That hair, that smile – and at 44, Dorothy Hamill is still spinning

02/13/2001

By Cathy Harasta / The Dallas Morning News

HOUSTON – The woman in the lavender pullover had just confided that she skips attending the Olympics because she can't get figure skating tickets. Or even a pass to watch the practices!

She laughed and shrugged at this ironic twist. Dorothy Hamill was still smiling when she ordered an iced tea from the Four Seasons coffee shop waiter. He turned away, then reversed for another look at his customer. He studied her distinctive short haircut. The subtle glints of her diamond jewelry. And the way her manner wedded animation and shyness, candor and composure.

OTHER 1976 NEWSMAKERS • Ted Turner established SuperStation WTBS in Atlanta. • Jimmy Carter was elected president. • Alex Haley wrote Roots. • In Montreal, Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics. • Sylvester Stallone starred in the motion picture Rocky. • Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs founded the Apple computer company.

Her magnetic eyes – gray, blue, lilac, depending on the light – froze him in his tracks. He squinted in concentration, trying to place that face.

When Time magazine placed that face on its cover just more than a quarter-century ago, its editors guessed right that Dorothy Hamill would become a touchstone for so many things.

Some count her 1976 Olympic figure skating title, won 25 years ago Tuesday, among the last memorable championships secured in the Games' age of innocence.

Hamill had the hair that revolutionized 1970s fashion. She had those signature spins, tornado-swift and still her favorite part of skating. She had the air of integrity and the essence of Everywhere, USA.

She also had the churning, boundless love for her sport that keeps her skating every day.

"It's therapeutic for me," Hamill said last week between her performances for the Champions on Ice Tour. "It's not about the audience. It's the movement. It's the way it gets me away from the phone. I just work out the cobwebs."

The attic of her Baltimore home holds costumes that now make her cringe while her daughter, Alexandra, 12, laughs out loud.

"There are some pretty scary-looking costumes from the '70s and really frightening ones from the '80s," Hamill said. "It's fun and funny. It's kind of my life in the attic."

Erich Schlegel / DMN Dorothy Hamill shares a laugh with fellow Olympian Nancy Kerrigan during practice before the Champions on Ice show at Lake Charles, La., on Feb. 6.

Skating took her from a frozen pond in Connecticut to the 1976 Olympic title in Innsbruck, Austria. The sport took her to a world championship, ice show stardom and TV commercial fame. But skating didn't stop there. It has helped console Hamill, 44, during sad, frustrating and painful times.

The deaths of loved ones, two divorces and a bankrupt business followed her storied amateur skating career. She was the first female athlete to sign a $1 million-a-year contract. It was with the Ice Capades – the company she later bought but could not save from financial ruin.

Four years ago, she suffered from severe neck pain and fatigue, since diagnosed as osteoarthritis, an inflammation of the cartilage surrounding major joints. The pain exasperated her, but just receiving a diagnosis cheered her, she said.

Medication helps control the symptoms, allowing Hamill to skate programs that still captivate those who have watched her countless times.

"She is the only person whose performance I watch every night," said Tom Collins, owner of the Champions on Ice tour. "When I watch her, I'm in a cloud. She is America's Sweetheart."

Gift to the sport

Around the world, most people read of Hamill's Olympic triumph on Valentine's Day. But the skaters who trained with Hamill truly understood the passing of the torch.

Erich Schlegel / DMN Dorothy Hamill performs one of her routines during the Champions on Ice show at Lake Charles, La., on Feb. 6.

"She was America's Sweetheart, taking over for Janet Lynn, who followed Peggy Fleming," said Gordie McKellen, an Irving skating coach and 1972 Olympian who has known Hamill for almost 30 years. "Dorothy had that apple-pie-and-Chevrolet aura. She was a gift to the figure skating world."

Hamill was the last women's singles skater to win an Olympic championship without performing a triple jump. The power she brought to her double jumps and spins, however, marked her as an athletic innovator. She still performs the move that closed her 1976 Olympic long program, the "Hamill Camel" – a camel spin lowered into a back sit spin.

"I think her posture, her beautiful straight back, is what I see as her trademark," said Fleming, a three-time world and 1968 Olympic champion. "I wish more skaters today took the time to learn the basics of skating that were the foundation of Dorothy's talent."

Those who travel with her admire Hamill's energy.

"Dorothy is like a teenager around the show," Collins said. "She keeps herself in shape. She understands that she has to skate every day. She has never changed in 25 years."

Her responsibilities have increased, however, since she won the Olympic title at 19. Hamill said she struggles with the concerns familiar to working moms. Bronchitis hit the Champions on Ice skaters last week, when Alexandra joined up with her mother on tour. Hamill said she worried her daughter would get sick.

Though Alexandra meets her mother in tour cities most weekends, Hamill said she felt torn by their separation. Hamill's marriage to Alexandra's father, Dr. Kenneth Forsythe, ended six years ago. Forsythe is a sports medicine specialist and former member of Canada's Olympic ski team.

"I've decided I will not do the spring tour," Hamill said. "I promised Alexandra. I just felt I traveled too much last year. I try to explain to her that if I were a 9-to-5 working mom, I'd actually be with her less. Nothing is ideal."

Perfect timing

Hamill stopped going to the Olympics after 1992. The Games had grown out of control and felt so different from her experience in Innsbruck.

Erich Schlegel / DMN Dorothy Hamill performs one of her routines during the Champions on Ice show at Lake Charles, La., on Feb. 6.

"Living in the Olympic Village then was just phenomenal," Hamill said. "In some ways, it was comforting. It was the cleanest place in the world – not a drop of alcohol or a cigarette. I think it was before the performance-enhancing drugs. I feel very fortunate to have been in the Olympics when it was small."

The 1976 Winter Games had 37 events and 1,123 competitors. The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics next year will have 78 events and more than 3,000 athletes.

On the day before her long program, Hamill's mother took her to see the gazebo and cathedral used in filming Dorothy's favorite movie, The Sound of Music. They returned to find a stack of telegrams.

"I started to read them and realized I didn't know any of the people who sent them," Hamill said. "They were all well-wishers. I felt this great sense of loneliness and responsibility. I started to cry and get all upset."

But she said her enduring memory was of the great honor of winning the Olympics in a perfect winter sports setting.

"We were amateurs," she said. "We didn't have costume designers, agents, publicity representatives or lawyers.

"It was so different."

Hamill said the size of the Olympics has ruined the texture of the event.

"It's not a lot of fun," she said. "The only way I would ever go to another Olympics is if I can get tickets."

She said she is working on attending the Salt Lake City Games.

Hamill said she admires the mental toughness it takes to be a contemporary Olympic-style skater. But she said she also worries about the wear and tear on young skaters, who do more jumps at higher levels of difficulty.

Two-time world figure skating champion Brian Boitano, a Champions of Ice tour member, said Hamill owes much of her skating longevity to her work ethic. He also said she is a good listener.

"I can say to her, 'I had a really crappy night, Dot, and I'm so upset with myself,'" said Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion. "It helps to be able to vent sometimes."

Losses along the way

Hamill, who grew up in Riverside, Conn., first was married to Dean Paul Martin, the son of entertainer Dean Martin. That 1982 marriage ended within two years. Dean Paul Martin died in a plane crash in 1987.

Erich Schlegel / DMN Dorothy Hamill watches a skater during practice for the Champions on Ice show at Lake Charles, La., on Feb. 6.

Three years later, she lost a beloved friend when Yusuke Suga died of intestinal cancer. He was the stylist credited with her famous "wedge" haircut. She said she still misses him terribly.

Hamill and Forsythe, who married in 1987, bought the Ice Capades in 1992 and tried to make a go of the financially strapped business. Hamill said she found it far different to operate a show instead of focusing solely on performing.

"How frustrating it is when you want everything to be perfect," she said. "You'd always thought, 'If it were my show, I would do this or that.' But even when you do own it, it's not what you expected. I always loved the artistic part of it. You can't do it all – physically."

After the Ice Capades went bankrupt, Forsythe and Hamill's marriage ended. Three years ago, she and Alexandra moved from Indian Wells, Calif., to Baltimore, a city she said she always liked.

Hamill said she always will be glad she trusted her instincts right after their move. Her brother, Sandy, called her at a tour stop to tell her that their father, Chalmers, was ill. Hamill did not wait until the next logical break to travel home. She left immediately for Connecticut, where her parents had just moved into a new retirement community.

"Dad's cancer was everywhere," she said quietly. "He died four days later. It was very sad."

Hamill's closeness to her only sister, Marcia, 46, has given Alexandra a chance to have fun with her young cousins, who live in Connecticut.

"It has worked out well," Hamill said. "When I went through my divorce, I wanted to get back to the East Coast. We're doing some never-ending remodeling on our 90-year-old home. Alex has taken some skating lessons. She is still trying to find her thing."

And as for Hamill's next 25 years? She said she might study architecture or interior design. But the skating still feels right.

"Knock on wood," she said with a smile. "I feel very lucky."