Dorothy Hamill Biography - Begins Skating, Develops The Hamill Camel, Chronology, Wins Olympic Gold, Turns Professional As A Skater - SELECTED WRITINGS BY HAMILL:
1956-
American figure skater
In the mid-1970s, American figure skater Dorothy Hamill was the leader in her field, capping her success with a gold medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics. She was known for her signature "Hamill camel" and wedge/bob haircut which started a fashion craze. After the Olympics, Hamill turned professional, skating in shows and professional events, and later owning the Ice Capades. As a skater, her style balanced athleticism and grace, and she was a dominant freestyle specialist.
Hamill was born on July 26, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois (some sources say Riverside, Colorado, or Riverside, Connecticut), the youngest of three children born to Chambers and Carol Hamill. Hamill was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her father was an executive at Pitney Bowes Company.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY HAMILL:
(With Elva Clairmont) Dorothy Hamill On and Off the Ice, A. A. Knopf, 1983.
Additional Topics
Both Hamill's father and brother skated but were not serious about it. Hamill herself began skating when she was about eight years old. She used her brother's hockey
Dorothy Hamill
skates that were too big for her until she received a pair of inexpensive skates for Christmas. Hamill taught herself to skate forwards on a local pond, but could not teach herself to skate backward…
By the time Hamill was 12, she was winning major championships. When she was 12, she was the national ladies novice singles championship. Among the highlights of Hamill's program at the championship was her innovation in skating, the so-called "Hamill camel." It was a flying camel that went into a sit-spin. It was developed in 1969, while she was training with Gustave Lussi in…
In 1976, Hamill began the year by winning her third consecutive U.S. championships. There was some controversy as some believed the judges scored her generously. Hamill received scores of 5.8 and 5.9 out of 6.0 though she took out the loop and flip jumps of her program. She followed this up with a gold medal performance at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. She won despite a big scare. She…
After her Olympic win, Hamill became a phenomenon in the United States. Her short bob/wedge hairstyle became extremely popular. To take advantage of her commercial opportunities and pay back her parents for the cost of training (they were in debt because of it), she turned professional. Though she was shy, Hamill appeared in a number of commercials and television specials. One of Hamill's f…
In 1993, the Ice Capades was in serious financial trouble. The company had filed for bankruptcy in 1991. Hamill, her husband, and businessman Ben C. Tinsdale, bought the company in 1993. She put it under her own company, Dorothy Hamill International, of which she was president. She told Steve Wulf of Sports Illustrated, "It was breaking my heart to think there would be no more Ice Capades. …
Address: PO Box 16286, Baltimore, MD 21210; 75490 Fairway Dr., Indian Wells, CA 92210-8423. One of Dorothy Hamill's coaches was Gustave Lussi, a Swiss-born skater who trained seven Olympic medallists and 16 world champions, including Dick Button and Scott Hamilton. Lussi was a ski jumper in his native country, and came to the United States in 1915. He established his reputation in ice skati…
One of Dorothy Hamill's coaches was Gustave Lussi, a Swiss-born skater who trained seven Olympic medallists and 16 world champions, including Dick Button and Scott Hamilton. Lussi was a ski jumper in his native country, and came to the United States in 1915. He established his reputation in ice skating by producing and directing a famous ice show at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan in the 1…
Hickok, Ralph. A Who's Who of Sports Champions: Their Stories and Records. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. Johnson, Anne Janette. Great Women in Sports. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996. Layden, Joe. Women in Sports: The Compete Book on the World's Greatest Female Athletes. General Publishing Group, 1997. Malone, John. The Encyclopedia of Figure Skating. Facts on File, Inc., …
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