Scott Hamilton Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation
Olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton has been candid about his health battle since getting diagnosed with cancer for the first time in 1997.
Years after his 1984 gold medal win at the Olympic games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, Hamilton revealed that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Following surgery and treatment to shrink the tumor in his abdomen, Hamilton was in remission by late 1997.
Years later, however, he was diagnosed with brain cancer for the first time in 2004 and for the second time in 2010 — undergoing brain surgery both times. Hamilton announced in 2016 that he had a third brain tumor.
“I have a unique hobby of collecting life-threatening illness,” Hamilton joked to People at the time. “It’s six years later, and it decided that it wanted an encore.”
Hamilton later revealed that he was no longer getting treatment.
“When they gave me the diagnosis, they said, it’s back,” Hamilton told People in February 2024, recalling the 2016 diagnosis. “And so, they brought in this guy, a really young, talented surgeon, and he said, ‘We could do the surgery again. It’d be complicated, but we’ve got really talented people here that we could bring in, and I know we could pull it off if that’s an option for you.’”
Instead of doing the surgery, Hamilton felt it in his “spirit” to “go home and get strong” — which he has continued to do.
Keep scrolling to read Hamilton’s cancer battle in his own words:
How It Impacted His Skating Career
After treating testicular cancer as an “inconvenience” rather than an illness in the late 1990s, Hamilton returned to figure skating.
”I want to retire on my own terms,” he told The New York Times in 1997. ”I don’t want illness or this episode to stop me from skating.”
Scott Hamilton Focus on Sport/Getty Images
Battling Two Brain Tumors in the 2000s
“The first brain tumor knocked me down,” Hamilton told Coping Magazine in 2018 of the initial 2004 diagnosis. “Things didn’t seem right [again]” with his second brain tumor in 2010, Hamilton recalled.
“I guess that was a premonition. The surgery to remove the tumor had a complication that created an aneurism,” he said. “After the obliteration of the aneurism, I went back to life more diminished than my previous two health adventures.”
The 3rd Brain Tumor Diagnosis
Hamilton felt “more in control” in 2016 when doctors diagnosed him with a third brain tumor. “I approached this adventure with calmness and a better understanding of the process,” he told Coping Magazine.
Celebrating Life — Rather than Undergoing Treatment
After his 2016 diagnosis, Hamilton recalled making his decision to forgo treatment.
“It’s been remarkable,” he told People in February 2024. “I went back to the scan three months later and they said, it hasn’t grown. I go back three months later and they go, it shrank 45%. I said to my surgeon, ‘Can you explain this?’ And he said, ‘God.’ I went back in, and it shrunk 25% again.”
How COVID-19 Changed Things
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, his tumor “had grown” but it was “almost impossible” for Hamilton to go to the hospital.
“In my spirit, in my inner being, I realized, I’m totally at peace with not even looking at it again unless I become symptomatic,” he told People.