Fight Against Cancer Leaves Him a Winner

‘Scott Hamilton: Back on the Ice” is the name of the emotional therapy that follows the chemotherapy--in Hamilton’s words, “a party, a great party” at the Forum Wednesday night to celebrate that “cancer doesn’t win.”

Seven months after undergoing treatment and surgery for testicular cancer, Hamilton, the 1984 men’s Olympic figure skating champion, makes his official return to the ice in an attempt to raise money for cancer research and the spirits of everyone in the arena, center attraction very much included.

“It was very important to me to get back on the ice as quickly as possible, for a number of reasons,” Hamilton says.

“One is to show that cancer doesn’t win. Also, I wanted to separate my first time back on the ice from the [Stars on Ice] tour, which starts in December. And I wanted a way to bring the skating community together for a benefit for cancer research that hopefully will touch and inspire people.

“The whole cancer issue is a frightening thing. The quicker I can show--with the right amount of time and preparation--that this is something that can be overcome, I think that can be a powerful message.”

Hamilton, 39, was found in March to have a germ-cell cancerous tumor behind his intestines. (“The size of two grapefruits,” he says.) Hamilton underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy that shrank the tumor to the size of a golf ball, then underwent surgery in late June to remove the tumor and his right testicle.

The surgery was termed a success by doctors, who give Hamilton an 80% to 90% chance of making a full recovery.

“It was dead, dead,” Hamilton says of the tumor. “There was no cancer left in it when they took it out, and they cleaned out all the lymph as well to make sure there was no trace of the cancer left.”

Doctors gave Hamilton approval to resume skating Aug. 1, but Hamilton didn’t grant his own approval until a week later.

“I was a little bit nervous about it and it took me a while to muster up the conviction and courage to approach it,” Hamilton says.

The first day back on the ice, Hamilton recalls, was “really devastating. . . . I was really unpleasant. I couldn’t do anything. I could not do a thing.”

Basic maneuvers he had practiced for decades--spins and turns, indelibly etched in the memory--suddenly felt alien.

“The mind remembers,” Hamilton says with a laugh, “but the body says, ‘Uh, excuse me? What are you saying?’

“Then you do something right and the body says, ‘Oh, now you’re getting your hopes up. You’re getting optimistic. I’ll show you.’

“I’d try something and it would kick in, and then the next would be sub-juvenile level. It’s the inconsistency you’re fighting through. It’s kind of like three steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, one step back.”

Within two months, Hamilton had worked up the skill--and, more important, the courage--to attempt his trademark back flip for television cameras filming a department-store commercial.

“The first one, in Simsbury [Connecticut, where Hamilton often trains] was awesome,” he says with characteristic exuberance. “The adrenaline was really kicking in.

“But the first one for the commercial, I barely made it over. I had to do another. That one was pretty good.

“You’re using all your abdominal muscles when you do a back flip--and I have an incision that runs from just below my sternum to just above my abdomen. The muscles in that area are stiff and tight and there’s scar tissue you have to stretch out and break down.

“After you’ve been horizontal for so long, it’s almost like you have to teach your body all over again.”

THE BEST MEDICINE

Landing a post-op back flip on two thin blades of steel was nothing, Hamilton claims, when compared to withstanding four rounds of chemotherapy.

“The illness is painful,” Hamilton says, “but the treatment is devastating. I can’t decide what’s worse--the treatment or the cancer?

“The treatment does whatever it can to beat you down, to weaken your resolve. It will do whatever it can to tempt you to give up. . . .

“The third round of chemo, I was so depressed. I’d say, ‘Just get me out of here. Put it all in my body now and just get me out of here.’

“The fourth round I knew was the last. I learned I can do anything if I know it’s the last time. Just get me to the last round.”

Humor, as much of it as Hamilton could find or invite over to his hospital room, helped sustain him through the 12 grueling weeks.

“I found the best thing is to laugh as much as possible,” he said. “Whether it’s an old Laurel and Hardy movie or inviting old friends by, people who are pranksters, whoever you know who makes you laugh. . .

“[British skater] Stephen Cousins brought by a box of Rowan Atkinson tapes, the ‘Black Adder’ [BBC comedy] series, and we watched them together and laughed so hard we cried. Or, I’d watch him laugh and laugh at him. ‘Stupid English humor.’ ”

After Wednesday night’s exhibition at the Forum, Hamilton will begin training for the 12th annual Stars on Ice tour, which begins a 58-city run Dec. 27.

He isn’t sure he will be ready to join the tour by then, saying, “We’ll see where I am in December.”

But he says he won’t accompany the tour as a part-time, guest-star participant.

“Not a chance,” he says. “I’m either in the company or I’m not. I’m not going to be a ‘guest.’ Guests become the ‘load’ that the rest of the tour has to carry.”

And, next February, Hamilton is scheduled to be in Nagano, Japan, as part of the CBS figure skating broadcast team.

“Three medals, maybe four,” is analyst Hamilton’s prediction for the American figure skaters in Nagano. “One in men’s--Todd Eldredge is our strongest skater right now. And two in ladies. We have the two best female skaters in the world. Tara [Lipinski] and Michelle [Kwan] are light-years ahead of the third-best skater. It will come down to whoever delivers the goods those two nights.”

WORLD SHORTS

The Olympics come to . . . Arlington, Texas? That’s the great north Texan pipe dream after Arlington and the Dallas Metroplex area ponied up the $150,000 deposit required by the U.S. Olympic Committee for any American city bidding to host the 2012 Summer Games. “We will be asking, begging, all the Metroplex cities to join with us,” Arlington Mayor Elzie Odom said. “We know that this isn’t just an Arlington effort, but an effort for the entire Metroplex.”

Filing its deposit just before last Monday’s deadline, Arlington becomes one of 10 U.S. cities to bid for the 2012 Games, joining Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington. New Orleans withdrew its bid and had its deposit refunded.

John Woodruff, an African American gold medalist in the 800-meter run at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Julius Bendorf, a German Jewish track athlete who survived the Holocaust, will participate in an “Athletes Remember” panel discussion tonight at 6 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. Organized by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the discussion of the Nazi-hosted Olympics will also include Margaret Lambert, a German Jewish high jumper who was prohibited from competing in the 1936 Games.

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Schedule

CHAMPIONS SERIES OF FIGURE SKATING

* Wednesday-Nov. 2: Nations Cup (Gelsenkirchen, Germany).

* Nov. 5-9: Skate Canada (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

* Nov. 12-16: Trophy Lalique (Paris).

* Nov. 19-23: Cup of Russia (St. Petersburg, Russia).

* Nov. 26-30: NHK Trophy (Nagano, Japan).

ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP

* Nov. 20-22: Women’s giant slalom, slalom (Park City, Utah).

* Nov. 21-23: Men’s slalom and giant slalom (Park City, Utah).

* Nov. 27-29: Women’s super-G, parallel racing (Mammoth Mountain).

* Nov. 29-30: Men’s Super-G and downhill (Whistler Mountain, Canada).

SPEEDSKATING WORLD CUP

* Nov. 15-16: 500-meter and 1,000-meter events (Roseville, Minn.)

DIVING

* Friday-Saturday: U.S. World Championship Team Trials (Athens, Ga.)