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A champion attitude
Despite two divorces and a bankruptcy, or perhaps because of these challenges, gold medalist Dorothy Hamill isn't ready to hang up her skates.
By MICHELLE JONES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 26, 2002
[Publicity photo]
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Olympic gold medal winner Dorothy Hamill, now a single mom of a teenage daughter, practices her skating daily.
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TAMPA -- There may be no more jarring reminder of the passage of time than seeing figure skater Dorothy Hamill, sweetheart of the 1976 Winter Olympics, selling arthritis medication on television. In her Vioxx ads, she talks about how joint pain makes skating tough, yet she streaks across the ice with that same fluid grace that won her a gold medal.
What's more, her hair still has that perky bounce that sent legions of girls off to salons asking for the Hamill wedge.
"It's wonderful, especially now as my hair turns gray and takes on a different look," Hamill said. "I always wanted long hair, but my mother made me have it short."
Hamill will skate at the St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday with the Champions on Ice Show, a celebration of 25 years of performances by top skaters.
Joining Hamill on the ice will be Nancy Kerrigan, Nicole Bobek, Surya Bonaly, Irina Grigorian, Elvis Stojko, Rudy Galindo, Philippe Candeloro, Dan Hollander, Victor Petrenko, Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, Vladimir Besedin and Oleksiy Polishchuk, and Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler.
In a telephone interview from Green Bay, Wis., where the show opened Friday, Hamill, 46, talked about getting older, motherhood and adversity.
Back in 1983, in her autobiography On and Off the Ice, the then-newlywed wrote that marriage was a lifetime commitment. Now 20 years and two divorces later, she said she thinks she would try marriage again.
"In my first one (to Dean Martin Jr.), I was set to have it last forever, but he wasn't," she said. "The second one, to (Dr. Kenneth Forth), wasn't the best decision I ever made."
However, from that union came her 14-year-old daughter, Alexandra, with whom Hamill lives in Baltimore.
"She keeps me on my toes," Hamill said. "During Thanksgiving she decided she wanted to be a hockey player. She got the skates from her dad, because she knew I wouldn't get them for her. She has only skated once on them."
Several years ago, Alexandra said that she wanted to figure skate like her mom, "but now she only does it for fun," Hamill said.
Hamill grew up in Connecticut, the youngest of three children. She began skating at 8 on a pond behind her grandparents' home in Wellesley, Mass.
She was close to her grandparents and even gave her Olympic medal to her grandmother. "I wish Alexandra had that special relationship with my mother, but she lives far away," Hamill said.
Hamill's teenage years were spent on an ice rink and traveling, but in hindsight, she doesn't think she missed out on much.
"I liked to go to bed early (she was generally on the ice by 5 a.m.), and I was pretty shy, so I liked having an excuse to miss some situations," she said. "Once in a while I wanted to go on a date and couldn't."
The morning habit is still with her. In the Vioxx commercial, Hamill says that morning is still her best time, although osteoarthritis can make the going tough.
"Getting older, my body doesn't do what it used to do," she said. For instance, she doesn't jump as often as she'd like but says it's "just as hard not to jump."
She loves watching young champions such as Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes.
"They are amazing," she said. "They are so great, so beautiful and so poised."
At one time, Hamill was the highest-earning figure skater in the world, but she had to deal with setbacks, including her divorces and the financial failure of the Ice Capades, which she bought in 1991. She declared bankruptcy in 1994.
"You take what you are dealt, and if it don't kill you, it makes you stronger," she said. "Adversity builds character, and you appreciate the blessings more."
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PREVIEW: Champions on Ice, 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa. Tickets $26-$61. Call (813) 301-6600.
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