#116 - Scott Hamilton

a huge help to us. So not only is it super inspirational, but it gets really cool too because we're talking. We start talking about I don't want to ruin it, but when he came back, he's, like he said, overnight he was nobody who he came back from the Olympics and then his five thousand people waiting for him. It's crazy. So Scott Hamilton's uh. And the first time I knew of Scott Hamilton, I wasn't alive. I guess I wasn't alive,

but I was little. I don't know him from that, but I know him from something else, and that's what I told him. You'll see, you'll hear it. This is episode one sixteen of the Bobby Cast. He has a book called Finished First, Winning Changes Everything. Other Podcas has to check out include Velvet's Edge with Kelly Henderson, her latest episodes, up with Amy, which is why I have Amy here. You guys can talk about all kinds of stuff on Everything Bobby, Yes, you want disgust, There we go.

There's also Good Company with Jaco and Jake's got a podcast, Uh He's got a funny with his mom, and then geeking Out with Christian Bush. Upcoming guests of this here include Kimberly Slatman from a Little Big Town, Jason al Dean, writer, Jesse Fraser, Ashley Gorley. Yeah, it's like if somebody else to it forgetting that's coming as a that's a big deal. Yeah, a lot of a lot of people come by. So there you go. This is episode one sixteen. Tell your

friends about the Bobby Cast if you like it. This is Scott Hamilton's all right, Welcome to another episode of the Bobby Cast with Scott Hamilton's someone that you know. It's been cool for me getting to know you over the past couple of years. You've been on the show a couple of times. You were introducing into my personal life through Amy, yes, and through her adoption process, because she calls your wife her mentor. You know, yeah, it's

almost like sister in crime. You know, it's it's a tough process, you know that navigating all the politics and you know, just the enormity of what international adoption is, especially in Haiti. I mean, man, that's a that's a complicated place. We were talking about this morning. Amy and I were and I had mentioned San Tracy, your wife, and I can see her name right, Okay, that's right here, and she was like, yeah, Tracy's my mentor. She's been

my mentor through the adoption process. And it was the first time I heard Amy describe her as that. I knew that you guys have helped and that's how I've got to know you guys, But I didn't know that she actually considered her like the person that she looked up to. Well, I think and when you're doing something like that, especially you know, um, Amy and Ben went from zero to two older kids. You know, they don't get him as babies. It's you know, there's a lot

of challenges that come with that. Kids are imprinted wherever they are and that's their behavior, that's their code and then when you got language barriers and everything else, you need somebody that's gonna stand with you in a situation like that. You know, it's kind of been there, done that, and I think Tracy has really been. Um. I think it means a lot to Tracy to be able to offer that to Amy. Just getting through it and there's tough days, you know, even if it's it's perfect right.

And you know, birth children and you know we brought them up since you know you're gonna have those those bumpy parts, and um, you know we've seen that all the way through with not only our two birth children, but are too adopted children from Haiti. It's it's a wild ride. And you know, I I've lived through enough where I can kind of like you know, live with more than an open hand and say, Okay, that wasn't

a great choice. Let's let's talk about when you know through a little bit and uh, you know, Tracy is much more you know, direct, and you know we're gonna take this, nip it in the bud and move on. It's like okay, okay, uh, you're the boss. Listen, I'm glad you're here. You and Trace are super nice, but you know, you have such interesting life. And you know,

the first time I was introduced to you. So I was born in the eighties, so I didn't get to see you when the gold medal, right, but you know how I was introduced to you was watching you come in at the end of Roseanne and whenever you were doing the thoughts skating on the kitchen. But I still get to I get a check every month for about thirty four cents, you know, in residuals for and that was the first That's when I started actually looking you up and be like, who is this Scott Hamilton's guy

was so much fun, you know. We um, I was really working too hard and there was all this crazy stuff going on, and uh, I got a call from Roseanne saying we want to do Linoleum socks skating and it's like, I'm in, Well, we want to get Vernon Lundquist. He's in. Do you think we should ask him first? I go, no, no, he's in. So Burne was really happy to do it. And then I got um Kevin Quinn and I did that that skit and I kept running and Kevin all over the place, and uh, he

was a really niat guy. You know, he had a lot of demons that you know, ended up taking him. But um, we had a really nice friendship and it was really funny doing that because Roseanne's like, that's not funny, now do that? No, that does and so uh yeah, it was there last show before they broke for Christmas, and there was a big party afterwards, and did you go to the Roseanne party? Yeah? They let It was fun.

Yeah what happened at the Roseanne bar rat party because that was when the show was really kicking its first time, like really doing great. It was. It was awesome. You know, everybody with you. Johnny Glacia was there, and then um,

I ended up with John Goodman. Um that was back, you know, a long time ago, and I occasionally might misbehave a little bit, and I ended up sitting with him like for hours and uh laughing because um uh there's a guy that works with Dick Button named Dennis Grimaldi, and um, Dennis gave John his starting skating So we had that, you know, I had Dick Button on my skating side and he had Dennis Grimaldi on the acting side, and we just sat there and just laughed about all

the create the stories of those guys and all the partnership and all the shows they produced, and a lot of people don't know that. You know, Dick Button created Superstars the Superstars, which is the show with that athletic competition where they put all the people from all the different sports together, all competing one on one. I don't remember that show. Oh my god, it was huge. And Battle the Network Stars, he didn't. I've seen some Battle the Networks was on YouTube, and I guess I'm dating

myself a bit. I don't know, I'm dating myself. A lot of bit went with Superstars on. It was in the seventies and eighties, and they would bring in people from baseball, football, boxing, basketball, soccer and then all compete against each other and in these kind of more Olympic kind of sports, and it was it was really entertaining. The ratings were huge and people thought, oh, Dick Button created that. And you know, Dennis was a big part of Dennis's theatrical side and John Goodman I had that

in common. We just it was fun. It was a big night. It's funny you bring up ratings and television shows from back even when I was a kid, there weren't there were I or six outlets, and so everything had a lot of eyeballs, where now there's a million outlets and fighting for a few eyeballs on all of them.

It's been tough. You know, when you look at trust real um kind of networks, you know, and it was ABC, CBS and NBC and they owned everything, and they were just they were burning through money, and it was kind of this gigantic, huge, you know, infrastructure that just they just printed money. It was just gigantic. And then cable television came through and the network guys from we understand it, We're kind of stiff armed and say, no, we got this. If you want to come on, then you have you're

gonna have to pay. You know, they're not gonna We're not gonna pay you. You're gonna have to pay to get on our systems. And it was like wait, wait, wait, it's up fair. And then all of a sudden, there's all these choices and network television now is a completely different business model than it was before. I mean, they still have a lot of money, and they still have a lot of eyeballs, but it's not nearly what it was back when. I mean, we had three stations when

I was growing up. And here's how old I am. We waited until six o'clock when the BC went from black and white to color. Wait. So television did that, and that's where the Peacock was so amazing, because they would do the Peacock would all of a sudden, all the colors would come on and would be this wow. And you know, my parents were really big into like, they loved music, and they and you know it professors in school. They love music, and they loved television. They

loved you know, media and and um. So we had this big kind of console in our living room where we had a color TV. And it was awesome and we're we just sit there and staring and all the shows that we used to watch back then. We're just so much fun. I didn't know, and I con sider myself a TV nerd. I didn't know it went from color or from black and white to color in the middle of the day. It was read at prime time.

It was just I guess, right before the news. You know, sometimes the news in black and white, and when the news was important, like the news it's still a thing, you know, the news kind of isn't news anymore. It's opinion. It's all these opinion chat shows right where. So you're talking about able news, Yeah, I'm talking about I'm even talking about the local news. Yeah, the local news used to be a big deal. If it bleeds, it leads. Yeah. Weather a tiny Arkansas town and the weatherman in Arkansas

when I was a kid was named ned Permy. He's still there. And I'm starstruck by the local lear Rock weather guy because the TV local TV news was such a big deal where I grew up, I don't So where did you grow up? Bowling Green, Ohio? Okay, so that's not a big city. It's it was really small. Like the joke about Bowling Green is it's in that really flat part of Ohio. You can actually stand on a chair and see Detroit, Michigan. You know, it's that flat, and really, you know it's it's it's a lot of

farm country. It was a university center, so the population was kind of like a third college families, a third locals, and a third agriculture. And it was a really odd mix growing up and um but you know, it was still rooted in the college and so everything we did was kind of at the university and all the fun things like the ice arena was part of the university and and that's where we got started there. But um,

it's a great way to grow up. You know. We had big weather, huge weather, tornadoes coming through there all the time, and I remember just be home before the tornado hits, pushing my bike because I couldn't ride it into the wind. And it was awesome. It was really fun to grow up that way. You got a new book, Finished First, Winning changes everything. It came back, came out back in February, and so tell me what this over art because I've read most of it at this point,

tell me what this overarching theme of Finished First is. Well, you know, I've been doing a lot of speaking, a lot of you know, and I've done a couple of books, and and I was, you know, I really wanted to you know there. I felt there was something in there that needed, you know, to come out, that that was a new platform for me to share. And I sat down with Donald Miller, who's an author, and and I just said, you know, what do you what do you

What's what's my next message? And he goes winning, Okay, I figured that went out, but what do you mean? He goes we live in an in a time where um, everything is based on participation, trophies and sparing our you know, sparing everybody's feelings, and we don't want to do this one to that, and and I really feel like we're in trouble. And you know, competition is good. Competition allows us, you know, I mean you hear that every day you're competing with all these other you know, radio shows and

YouTube channels, radio show everything. You're competify everything, but it makes you better. I mean metal still sharp and steel, yeah, you know, and better things make me better. So a lot of you know that has been pushed out of our culture. So we got you know a lot of people that are in business looking for you know, how do I get better? How do I you know, win the next job? Or you know, people in school, how do I you know, how do I put myself in

a great position to succeed? And then you've got you know, kids in sports and and I've even found the book has a big audience with with senior citizens where they go I was given up, and now you've given me permission to kind of go do some things I've always wanted to do. So you know, the whole idea behind Finished First is that you know, we all have dreams, aspirations, we all have things that we want to do, we all have things that we need to do. You know,

we all have purpose. We all have talents and skills that allow us to do things in a really special and remarkable way. But it doesn't just happen. You've got to un roll up your sleeves and and you know, put the time into really uh advance your you know, advance your skills, learn how to lose and win, and learn how to you know, put yourself out there. And

when you do, everything changes. You know, if you're able to you know, build that foundation of a million different victories of just showing up, of just doing the work of being you know, leaving the last one to leave, and all those really great concepts of understanding that you're not quite who you need to be. And there's probably something they're just dying to get out and it's it's it's taking stock of your skill set and what you're you're drawn to and then being able to leverage that

into something really significant. And and I've I've always felt that when I see people that are kind of can bad choices it's like, uh, it's crazy you mentioned so the this is not a plug from my book. My book comes out in June, my second book, and I say it's the least uplifting motivational book ever. It's a lot like because I wrote my first book and I didn't really have interest in writing a book. I didn't and I wanted to write a kid's book, and so

I ended up they said, hey, the kid's book. It's so saturated that market. That don't write a kid's book, write a memoir. And I thought, what have I done? I haven't won a World Series or a gold medal or been on the movie. So I write this book's guy, and I'm like, this is just terrible. I think this is a turd. That yeah, and it sells like unbelievably, and so even it was unbelievable to me, and I didn't want to write a second book. It just was

not going to do it. So I did a Ted talk and it was called winning by Losing, okay, and so they said, hey, would you write that? I thought, that's about the only thing that enters to me. And so what you're thing is a lot of what I wrote in my book, and how it's if you can't do the little things like beyond time, then you can't do the big things like stop begging to get the

big jobs. If you can't do the little jobs right well, and it's it's also you know, sometimes we you know, I see people that are putting themselves in the wrong place. It's like, Okay, I know you really want to do that. Like I would love to be a rock star. All right, Um, too short, too bald, can't sing, can't play an instrument that's gonna be Those are challenges. Those are big challenges. And so it's like, you know, you find your way, you bump around and then you find things. You know.

I like to tell the story of when I was in Korea for the Olympics. Um the venue manager there and I got to be really good friends, and he said, I want you to talk to my staff because a lot of the young Korean people have given up. They're just basically told to be obedient, do what we tell you to do and you'll be fine. But don't you know, it's like they're they're crushing dreams basically as a culture. And I gave my little you know, spiel on finished first and then a girl came up to me and

she was about eighteen. I guess, and she goes, I don't understand what you mean about purpose? And I go really well, I mean, what do you mean? He shows I'm not good at anything? And she said it just like that. And it's like, who's who's pouring into this girl that she's not good at anything? And so I go, well, let's just break it down. I go, what do you like to do? What brings you joy? And she goes, I like to read? And I go, wow, what do

you read? And she goes, well, the last two books I read where Jane Eyre and Withering Heights, And I go, oh, you like the classics? And I finally got a smile out of her and shows I do, and I go, maybe you're an author and her eyes just popped. That's that little, like, you know, thing of recognition where like that, and it was like I felt like I I gave her permission to dream just for that second. And maybe

it was a seed. I don't know, but it's just like there are so many people out there just looking for direction and looking for a path forward, and you know they're stuck behind all these parts. As a patient trophies, and we don't want anybody to win or anybody to lose. And that's just lazy parenting. You know. It's like when Max, my youngest, you know, a great kid, funny you know,

wants to be a great hockey player. He has Ryan Ellis' number on his back because he sees himself as Ryan Ellis, all right, because he's a little guy and he wants to play d and score and all that stuff. And he played his first few games and they got killed. I mean, they just got destroyed. And I'm like, buddy, what what, what's wrong? And he goes, I don't like losing like this. I don't like it. And I go, okay, okay,

well what did you learn today? And he goes, well, I I gotta skate better, and I gotta stick in a little bit better. And I want to I want to get my shot up. I really want to hit that top corner of the net. It's like, that's great, Max, what would you have learned if you won? And he looked at me like is that a true question? Because I don't have an answer. And that's it. I mean, if we can learn learn from losing, if we can look at losing his information and not this debilitating, horrible,

painful scar on our psyche. We're probably gonna be better up it, like all the haters on Twitter, you know, during the Olympics, I got roasted bunch, and so I put them all, not all, I put about seven of them in a talk I gave to this college leadership program. And when I started playing them one after another, these college kids were covering their eyes, covering their face, and it's like, are you kidding me? This is nothing, you know, because criticism comes down to is it fact or is

it opinion. If it's opinion, you can delete it right away. It doesn't mean anything. It's just noise or just nothing. And if it's fact, then you've got now you have something to work with, right, and you can like totally figure out how to deal with that that, you know, maybe as a weakness that you can worry, you know, worry about and really, you know, sharpen and and get

better at things. Right. So, when I was skating, dick Button was always telling me how bad I was at this or how bad I was at that, And so my goal every year was to give him one less thing to talk about, to the point where if I made it to the Olympics and eighty four, he couldn't say anything bad about me and that was it. It's like, the greatest strength is a lack of weakness where we week,

that's what we need to work on. And you know, failures, information and and and criticism is edited, just edited, And it's amazing how powerful that can be for people that fear taking that first step forward. You know, part of your book is one of the things that I resonated with me was we talk about editing your critics. I hope I'm staying that right. Edit your credits. It's what you're talking about there. But when I was reading it, and that was a part to meet the stuck out

and you and you just hit it. But that's what when you're in the public eye or you have a job that a lot of people see. It doesn't have to be a radio personality, could be the head of an office. There are a lot of people with a lot of opinions and you have to edit what you're going to take in from them because I don't melt you. We have right now in US figure skating, there's a situation where you have as many as twelve judge, twelve

judges coming to evaluate your skating. Now, if if I were making chicken soup and I had twelve people working on the chicken soup, you know, edible, that would be it wouldn't be. It would be awful. And oh, you know, I need to work with people and how we you know, information, how it's given, and and really make it so it's it's nutritious and not just a bunch of opinions going back and forth, because it confuses people. And these are

people of authority. So yeah, we have to really look at what the information is, how it's coming in, and how best we can utilize it. And if we can't, it's okay to I give you permission to throw it away. Right. I had a judge tell me one time, an international and judge, when I'm on that just that little bit of a slow pop, you know, I'm starting to kind of look like I'm gonna actually be okay. And she said, it's really good that Scott's doing better, but he's too

short to be competitive internationally. And I looked at that and I was like, how am I going to fix that? It's like, what do you do with that? So I realized that that was just opinion because I went back. I look back in history and there's a guy in nineteen sixty his name was David Jenkins. He was my height, and he won the Olympics and three World championships. I go, if if David Jenkins can do it, I'll probably be Okay, it's it's our you know, it's just somebody's opinion. They

don't maybe like short skaters. But hopefully she won't be on my panel and I'll be able to press on. And as it turns out, it was just one judge's opinion. And I could have allowed that to, you know, really just slay me and knock me down and like I might as well quit, you know, But it was one of those things where it's just okay, that's good. I now know that I have permission to edit what anybody tells me, so that I can look at it realistically and say, yeah, I need to work on that, or

that's just somebody's opinion. When you get on social media, none of those people would ever say it to your face. That's edit number one, finished first Winning changes Everything. Check out Scott Hamilton's book, Let Me Talk About one of our sponsors here for a second. It's hard to find a bigger fan of you than your mom. Through all the teenage mischief and tough first steps of adulthood, She's

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I've never Wikipedia to you. Until this, I've only ever socially spoken to you. But so Wikipedia and Wikipedia has never write about me. So I don't know how right Wikipedia is about you. But the only the thing that stuck out to me was, and I don't know if this is true or not, but you at the first World Championships, you felt like five times that true. My first Nationals, ever national Yeah, I came in dead last.

It was it was, you know, because I looked at this and went the gold medal winner at one time A lot, no, I a lot, a whole bunch. I came into um novice my first Nationals. They scheduled the novice men, which is the lowest level event that goes to Nationals. They scheduled it as the event right before the Senior Ladies Championship. And the single most popular woman athlete in the world was Janet Lynn and it was her last Nationals. So it was standing room only in

this build. Everybody was there. Everybody was there, and I never saw that many people in my life. I grew up in a town of fifteen thousand. I skated as in a town of two thousand people, and there's seventeen thousand, five hundred people in this packed auditorium, and I choked. I mean I couldn't even feel my legs. I felt five times, came in dead last, and then I thought, okay, I'm after I got done crying for like a week, I said, I'm gonna go next year. I'm gonna just

show everybody what I made of. And next year I was ninth again, but there were ten guys there. Actually get a guy, and so, you know, and I'm killing it a novice. You know, might as well move up to the junior level because you know, what's the worst thing that can happen. I can come in ninth again, right, And that summer I got my double axel, which is a huge deal, and I actually beat two guys at nationals. So I was seventh. That's the best I could do.

You were seventh, but you were seventh at a higher class as well. Well. Yeah, I found a way to beat two guys, right, And so, um, the next year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and then she said, UM, we're gonna have to stop because we're broke, but we can get you through this year. But this is it your senior year in high school. Um, you know you can go out and just get one more year and that's it, and then we have to stop because we're

out of money. And I said, okay. So my main coach retired and a new coach came on board, and he was kind of a slave driver in a big, long, very painful whip and he would crack it all the time. And I just said, I got nothing to lose, I might as well listen to this guy, and so I did everything he told me to do, and I I worked really hard, and about two weeks before the Nationals, I landed my first triple and he told me in the warm up before the long program, he said, don't um,

don't do it in warm up. We don't want to know if it's there or not. Just throwing the program if you feel like so, if you feel like it, so you have the option to not even try it. Yeah. I mean, I had nothing to lose. It was gonna be my last competition ever, and so I figure it's my last competition ever, I might as well, and so I threw it. And I actually, normally i'd have a nice view of the ceiling when I do a jump like that, but this time I was standing on one

foot perfectly landed triple south. Kind I was like, tell me about this because you're talking language now that I've seen, and they say it, but I'm too uneducated even question about it. Well, the triple jump, like it goes up from doubles the triple. So doubles are when you rotate twice in the air, and then triples are three times in the year. So what's the actual of it. The axle is only forward takeoffs, so that adds a half a revolution to the jump, which makes a little harder.

So you jump forward, land backward. You always land backwards three and a half the Yeah, the jumps are always the same in the air and they always land the same, so nobody can tell the difference between the jumps. It's the takeoff that makes them different, either backward or forward. And the axle you start forward and land backward. And so to land a triple axle, yeah, three and a half turns. That's hard, is it not? Anymore? I mean the guys you know, I mean, you can't even get

out of juniors without a triple axle. It's now it's quads um four times four times. And there's guys that can do almost every takeoff the quad. There's six different takeoffs and each one of them has its own challenges. When you were landing your triple, though, is that was that a huge deal to the entire community. It was. It was kind of where a lot of the guys

in the event we're doing triples. But I was able to kind of entertain a little bit, and I was I was probably a little bit better with handling music and all in all this clueless about most things. In that competition, I landed the triple sund I got to the rest of the program clean, and I won Junior Nationals. So the year before and then you want and so

you get to stay, you get a sponsor. That what happened was coach saw that I was um winning junior Nationals and he goes, I can get I can get him a sponsor if he'll come to coach with me or take from me. And so the coach that year coach Dorothy Hamill and John Curry to Olympic gold medals. So I was in pretty good hands. So I just moved to Denver. I was sponsored. I turned eighteen that summer and the next year was my first year on the senior level, and I returned to my old days

of glory. I wiped up the ice and then came in ninth, and uh, what was bad about that was that was the last time my mom ever saw me skate. And so the morning that I lost her, and she was I mean everything to me. She was the center of my universe everything. I love this woman. Um. I just decided that from then on I was going to honor her sacrifice and I was going to be the person that she thought I could be. And so I

took her with me wherever I went. I was always accountable to her, and if I was on the ice, I worked every harder than I've ever worked. And UM ended up getting a really difficult triple um that summer that I was so horrific um the previous nationals and I went from a ninth the Nationals to third at Nationals and then eleventh in the world, and then two years later I'm on the Olympic team. So when you won the gold, was that your first Olympics? Eighty four?

And okay, so eight So I came in fifth, So okay, that was a finished first for me. That's what I was gonna add. So you go to the Olympics and eighty like that's gotta be a thing. You know, you're talking about your mom, that's gotta be a thing too, where you're like, man, like, you just did well, did you? And in fifth? Little did you know? Four years now I wanted to be eight. I thought if I if I came in eighth, that's a win. That's like gigantic.

How many guys are there? Uh? And I don't even remember I was the third guy to three men us teams eighth. What was significant about the eighth? You know? I just I did the math and I looked at all the other skaters, and I thought, if I could beat just enough guys, I could come in eighth. I never anticipated coming in fifth ever. And then I went to Worlds. Right after that, I came in fifth again, and so um A month month later, I woke up to have breakfast and the top three guys all retired.

So all I had to do is wake up one morning and I'm rank second in the world and rom then on it was like, Okay, what do I gotta do in order to win? And that was you hate compulsory figures. You have to fall in love with your weakest element. It was only like I like doing half the job. I didn't like doing the other half at all, UM, And so I just got to work. And I fell

in love with compulsory figures. And I don't know what they're like, the figure eights, like if you always see those figure eights, like when you see people tracing things, I can you know, I don't. They don't even really exist anymore. But back then that was kind of the foundation of all skating. And they're boring because all you

do is you trace circles for hours. And I hated it because it wasn't fun, and so I just had to make it a contest with myself and and I ended up getting pretty good at figures, and I ended up from October nineteen eighty until March of I never lost a competition because I figured it out. You figured what out? I figured out how to prepare myself to win. And and that was after a lot of beta testing and losing. You know, my coach was the perfect coach.

I ended up leaving that um the Olympic champion coach, and going to an unknown coach pretty much in Philadelphia, and he packaged me and he taught me how to discipline myself, and he taught me how to be accountable, and he taught me how to show up every day with a real um path to winning. And Um, that summer I won my first international competition. That I went to the Olympics, and then from then on I just never lost. Tell me about not so much winning the gold.

But after you win the gold and you come back home, are you famous? Then? Well, you know, here's the deal. When I was on my way to Sarajebo, I was in Chicago airport and I was reading because we had a long day over and I was just like reading to kind of relax, and I lost track of time. I was like, oh my god. I was like like half a concourse away from my gate, and I got up and I asked a guy walk and I go, what time is it? Can you tell me times? And he goes and he just dissed me and walked away,

and I was like, Okay, that was unpleasant. I can't get the time of day on my way to the Olympics. It's really rough. And then on the way back, UM, I was in baggage claim UM and I ended up getting stuck there for two hours signing autographs that quick, no, it's overnight. And and then I went back to Denver the next day and um, there was a parade through downtown Denver and ended up being in Larmer Square. Five thousand people were in Larmer Square to welcome you back

from parade. It's no, it's crazy, it's it was insane. So life changes that quickly. The director of the telecast for ABC was one of the original um My World of Sports guys. You know, his name is Doug Wilson. And he said, oh, by the way, your life is completely different. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,

I got it all right. And I went home and sure enough, I you know, i'd want all those years and nothing really and then I come back from the Olympics and it's like, oh man, this is really different. So when you come back and now you're famous, do you start to make a little more money when you come back, because the people were going, hey, we want to give you a deal, a car, that kind of stuff. Well,

I was broke, like broke. I was living in one of my my best friend's parents basement, you know, because I didn't have any money, and they just sort of looked after me. And then, um, I got a first thing was I got an endorsement opportunity for Coca Cola, and I didn't really want to miss the World Championships. And if I took the endorsement, I realized that that's money. Titles are forever. Money is like it goes really fast. So I said no to Coca Cola. You can't take money,

because then you can't. That was then you can now, but then then you can't. Couldn't then. So I decided to go to the World because I figured if I went a fourth World Idol and if I do it in Canada against you know, my biggest competitor, then you know, I can kind of like, you know, okay, I'm done. And um. My first job was with the Ice Capades and I was with them for two years. They went through a sale and uh, the new owner didn't want any guy skaters and so I was let go. So

you can work, you just can't take money. That was during the Olympics. I turned pro right after the World Championships that that March. I I went pretty much from Worlds to a press conference where I said I'm retiring and I'm i'm I'm I'm up forbid. If anybody wants me, And at that point there wasn't any guys making money and skating, so I had to kind of figure it out.

And I had a really good agent, UM. He was with IMG and he I signed with him because I liked him, because I thought he was pretty humble guy. But he was also representing UM Chris Everett and my favorite athlete in the world, Bjorn Borg. He was representing him, and I go, can I meet him? Yes? Absolutely, You're

my guy. I don't. I just loved his temperament. I loved how he always won, and UM, I just there was something about him that was just allowed me to be calm, cool and collected when I competed, you know, because he was kind of a great role model that way. It's like you don't have to get all crazy, you just do your job. And so UM I signed with Bob and then he he did really well and giving

me some of UM giving me some work. And then when I was like from Ice Capades, Bob and I sat down and he goes, what do you want to do? And I go, let me take my calendar. But they let you go. They fired you from Yeah because they didn't want any mail skaters. They didn't want a gold medal ska. Did you cost too much though? Was that just their thing? Like we don't but really it was like, well paying too much? Well, you know, they offered me one week of shows in Minneapolis, which is the new

owner's hometown, for one fifth what I was making. And I said, I don't really think that's a good idea because I got this other opportunity to build a tour. It's my tour and um, and he goes, where's your loyalty? It's like, oh, good question. So I started a show called Stars on Ice and it's still going. I mean it was great you started Stars on Ice. Yeah, that was a lot of hard work. It was I was unloading trucks when crews didn't show up, and I was

I was doing everything possible to keep this thing alive. Wow, So you started that and it runs, it's doing its thing now. Yeah. I don't own it. I just started it. I founded it with I am G. I m G doesn't really partner with clients, so um, I said, you know, hey, just give me half the show and you don't have to pay me anything till it's profitable. And they're like, no, we don't really want to do that. And it's still out,

it's still going. I just hosted the NBC television special Stars in Ice in Orlando about a month ago, and it's a really good show. I'm really proud of the skaters. I was reading as I was watching the Olympics. Because I grew up in Arkansas. We had a brief winter. There was no hockey, and I grew up very poor. There was no ice anything, you know, And unless you're in a region and where the ice already exists, it cost a lot of money to get to ice, if that makes sense. Like if I lived in Colorado, I

wouldn't need to be rich to ski. But because I lived in Arkansas, you had to be rich to ski. You aren't getting It's called access barriers. Huge access barrier. So I didn't know anything. And and I'm learning about hockey because the preads over the last five or six years. I'm learning, and I'm watching the that that the Winter Olympics, and I'm watching the ice skating And what was there drama with you and the new broadcast team they were making into a whole story. Know what happened? Was um,

this reporter from the New York Times. Um sat me down and at the US Figure Skating Championships in San Jose and she goes, I want to know how you feel about this change. Because I was the lead analyst for NBC for four Olympics and three with NBCO. So UM, when Johnny and Tara we did all this stuff in Sochi, Um, they just you know, Johnny was really being our but it got to be such a huge deal that they're like, oh, yeah, we need to bring those guys up. And so when

I left so chi I thought I'm done. I'm never gonna do another Olympics. And then they they reached out and they said, um, we're gonna move you out of the lead commentary position and we're gonna bring them up. And I go I figured that was going to happen. I'm a smart guy, can see where the tides are going. And um, and I go well, and they go, we want to keep you and I go, oh why, and they go, well, because you know you've done a good

job for us, we want to keep you around. And so the the New York Times reporter was trying to she we talked for a long time. She was grilling me, and she was waiting for me to crack and say this is a horrible thing, and I'm just like going, you know what, it's I'm there by their invitation. It's

not my job, it's their's to give. And you know what, when they told me I wasn't gonna be the lead analyst anymore, for about ten minutes, I was kind of like morning, you know, kind of what was and and after that it's like, all right, let's suh, Let's see what happens next. And so they brought me to UM every nationals from there on to be kind of like the voice of I don't know, historical perspective or whatever, or to get to the heart of with what the

competition was. And then UM I went to the Olympics and they gave me an hour long pregame show called Olympic Ice on NBCSN and it was a blast and I loved it. And I got to go to the events and watch and not have to be under the pressure of having to come up with things to say, and it was really great to be able to appreciate that and be able to talk about it the next day. So you know, it's change is gonna happen. It's just

like it's much drama as Twitter. Because I was reading it, I was like, dry, you know, I don't know enough about it. Like I said, I don't know enough about the feet the Winter Olympics. That doesn't sound as dramatic as they try to make the well. And then with the New York Times article was you know I was demoted and don't feel sorry for me, and that was basically I said. I go, I'm I'm great. I'm just

I get to be in another Olympic. So I did this last Olympics and I was on NBCs N and you know, the audience there is much smaller because it's a it's a cable kind of situation. And um, one of the guys that was kind of with us was one of the NBC executives that goes, we're not allowed to talk to telling about ratings, and I go, well, you don't have to. I don't want to know. I don't really care. It doesn't that's kind of gonna change my job at all. I'm gonna do the same work.

And he goes, you're doing five times bigger rating than any show that's ever been on this network. And it's like, okay, what that that, Okay, what do you do with that? Yeah, I mean it's like nothing. And I thought, well, that's really nice. People are and you know, we're at least not underperforming, you know, and so that's good. So we just did our job and then about him Matt. Three weeks after I got back, I got a call from NBC and they want me to do another four years.

Wow is that right? Yeah? So, I mean it's it's like, you don't know, it doesn't always have to be exactly the way it always was for it to be enjoyable. I had a blast in peng Cheng. I really did. I love my work. All I did was work, you know.

I I would do the event in the morning, I do the show and then watch the event, and then I, um go to practice and watch some practices, and I go back grabbed in and then go to my room and watch YouTube videos, go through all the protocols of all the marks they've got an all year, right down, every note, go over the show format, go to bed was my existence at the Olympics, and it was awesome because when I first got there and um, it was kind of wild. I was panicking. I couldn't sleep because

I don't know enough stuff, Like I don't know. There's no way in the world I'm gonna be labeled to fraud because I don't know enough stuff to get through an hour of television every day for a month. And then I looked over and my book was because I took it to kind of start promoting it, my book was like sitting up staring right at me, and it's like, yeah,

I get to work. So I got to work, and it was I used everything that I put in the book, and it was like it works, Like it got me through that Olympics really well, and I got another four years. Let me talk about one of our sponsors here for a second. So here's this. If there's a vulnerability, cyber crooks can find it. Recently, hackers accessed a smart thermometer at a casino to hack into their database of high rollers. Information stolen may have included private details of the casino's

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You're in South Korea? Does that make you nervous that North Korea is just right at the time, and you know that the news has got attentions and well, the thing is is, yeah, if you're here, the news tells you that, you know, like and going into socci Jack and Jill, the terrorists are going to disrupt the Olympics. People are going to die. I was scared to death, and then I got there and I looked around, It's like, okay,

we're good. You know what, it's the same thing with you know what our security was at the it called the Coastal Cluster, and the Coastal Cluster was all the indoor buildings for curling, speed skating, UM, figure skating, UM hockey. They were all on this big cluster with a couple of sponsor houses and in a big superstore and that was the Coastal Cluster. And then all the television, UH trucks and everything to cover the event that was all

on this this Coastal cluster. So going through security every single morning, we had to go in through bag and mag type of thing. And our security was three college girls. That's like my kind of security there. But it's like there was no no dogs, no like you know, there was no snipers on the roofs, and it was just the opposite of what we would expect about what we're seeing. And the North Koreans were everywhere. Everywhere you looked, you

saw the North Korean cheerleaders. The little pair team that was from North Korea were so warmly um appreciated by the audience and they were really good. And then they marched in together under the same flag. How much trouble are we gonna have here? Really? I mean, come on, none like And it's almost the point where now I can't even watch news anymore. I just can't because I just there's nothing real about it. It's just it's it's almost like they're trying to hook You remember the old

soap operas. Did you ever watching those old Yeah, So back in the day when I was training, I would I would go from seven in the morning until about noon, and then I go make myself lunch, and then i'd watch a couple hours of soap operas to relax because I was resting for the night stuff. And you know, I would realize that i'd leave to go to competition, and I go, oh, I hate to miss this week because there was so much that's gonna happen. And I came back and it was, oh, nothing happened. And it's

the same with the recycle. It's like, you know, you come back and it's like, oh, yeah, they're still talking about that and nothing's really changed. So I don't really I don't wait or waste my time anymore, you know, because it's it's all meant to kind of. Also, if you watch like CNN or MSNBC, or Fox. They all have a different point of view and you have to have a radical opinion and that's it. And I don't have a radical opinions. I have opinions, but they're not radical.

And if you're not just upset, it's almost like you don't have a voice, like the voices that are heard, the ones that are I'm so left, I'm so right. That's all there is that exists, and you feel like you have to be a part of that, and it brings people to it. Like I see people gravitate to the polar side because they feel like they're supposed to be on a side, and I'm going, you don't have

to do that. I'm not like that. Like I live here and I'll go to West Coast to New York and all the it's a completely different population, a completely different point of view, a completely different sensitive me. It's like, Wow, this this is really happening in this country and there's no reason, you know. It's like when I was in Sochi, we went to lunch at this really expensive place. It was on the mountain. You had one day to go up to the mountain. We went up. We found this restaurant.

It was the restaurant to go to, and it was me and one of the lead producers from NBC, and then next to us was three Russian guys and a Korean guy and it was a Korean guy's fiftieth birthday. So they're all and the Russian guy we're talking these big personalities, big burly guy. And he goes, let me ask you something. And when you were a little boy, we're about same age, right, And I I think so, And he goes, did they teach you to fear us Russians? And all I could think of was duck and hover,

you know, yeah? And I go, yeah, I did pretty much. He goes, When I was a little boy, a right, probably seem like you. They with bells would ring and the teachers would scream it as get down in the basement. The Americans are coming to destroy us. He goes, isn't it amazing that you and I and just minutes can become friends and our leaders act like children. And I was like, oh, bing, you know, it's so I don't want to get political or anything. Yeah, it's it's meant

to um. It's to you know, kind of dopamine and all that other stuff. And the colors that you all that, and you know, it's kind of it seems like I don't know, I none of it. It just seems so funny to me that I can't participate. I just can't. It makes me tired too, because everyone wants my opinion on things. I just did this long, three four hour interview with the magazine to say, how do you feel politically?

And I have no problem talking about my politics. People just don't come to me from my politics like there's a there's a difference if you want to have it, and if you want to ask me like, I will tell you, but I'm not gonna get on my radio show and say. And so they say, hey, did you vote for Donald Trump? And I said I did not. I said, but I think he's done some things that are good and I also think he's other things that aren't good. And they were just shocked that someone could

say both things inside the same paragraph. I said that musician will never just be No one's gonna be perfect or awful. And I said, I think he's done some fantastic some really terrible things, but who is perfect? And that's my point. And they were so stunned that I didn't just jump on one side and go her or whoo. They're like, wow, no one either they don't talk about it, or they pick a side. No one ever goes. You know, actually there's some duality in this and you know it's

um I mean, it's crazy. And that's why all I really want to do is encourage people. And you are Mr. I'm gonna tell you, tell when you're not here. You're so inspirational. You come in this show or just let's say Amy's Kitchen and we talk. I leave from talking to you, and I'm like, man, I'm so inspired you. And not just because of your story, but when you were a kid, how old were you did you have an illness? You couldn't diagnose it, and you didn't you

didn't grow. I didn't grow for about four years. So what was that? Well, you know, they couldn't figure it out, and they couldn't figure it out, and then I started skating and then all the all of the symptoms went away. And then in two thousand four, I had cancer in ninety seven, which was chemo and surgery and all that stuff. And then in two thousand and four, I'm diagnosed with a brain tumor. It's like, oh, come on, I did.

I did the other thing, right, so as a kid, and then you get pesticular cancer and then you get a brain tumor. Right, so um, I joked that I'm gonna be much much more well known for my my collection of life threatening illness than I ever did anything on the ice. Right. But here's the crazy thing was when they went in they did the biops. You have to dig a hole in your skull and go through and take a piece. And they came back and they handed my wife Um all the information on the brain tumor,

and my Tracy goes, oh, listen to this. Cranio fringio was are usually detected early in a child's life. I was born with a sprain tumor due to a lack of growth and development. And so it's like, see you now, if you live long enough, all questions will be figured out. So they're all trying to go why did it stop? And maybe it was when I crashed Gary Walker's bike into the telephone pole. Maybe I just, you know, the

brain tumor just got pummeled or something. I don't know, you know, it's just we don't know how things happened. But for those years that I I skated, I didn't have any of the symptoms anymore. But the second I stopped, the brain tumor showed itself. And it was like, wow, that's crazy. And so the last time you were here, I think you had been maybe read two thousand sixteen. It's many a year and a half. Did they rediagnosed that they found? Yeah, there's another one. Yeah, two thousand

four was radiation. It came back in two thousand ten surgery, and then it came back in two thousand and sixteen. Do we have a pattern here? You know? It's like, yeah, this is gonna be every dingy years. But this time I just sort of tapped the brakes and I just said, you know what, I just something in me is just telling me to get strong. And I didn't know if it was physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. I had no idea.

So I decided, yes, I'm gonna get strong every way I possibly can get strong, and and I just cut out things in my diet. I added some things that were more you know, healthy, and and I just, you know, I just got to work. And I went back for the first scan and they they said it it hasn't grown, and I'm like, wow, that's miraculous, and I go, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. So I kept doing what I was doing. I went back months later and

they pulled me in. They go, um, it's shrunk, and I go, as has one ever shrunk before without treatment? And they go no, And I go, can you explain that? And they go, god, I don't know, and I go, okay, it's good enough for me. So um it was wild. I mean, I just was. And my endochronologists had the same brain tumor as me, taken out the same surgery, same surgeon, everything. When she was fourteen, only became an

end of chronologist because she was underserved. And my first visit with her, she changed all my meds and I felt like a normal person in four days. It was perfect. It was unbelievable. And I called her and I go, have you ever heard of a crania fingeroma shrinking without treatment? She goes, no, okay. Then I went on the Doctorage show and I'm like talking to him and I go, you don want a crania French Joma's right? He goes, of course I do. I go, have you ever heard

of one that shrank? Without treatment, he goes never So then I went back months later and it shrunk again. It's insane. No one can explain it. But it's like, I'm so grateful that I get a pass, like I don't have to deal with it, like I haven't. It's it's really invasive and it's your brain, right, so you

don't want anybody touching it. And uh so I'm just you know, just trying to stay in my lane and and um, you know again, trying to be light and encourage people and and do the best I can to advance UM cancer research and and to do good while I'm here. You know, i'd much really do that then you know anything else. You know, I've got a great wife, I've got phenomenal healthy kids, and um, if I if this is something I have to take on so they don't get it, I'm okay with that too. So um

you know here we are. So tell me, after you come out of your first brain surgery, do you start to go, let me see what I feel. Do I

feel the same? Do I I know? I I knew um first because what happens with radiation is they pretty much radiation goes through your whole brain and I really feel like sometimes I'm in a fog, you know, I had chemo, and the chemo brain from that, you know, where you can't remember things, and you know, I'll be talking about somebody I've known for twenty years and it's like, oh, what's his name, name name, and I'll do that right, and so I remember, you know, kind of how I

was before radiation. And I feel like I've lost more than a step, you know, but I'm still here and that's great. And I'm still doing the work to advance the science so that you know, there isn't so much collateral damage as the status quo, you know. And so that's why you know Cares is Cares. That's my cancer foundation. I'm gonna continue to do the work until you know, we can find enough science to change the game. And and right now there's enough science out there that you know,

it's the the game is being changed. You know. Cart therapy, which is a immunotherapy, is working on lymphoma, and we just need to create more for every kind of cancer. Mr. Inspiration, That's why I call you never to your face. It's someone call you something behind your back that's better than what they would call you to your face. I've been calling a lot of things to my face. Man. Okay, so the book, check out the book finished first, Winning

changes every thing. The true story is when I started your book, I had to stop because I was writing my book, and I was like, were too similar? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, computer virus. You can't. Yeah, you put it down, You'll pick stuff up. And I do this in stand up. You'll pick stuff off and not know you picked it up until someone goes, oh, that's similar to go no, it's not the sequel. You go, oh it is. So I didn't put it down. No, no, no no, it's good. But I'm done now, so now I can get back

to it. But I did have to stop, and I would be honest with you, I would say I finish it in lof That was a great ted talk. Thanks. You know, I just feel like I've only learned because I've lost a lot. You know. You tell your stories about falling. I feel like that's, you know, my whole life, and people see the glamor of it all and go, oh, you're good at something, so you're at the top. No way, man, do you know how many times I saw all the times,

all the time, like winning is not glamorous. The only part of glamor is that you get to see the Instagram picture or the on TV part or that you know, and so, but if you're rooted in that, you know, if you're rooted in that the idea that this came out of a lot of that, it has so much more value, you know, because you work through it, you didn't give up, you didn't allow your conditions to knock you down, and stronger once we get to maintain, you know,

it's like some of these kids, these viral kids, with these people that get on a TV show with all of a sudden they're thrust up and they didn't put all It's not the fact that they didn't put the work into get there, it's that they don't have the work ethic embedded into them to continue at that level more so than it is well and then you know

all the other stuff. You know. I tell people all the time that we're wired for challenge much more than good fortune, you know, because I've seen so many people that are, you know, given really a horrific situations and they rise up and they're better than it's stronger, more

in touch and everything they've ever been. And then you see people that come across great fortune all at once, you know, whether it being an entertainment or winning the lottery or whatever, and all of a sudden, all these demons come flying out and they're doing things that they never could have imagined doing back when they were, you know, fighting so hard to you know, kind of just stay alive. So, you know, I I'll encourage anybody that's going through it

right now. I mean, if you're really struggling, you're way better off than if you're just at that at you know, standing on the podium shaking your fast right now, without all that other stuff that allows you to be fortified for that moment, Because once you at that moment, man,

it changes everything. You know. I agree, I couldn't do what I do now at the level and with the sincerity that I do it now without all the crap that happened to be before, and without me being able to have the sincerity that I have, I wouldn't be able to maintain it. So I'm grateful. What I used to look at as a setback, I now see as

a strength because I go, oh, what was me? You know, you know, my mom died early was by my grandma was adopted like you know, like you oh, I feel bad, but then you go, do you know all the strength I've gathered from that, And that's why I'm staying where I am. And it's made me a better person. Do you know, have you ever heard of Barry Gibbs first fame thing? So from from the Barry GiB the last remaining brother of the bgs. Uh. You know, he just said,

first fame. If you can survive first fame, you're gonna be great. It's just getting through that first taste of all that coming at you. If you can survive that, you're probably gonna be okay. And I was blessed that when I came home from that Olympics, you know, I get the parade and all this other stuff. The government, the government, the governor of Colorado called me into his office and I thought it was, you know, in my jacket and tie, I thought it was a photo op,

you know. And I walk in and there was a guy in the office with him, and he goes, um, just wait outside, I'm just gonna talk to Scott. And

he gave me a lecture on hometown hero syndrome. He said, you know, I go, what is that and he goes, it's when you're the captain of the quarterback of the high school football team and you throw that strike into the end zone to win the state championship, and everybody carries you off the field and their should yours, and you expect the rest of your life to be that way. He says, I don't want that to happen to you.

I just want to make you aware of it. Enjoy the fruits of your labor, enjoy everything that comes to you. But I want you to know that it will end some day, and when it doesn't, want you to be prepared for it, and I want to. I just think about what a generous gift that was at that time of my life, and it's like wow, I think about that all the time. It's like, yeah, all just go away in a heartbeat, all of it. And that's okay,

because that's so that's supposed to be my journey. But I'm gonna work as hard as I can to do everything I can until that moment happens. We shall say no more. I shall leave inspired yet again. Scott, It's always a pleasure of mind. You're a good man. Thanks for doing this, Thanks for having me. Are you kidding me. I haven't tried to get you off for we've been bouncing and you're out of town. I'm out of town, like I've been looking forward this one for months. We've

been trieding to this for months. Well, you know, let me know how I can help you in any way. A perform and I'm you know, I'm here to serve alright, Scott Hamilton's check out the book finished first and uh wow, wow wow, there you go. There you got another episode. I appreciate your time. There's a good that's an hour. We did an hour. Look look at us. How are you gonna edit that? There's no there's no editing? Right up? All right, thank you. We'll see you next time on the Bodycast