Scott Hamilton Skates Into Your Living Room for the First Time Since 2003
Scott Hamilton (Brittany Evans)
When Scott Hamilton laces up his skates for the Musselman’s Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute on Sunday, it’ll mark the first time the Olympic gold medalist has skated in a nationally televised performance since 2003. Given his battles with testicular cancer in the late ‘90s and, more recently, a brain tumor that led to nine surgeries and permanently affected his balance, it’s pretty much a miracle. Still, the 57-year-old showman humbly asked that we add an asterisk to any touts of his return to the ice.
“Right now, I’m managing expectations,” he tells Yahoo TV. “I teach a little bit, but I hadn’t skated. It’s not like I’m really out there throwing jumps and all that stuff. … Because of the way my visual impairment from 2010 affects my balance and the way that light affects me, each eye works really differently, so I lose my balance really easily when I’m trying to do anything. I’m just trying to keep it real.”
Related: Paul Wylie Skate-ography: Silver Medalist Looks Back on Classic Programs Ahead of New Special
Still, we have a feeling this performance will be special in its own right. Hamilton may not have his signature back flip these days, but he will be bringing a secret weapon with him onto the ice for this performance: his 7-year-old son Maxx.
Scott and Maxx Hamilton (Brittany Evans)
“Maxx and I have a really wonderful, small section of the show,” he says. “As a parent, how many memories like that do you get to have? To be able to do what I’ve done my whole life and to be able to share that with my youngest child and to be able to have those memories is just phenomenal. It’s a true gift.”
Maxx, who is the youngest of Hamilton’s four children with wife Tracie, seems to have inherited his father’s sense of showmanship and humor when it comes to performing. “He came up with this idea at the end of the program where I’m in a different position than him and he comes over and whispers to me and then we get in the same position,” the proud papa says with a laugh. “[Going into this performance] I was kind of concerned because a couple times he’s gone all guns a-blazin’ and then I put him on the ice and he freezes. This time, I cheated. I gave him a little bit of vanilla ice cream before we went out on the ice, so he was totally sugar-buzzed. He was on fire, getting the crowd going and waving his hands. He’s putting his hand to his ear and doing his jumps and stuff.”
Hamilton’s sense of paternal pride continued when our conversation turned to the subject of him passing his skating commentary torch mic to Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir in recent years. “I’ve always had a good friendship with Johnny. Tara and I toured together for years. She’s almost like a daughter, in a weird way. When she came to Stars on Ice, I was coming towards the end of my career and she was a 16-year-old Olympic champion on tour with all these grizzled veterans, so my instincts were very paternal. I want them to succeed,” he admits. “I did it for a long time, I think to the point where there needed to be a change. There needed to be a fresh voice, a fresh outlook, a younger energy, and I totally get that. And I’ll be involved, being the voice of historical perspective and that sort of thing.”
Whatever his involvement, we’re just thrilled Hamilton is able to continue to be involved in the sport… and back on our TVs.
Musselman’s Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute, the first of ABC’s Colgate Skating Series, airs Sunday at 3 p.m. Kristi Yamaguchi and Michael Weiss serve as hosts, with musical guest Kristian Bush (of Sugarland) and additional performances by Paul Wylie, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Ilia Kulik, Irina Slutskaya, Todd Eldredge, Naomi Lang, and Sinead and John Kerr.
