a life I want to give back. I want other people to experience the same joys. And then, you know, with family and with speaking, it’s like sharing experiences allow people to offer. It gives them perspective. So, yeah, you referred to, I think it was the TED talk I did on know I went on TeD. Has anyone ever talked about suffering? Because I don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing.

Scott Hamilton [01:21:26]:

There’s not one talk on suffering. The one thing we all experience. You’re all wimps. Come on, we have to address these things. And how do we do it? We try to empower people to rise above their circumstance, or at least with people that I know are facing terminal cancer. It’s like, what do I do? It’s like, Libby, every breath, every breath, just you pour into your family, and whatever time you have left, you use it to do exactly what you want to do.

Wes Moss [01:21:57]:

Last question as we wrap, because we got to run.

Scott Hamilton [01:22:00]:

We’ve been talking a long time.

Wes Moss [01:22:02]:

When you speak to audiences as a speaker, what is your message that you want them to take away? What do you like to speak about most?

Scott Hamilton [01:22:11]:

Basically, I’ve fallen on the ice 41,600 times, minimum.

Wes Moss [01:22:14]:

Is that a real number?

Scott Hamilton [01:22:17]:

I kind of went through, yeah, at minimum, it’s a good estimate. It’s 41,640, 1600 times. Cool thing is, I got up 41,600 times. And when you get up 41,600 times, that fall takes on a different identity. And I just really want everybody to understand that we all go through things in our lives that are hard, difficult, impossible to rise above. But it’s that getting up. It’s the getting up that allows us to live our days, whatever, how many days we have to live them joyfully, productively, abundantly, and in community with other people. And it’s the getting up.

Scott Hamilton [01:23:04]:

If you get up enough times, and if you get up enough times in impactful ways, I think people see that and they go, I can do that. I can totally do that. So one of the first things we did with cares was we set up a mentorship program for newly diagnosed patients. We put them with survivors to work as role models and life coaches. Not medical stuff. It’s just purely on. I did it, so can you. And that’s kind of the message is, yeah, I got to experience a lot of really cool things and I got to experience some really not cool things.

Scott Hamilton [01:23:37]:

And to this day, I’m dealing with a lot of the non cool things as part of my day to day life. I’m still here, and I don’t know if I can make a difference in someone else’s life or if I can, through my work in cancer, extend someone’s life. If I would have had the same trajectory as my mom, I never would have become a husband or a father.

Wes Moss [01:23:59]:

And now you have four kids.

Scott Hamilton [01:24:01]:

I have four kids. And we’ll know. Maybe I’ll live long enough to have grandchildren. That’s the greatest blessing of all.

Wes Moss [01:24:08]:

God bless. Scott Hamilton. Where do we find your stuff?

Scott Hamilton [01:24:12]:

Oh, social media? No, it’s. Scottcares.org is our website.

Wes Moss [01:24:17]:

Scottcares.org.

Scott Hamilton [01:24:19]:

Scottcares.org. If people want to get involved in helping us, we have a 1984 campaign. If people sign up, they can donate $19.84 a month. And that really helps us. We’re a small organization with.

Wes Moss [01:24:30]:

Wait, was that the year you won something?

Scott Hamilton [01:24:31]:

That’s the year I won something. And then there’s on socials. It’s Scott Hamilton, 84.

Wes Moss [01:24:39]:

Scott Hamilton, 84.

Scott Hamilton [01:24:41]:

Okay. Yeah.

Wes Moss [01:24:41]:

Scott Hamilton.

Scott Hamilton [01:24:42]:

Thank you.

Wes Moss [01:24:43]:

Thank you.

Scott Hamilton [01:24:44]:

Man, that was fun. Hey, y’all.

Mallory Boggs [01:24:46]:

This is Mallory with the retire sooner team. Please be sure to rate and subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend. If you have any questions, you can find us@westmoss.com that’s wesmoss.com. You can also follow us on Instagram and YouTube. You’ll find us under the handle Retire sooner podcast. And now for our show’s disclosure. This information is provided to you as a resource for informational purposes only and is not to be viewed as investment advice or recommendations. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principle.

Mallory Boggs [01:25:16]:

There is no guaranteed offer that investment return, yield, or performance will be achieved. Stock prices fluctuate, sometimes rapidly and dramatically, due to factors affecting individual companies, particular industries or sectors, or general market conditions for stocks paying dividends. Dividends are not guaranteed and can increase, decrease, or be eliminated without notice. Fixed income securities involve interest rate, credit inflation and reinvestment risks and possible loss of principal. As interest rates rise, the value of fixed income securities falls. Past performance is not indicative of future results. When considering any investment vehicle, this information is being presented without consideration of the investment objectives, risk tolerance, or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. Investment decisions should not be based solely on information contained here.

Mallory Boggs [01:26:01]:

This information is not intended to and should not form a primary basis for any investment decision that you may make. Always consult your own legal, tax or investment advisor before making any investment tax, estate or financial planning considerations or decisions. The information contained here is strictly an opinion and it is not known whether strategies will be successful. The views and opinions expressed are for educational purposes only as of the date of production and may change without notice at any time based on numerous factors such as market and other conditions.