50 Fun Facts About Dorothy Hamill

Dorothy Hamill is no relation to Mark Hamill, the actor famous for playing which Star Wars hero?

Luke Skywalker first reached cinemas in 1977, the year after Dorothy Hamill's Olympic gold. The actor and the skater share a surname and nothing more.

In which Austrian city did Dorothy Hamill win her figure skating gold at the 1976 Winter Olympics?

Innsbruck was staging its second Winter Games in 12 years, having stepped in when the original American host city pulled out.

Which haircut, created for Dorothy Hamill by stylist Yusuke Suga, became a craze after her 1976 Olympic win?

The wedge fanned out when she spun and fell straight back into place, and salons were soon being asked for the cut by her name.

Which touring skating revue signed Dorothy Hamill after her Olympic win and was bought by her in 1993?

Ice Capades signed her as its new star after the Olympics. When the company went bankrupt she bought its assets and ran it as president.

The Hamill camel, Dorothy Hamill's signature move, begins in a camel position and drops into which other element?

Sit spin is where the move ends. She developed it in 1969 while training under Gustave Lussi, and it became a highlight of her programs.

Dorothy Hamill's first husband, a tennis player and actor nicknamed Dino, was the son of which famous crooner?

Dean Martin's son Dean Paul was married to her from 1982 to 1984. A National Guard pilot, he died when his jet crashed in 1987.

Which celebrity dance contest did Dorothy Hamill leave after only two dances in 2013 because of a back injury?

Dancing with the Stars paired her with Tristan MacManus in its sixteenth season, but her spine surgeon told her to stop after she strained her lower back in practice.

Who in 1992 became the first American woman since Dorothy Hamill to win the Olympic figure skating title?

Kristi Yamaguchi ended the wait in Albertville. Skaters from East Germany had taken all three women's titles in between.

The day before her Olympic free skate in Austria, Dorothy Hamill toured filming locations of which favorite musical?

The Sound of Music trip was her mother's idea to take her mind off the final, but she returned to piles of telegrams from strangers and burst into tears.

Why was Dorothy Hamill seen squinting at the scoreboard after her skates at the 1976 Winter Olympics?

She skated without her glasses or contact lenses, so she had to squint to read her marks. The squint became part of her appeal.

Dorothy Hamill grew up in Connecticut, but in which Midwestern city was the future Olympic champion born?

Chicago was home only briefly, because her family moved east shortly after she was born.

Which Connecticut town, where Dorothy Hamill grew up, named its public skating rink after her?

Greenwich had so little ice time when she was a child that she trained in New York City, staying overnight with friends when she could.

Which coach, a former European champion himself, guided Dorothy Hamill to her 1976 Olympic gold?

Carlo Fassi left for Europe with another pupil weeks before the Games, so she trained with a stand-in until the two were reunited in Germany.

Dorothy Hamill was the first American woman to win Olympic figure skating gold since which 1968 champion?

Peggy Fleming had trained under the same coach. Austria's Beatrix Schuba won the title at the Games in between.

Which skater, a pupil of Dorothy Hamill's coach, won the men's gold at the same 1976 Olympics?

John Curry took the European, Olympic and world titles that year, so one coach had both singles champions at a single Games.

Dianne de Leeuw, runner-up to Dorothy Hamill at the 1976 Olympics, was born in California but skated for which country?

The Netherlands was her mother's country, and de Leeuw had beaten Hamill to the world title the year before.

In which West German city did Dorothy Hamill leave the ice in tears at the 1974 Worlds after the crowd booed?

Munich's crowd was booing the marks given to a West German skater, not her. She came back out and won the silver medal.

Dorothy Hamill was the last Olympic singles champion to win without which element in her programs?

A triple jump was something she never landed reliably, yet she won both the short and the long program in 1976.

Dorothy Hamill's 1976 Olympics moved to Austria after voters in which U.S. state refused to fund the Games?

Colorado had won the Games for Denver, the city where she was training in the years before her gold.

Which hair-care brand made Dorothy Hamill the face of its Short & Sassy shampoo after her Olympic win?

Clairol built the line's television and print ads around her dark, glossy bob as she glided across the ice.

Which jump, the hardest in Dorothy Hamill's programs, did coach Gustave Lussi teach her to attack without hesitating?

Double axel takes two and a half turns in the air, and Lussi told her she would land it only by attacking it with complete confidence.

Dorothy Hamill's early coach Gustave Lussi had earlier trained which two-time Olympic men's champion?

Dick Button was coached by Lussi from the age of twelve, and as a producer he later made television specials starring Hamill.

In which Adirondack village did the young Dorothy Hamill train with coaches Otto Gold and Gustave Lussi?

Lake Placid had kept its Olympic ice open through the summer since the 1930s, when that was unusual, and it drew ambitious young skaters to train there.

A 1993 national study tied Dorothy Hamill with which Olympic gymnast as America's most popular athlete?

Mary Lou Retton and Hamill finished far ahead of Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and some 800 other athletes in the Associated Press study.

Dorothy Hamill sold her struggling ice show in 1995 to a company owned by which television evangelist?

Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment paid $10 million and kept her on as president, but she left after a lacklustre season.

Dorothy Hamill won a Daytime Emmy for a 1983 television ice special based on which Shakespeare play?

Romeo and Juliet on Ice aired on CBS, and her Emmy was a performing arts award for hosting it.

Which fairy-tale heroine did Dorothy Hamill skate in the touring show she produced as owner, later broadcast on ABC?

Cinderella... Frozen in Time was the hit of her years as an ice-show owner, when she also scrapped the company's weigh-ins for its skaters.

Which classic ballet did Dorothy Hamill and her second husband produce as an ice show in the late 1980s?

The Nutcracker on ice was produced with Kenneth Forsythe, a sports physician she married in 1987.

Which joint condition was Dorothy Hamill diagnosed with after chronic pain began to hamper her skating at 40?

Osteoarthritis did not end her career: the condition responded well to medication and she went back to skating professionally.

Dorothy Hamill's seasonal affective disorder is unusual because her depression tends to flare in which season?

Summer is the reverse of the usual pattern, in which low moods arrive with the short, dark days of winter.

At which Winter Olympics did Dorothy Hamill help carry the flame into the stadium at the opening ceremony?

Salt Lake City opened its 2002 Games months after the September 11 attacks, and American champions relayed the flame around the stadium in pairs.

Weeks after her Olympic gold, Dorothy Hamill won her only world title in a city in which Nordic country?

Sweden's Gothenburg hosted the 1976 championships, where she finally won after finishing second in each of the two previous years.

In which New York venue was 12-year-old Dorothy Hamill invited to skate with a champions' exhibition tour in 1969?

Madison Square Garden hosted the tour that followed the 1969 World Championships. She earned the invitation by winning the U.S. novice title that year.

In which since-abolished segment did Dorothy Hamill place second at the 1976 Olympics before winning both programs?

Compulsory figures meant tracing precise circles on the ice. She admitted daydreaming through the practice until her coach told her to focus or give it up.

Which nickname, first attached to a silent-era film actress, did the media give Dorothy Hamill in 1976?

America's Sweetheart had been the actress Pickford's label. Hamill earned it with a shy, wholesome image that went on to sell dolls and shampoo.

Which five-time U.S. champion and 1972 Olympic bronze medallist did Dorothy Hamill succeed as national champion in 1974?

Janet Lynn left for a record professional contract after 1973, and Hamill, the runner-up that year, won the next three titles.

Which 2006 Fox reality contest had Dorothy Hamill as one of its three judges?

Skating with Celebrities was co-hosted by Olympic champion Scott Hamilton, and she judged beside a veteran coach and a skating journalist.

Nine-year-old Dorothy Hamill's first competition, the Wollman Open, took place at a rink in which New York location?

Central Park's Wollman Rink staged the event in the autumn of 1965, and she finished second.

Which rival family show's success squeezed the touring skating company Dorothy Hamill owned in the mid-1990s?

Walt Disney's World on Ice had the famous characters. Her answer was to drop the old variety format and stage full fairy-tale stories on skates.

Which future two-time world champion did Dorothy Hamill admit had outskated her at the 1976 U.S. Championships?

Linda Fratianne went on to win the next four national titles and Olympic silver in 1980. Hamill kept her crown but blamed her own poor preparation.

Which figure skating comedy features Dorothy Hamill, Brian Boitano and Nancy Kerrigan in cameos as federation judges?

Blades of Glory casts Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as banned rivals who find a loophole that lets them compete again as a pair.

On which TV cooking contest did Dorothy Hamill reach the final round before losing to a UFC fighter?

Chopped cast her in a 2017 episode for celebrity athletes, where she outlasted a former NFL player and an Olympic fencer before Paige VanZant won.

At which international multi-sport event did Dorothy Hamill return to competition in 2000 and finish fifth?

Goodwill Games organisers invited professionals to face the leading amateurs of the day, and she had not competed for more than a decade.

In a 1996 team challenge, Dorothy Hamill shared a squad with which American teenager, later a five-time world champion?

Michelle Kwan, Todd Eldredge and Dan Hollander were her teammates in the Hershey's Kisses Figure Skating Challenge.

Which toy company produced a doll in Dorothy Hamill's likeness after her 1976 Olympic victory?

Ideal sold the doll as the endorsements poured in, making her one of the first female athletes to earn money that way.

Dorothy Hamill first skated at eight on a frozen pond behind her grandparents' home in which state?

Massachusetts was home to her grandparents, in Wellesley. She skated on their pond until she was nearly frozen, then begged her parents for lessons.

On a 1971 skating trip to which country did Dorothy Hamill meet the coach who led her to Olympic gold?

Japan hosted an invitational event that year, and afterwards the coach asked her to come and train with him full time.

Dorothy Hamill mentored which skater who won the 2010 U.S. title and later graduated from Stanford?

Rachael Flatt went to the Vancouver Olympics weeks after winning that title and finished seventh.

Which title did Dorothy Hamill give her 2007 memoir, in which she wrote frankly about living with depression?

A Skating Life: My Story was her second autobiography, following On and Off the Ice in 1983.

In the 1995 Legends of Figure Skating show, Dorothy Hamill stepped in for which ill former Olympic champion?

Katarina Witt had to withdraw, so Hamill, who had just sold her ice show and meant to retire, found herself performing again.