Rich Scarcella: Skating champion Scott Hamilton's message to Chamber stresses perseverance

May 12—Scott Hamilton quickly seized the attention of the 800 people attending the 109th annual Greater Reading Chamber Alliance dinner Wednesday night at Santander Arena.

Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in men's figure skating, told his audience that he's fallen on the ice 40,000 times.

"The message is I've gotten up 40,000 times," he said. "When you're able to get up, it changes the way you look at everything. If you get fired from a job, get up. If you fail at a relationship, get up."

If anybody knows how to get up, it's the 63-year-old Hamilton.

He overcame a debilitating childhood disease and became a four-time world and U.S. champion.

He overcame three brain tumors. He survived a fight with testicular cancer that he came close to quitting 25 years ago.

"It was the last day of my third round (of chemotherapy) when I wanted to quit chemo and die," he said. "I never saw a future. When you're in the middle of chemo, it's hard to see the other side.

"A friend of mine reminded me I only had one five-day round left. I can do that. It's just perspective and getting to the finish line on time."

Hamilton's life has changed immeasurably since then. He and his wife, Tracie, who were married in 2002, have four children between the ages of 14 and 20.

"I look back on it (his bout with testicular cancer) as a really powerful reset," he said. "My life wouldn't look like it does today without cancer, so it's hard for me to say if I could choose, would I choose not to have it? I don't know.

"It was a total reset. I reinvented my life after that and now I have four kids and a wife and a really unique life and a lot of perspective and experience."

Hamilton marked the 25th anniversary of that day by participating last week in Erase the Trace, a five-day, 444-mile charity bike ride from Mississippi to Tennessee to raise funds for glioblastoma cancer research.

It was in conjunction with the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation, which stands for Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship.

He completed the entire ride, even though he does not consider himself a cyclist.

"It was like nothing I ever experienced before," he said. "The whole idea of the ride was created by a brain cancer patient (Scott Williams) last year. Glioblastoma is a tough one. It's a real tough one. For some reason it seems to be more prevalent. It used to be a rare cancer. It's not a rare cancer anymore.

"We have to figure out why and find a better way to treat it than just resection and chemotherapy."

Hamilton calls himself "an eternal optimist." Over the years, he's been involved with Special Olympics, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and raising awareness for adoption. He was adopted when he was six weeks old.

They're all important causes to him.

"Make-A-Wish was a perfect vehicle for us," he said. "I was a sick kid in and out of hospitals. I was always very comfortable being around sick kids early in life. When we started Stars on Ice and Discover came onboard, they brought along Make-A-Wish.

"We were able to do a lot of wonderful and amazing things for Make-A-Wish."

Hamilton was a popular figure skating analyst for more than three decades, first on CBS and then on NBC. He did some commentary during the 2022 Winter Olympics from his home in Tennessee.

"Yeah, I miss it," he said. "At the same time I got way more out of this than I ever thought possible. When I was growing up, Dick Button was the guy. If somebody would have told me when I was 18 years old that I would be the next voice after Dick Button, I would have laughed in their face.

"If somebody would have told me I would be the U.S. champion, the world champion and win a gold medal, I would have said, 'What are you talking about?' I'm extremely unlikely."

But Scott Hamilton's become a beacon of hope for cancer patients. When his future looked bleak, he got up.

"I was tired," he said on a video he posted last Friday after he rode 100 miles. "I was bloated. I was depressed. I didn't see my future. If you're going through that right now, there's a mile marker in your future.

"Hang in there."