Ice 'god' is leaping to new challenges

Copyright 2001 Arizona Republic

If you go
TARGET STARS ON ICE
WHERE: America West Arena, 201 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix.
WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 18, 7:30 p.m.
ADMISSION: $35 to $55. (602) 379-7800 or (480) 784-4444.
SUITABILITY: Family.

Figure skater Scott Hamilton, 1984 Olympic gold medalist and world champion, first-place winner in nine professional championships since then and founder-star of Stars on Ice is . . . retiring?

Scott Hamilton, "Skate God for Life" in the words of Kurt Browning, is leaving the ice only three years after his triumphant return to it after a battle with cancer?

Not exactly.

Gods don't retire.

"There's always this joke, 'I went to all four farewell tours of the Who,' " Hamilton says by phone on the road with Target Stars on Ice.

Although the 65-city tour that lands in America West Arena on Thursday is not precisely Hamilton's "first farewell," this season is the last he'll be with Stars on Ice as a full-time touring cast member.

He's not quitting, says the superstar, 42, but he will be developing other ideas. New projects, including a possible Broadway ice show, will keep him from full participation in future Stars on Ice tours.

Hamilton, devoted to his profession, says he also wants to clear the decks a bit in order to see "who the next really big star is, who's going to rock the world."

There's also the physical strain of dozens of one-night stands back to back.

"My body doesn't really recover that fast anymore," he says.

You get the feeling that's less important than other reasons. After all, this is the Scott Hamilton who, after a diagnosis of testicular cancer in 1997, fought the disease with such intensity that he was back on skates within a year.

Hamilton is typically self-effacing about that. Like Charles Barkley, he doesn't want to be called a role model, but for a completely different set of reasons:

"I don't think anyone can think of themselves as role models. To do that means putting the image first, means you're worried about what people think of you. The important thing is to be a good citizen and lead by example."

Nonetheless, Hamilton is a role model for cancer survivors as well as for future figure skaters.

Figure skating has been called both a sport and an entertainment form, though skaters of stature transcend the distinction. Hamilton divides his own career into sports and entertainment periods:

"Those terms apply at different times. I thought of myself as an athlete when I was competing, and now I'm an entertainer."

The sense of competition doesn't disappear when sport becomes entertainment, Hamilton says, but it changes quality:

"In the sport, rivalries can border on the severe. There's bound to be that one, fierce rival that you'll have an intensity toward. In a situation like Stars on Ice, the competition is there in the sense of everyone wanting to be great on every level."

Figure skating contrasts with other sports, Hamilton believes, in the emphasis it throws on individual style:

"People come to see skaters' personalities come out. In other sports, you'll have someone like a Michael Johnson (the Olympic sprinter), who's exciting to watch because he's so different. But in figure skating, it's all about the skater's individuality."

Joining Hamilton on his almost-farewell tour will be Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski, Kurt Browning and Ilia Kulik, among others.

"It's an ensemble show, and it's really not about me but about them," Hamilton says.