Why Olympic Figure Skating Legend Scott Hamilton Won't Treat His Brain Tumor

Four-time World Championship figure skater Scott Hamilton has beaten the odds several times now. First, after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997, which led him to start the Scott Hamilton Cares Foundation to assist with cancer patient support. Then, in 2004, the Olympic gold medalist went under the knife to treat a benign pituitary tumor in his brain.

However, when the tumor was discovered to have reappeared in 2010, Hamilton underwent surgery once again. That treatment went less smoothly when an artery was nicked in his brain, causing an aneurysm which took nine additional surgeries to repair. So when the tumor was found for a third time in 2016, Hamilton decided to forgo surgery this time around.

"When they gave me the diagnosis, they said, it's back," he told People in an exclusive interview. "And so they brought in this guy, a really young, talented surgeon, and he said, 'We could do the surgery again. It'd be complicated, but we've got really talented people here that we could bring in, and I know we could pull it off if that's an option for you.'"

"All I felt was just, don't worry about this. Just go home and get strong," Hamilton explained. "They go, 'Well, what do you want to do?' And I said, 'I think I'm going to go home and get strong.'" He said the decision amounted to "answering his spirit," though he didn't know exactly what he meant by that at the time.

After making the decision not to treat the tumor, further scans proved promising. Three months later, his surgeon found that the tumor hadn't grown at all. Subsequent scans found that it had shrunk by 45 percent and then by an additional 25 percent. But eventually, Hamilton got some bad news.

"It had grown," he recalled. "And then Covid hit and going into any kind of hospital situation was almost impossible. So in my spirit, in my inner being, I realized, I'm totally at peace with not even looking at it again unless I become symptomatic."

But while the prognosis may sound bleak, Hamilton, who celebrates the 40th anniversary of his gold medal win at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics this year, says he has an "ace up his sleeve" if the tumor should ever pose a threat.

"Now there is a targeted radiation therapy that will shrink the tumor," he added. "And in that, I can avoid a lot of other things like surgery and chemo. So I don't know, I'm mostly trying to be in the moment and taking all the information and do the right thing when the time comes."