I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn’t have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world. – Dorothy Hamill
Our family life, before figure skating turned it upside down, seemed normal. Our town of Riverside, Connecticut, was part of Greenwich, and we had the advantage of their wonderful community, with great beaches and beautiful parks. – Dorothy Hamill
My mother stopped working when she had my brother. She was a full time mom until I started getting heavily into ice skating lessons, and it got to the point where they really needed my mom to earn an income. – Dorothy Hamill
My parents believed in exposing each of their children to an abundance of varied activities in the hope they would find something they loved. They each had found a passion – Dad with his music and Mom with her horses – so it was natural for them to encourage experimentation. – Dorothy Hamill
Luckily, I discovered ice skating when I was eight and a half years old. There were two wonderful ponds within walking distance of my house. After all the physical activity the summer provided, I craved movement in the cold of winter. I had no skates, so Mom stuffed socks into my brother’s old ones. – Dorothy Hamill
I used to have terrible tantrums. I was temperamental when I was younger. Actually, what I needed was a swift kick in the pants. What a brat! – Dorothy Hamill
I always had short hair, and I hated my short hair. I was always mistaken for a boy, but my mom wouldn’t let me change my hair because she was always chasing me around with a hairbrush, and it was always tangled, so she just would cut it off, and she’s right: short hair did suit me. – Dorothy Hamill
I wanted to learn how to skate backwards and they wouldn’t help me and they went off and left me on my own. – Dorothy Hamill
I’m really very glad that I had skating to be my love and my escape. I think that it always gave me something that made me feel good, and it was music, and it was peaceful, and not a lot of the other stresses of life. – Dorothy Hamill
Every time you go out on the ice, there are slight flaws. You can always think of something you should have done better. These are the things you must work on. – Dorothy Hamill
The mind is pretty powerful. In skating, you learn to click into that zone and focus not necessarily on what you’re doing but if you’re doing it well. – Dorothy Hamill
It was very much like Norman Rockwell: small town America. We walked to school or rode our bikes, stopped at the penny candy store on the way home from school, skated on the pond. – Dorothy Hamill
I always had the sense that nothing was never good enough – striving for perfection. My mother and I had a sort of typical mother-daughter relationship. – Dorothy Hamill
I was a bratty little sister. I was the youngest of three, and I often felt as though I didn’t fit in. – Dorothy Hamill
I think Princess Diana probably had the most famous haircut, or Farrah Fawcett or Jennifer Aniston. – Dorothy Hamill
You see the fairy tale – four minutes of glory at the Olympics. I thought my life would be cake after that. – Dorothy Hamill
In my teen years leading up to the Olympics, I loved having the excuse to skip out on parties because of skating. Partying wasn’t my thing anyway. Mostly I hung out with other skaters. We were all buddies, so it’s not like I missed out on socializing. I was really enjoying myself. – Dorothy Hamill
I was just ice skating. I had no concept of that. In those days you couldn’t see the judges. I was this little person on the ice and they were just people that would stand around the boards. – Dorothy Hamill
I never really liked my short hair; it never occurred to me that people would want it. – Dorothy Hamill
Everybody has to deal with tough times. A gold medal doesn’t make you immune to that. A skater is used to falling down and getting up again. – Dorothy Hamill
I was really a spoiled brat when I was a kid skating. Meals are cooked for you, you are driven to the rink, they make costumes for you. Your parents sit around and watch admiringly while you skate. You don’t have to think about anything but skating. You’re just plain spoiled. – Dorothy Hamill
My family had a membership to the Riverside Yacht Club where my brother, Sandy, learned to sail, and I competed in local swim races. My sister, Marcia, became a competitive springboard diver, and my brother excelled in water polo. – Dorothy Hamill
I wouldn’t say that there’s ever been an Olympic champion that didn’t deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal. – Dorothy Hamill
