Quote of the Day: Scott Hamilton's Advice on Challenging Yourself Still Inspires 42 Years After His Olympic Gold

The most recent Winter Olympics were eagerly watched by many of us, and ice skating is arguably one of the most entertaining events at those Olympics. One of the most well-known American male figure skaters, Scott Hamilton, was a two-time Olympian and won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, per Team USA. Though he hasn’t appeared on a broadcast in a hot minute, he went on to become a television broadcaster for NBC, according to the Scott Hamilton Cares Foundation. He’s now a best-selling author, an analyst and commentator and a producer. And our quote of the day features Hamilton’s good advice on the importance of challenging yourself. 

As his foundation’s site reported, Hamilton has won over 70 titles, including the gold medal at the Olympics, as well as four gold medals at the World Championships in 1981 through 1984, all in the Men’s Singles category. He was born in 1958 in Toledo, OH, and adopted by Dorothy and Ernest Hamilton, who were both professors at the time. A sickness in childhood stunted his growth, but he still started figure skating at nine years old and showed a natural talent for it. 

This, of course, led to his iconic skating career, which spanned from his teenage years until he was skating in professional, touring shows, retiring in 2009. While he performed with Ice Capades, he started the “Scott Hamilton’s American Tour,” which is now known as “Stars on Ice,” per Team USA. According to Deadspin, Hamilton was known for doing backflips on ice—it was his signature move in ice shows, though it was illegal to do in competition until 2024, per Reuters.

Hamilton was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997, per the Scott Hamilton Cares Foundation. This was not only 20 years after his mother died of cancer, but they found brain tumors in Hamilton in 2004, 2010 and 2016. These experiences are what led him to start his foundation, as well as other education and survivorship programs. 

Given his time as a professional athlete and his personal struggles, his words in today’s quote come from lived experience with life’s challenges.

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Quote of the Day by Scott Hamilton

“What’s the point of doing anything if it’s easy? It’s so much more valuable when a challenge has to be overcome.”

This quote appears in Hamilton’s 2008 book, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Right to Be Miserable. It falls under the nonfiction, autobiographical category of books with a self-improvement spin. He writes about his time as a professional ice skater, sharing anecdotes and personal hardships, all while “revealing his eight secrets to finding hope in a life filled with challenges, difficulties and career-ending odds.”  

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Deeper Meaning of Scott Hamilton’s Quote—Challenge Yourself

Many would look at Hamilton at the time he published this book and see a very successful athlete. They’re not seeing all of the obstacles he went through, or the trials and tribulations he had to overcome to achieve his level of success. However, through his book—and in our quote of the day—Hamilton dispels the idea that he didn’t have difficulties. But because he was determined and lived this quote, seeing value in a challenge, he became a gold medal Olympian. 

This quote relates more to ambitions you might have in your career or in your personal life. Maybe you’re also an athlete, and training is back-breaking work. Or maybe you are striving for your dream job, but it’s an industry that takes a lot of hard work. Or maybe you want a healthy, happy marriage. Strong relationships don’t just happen; things can get tough, and while it might be “easy” to let go or move on, the better, “challenging” thing to do is work for your relationship every day.

Pushing yourself to be the best version possible isn’t easy, but it’s so worth it in the end. And that’s essentially what Hamilton is saying with this quote. Most things that are worth accomplishing aren’t easy, but you should still do them.

Related: Quote of the Day: Harper Lee on Empathy and the Importance of Seeing Through Another Person’s Eyes

More Quotes from Scott Hamilton

• “It doesn’t matter what the challenge is -athletics, business, romance, health, academics, the arts- the rule for getting up is the same. You just get up!”
• “You always have to keep things fun. if you don’t, no matter how many awards you win or how much money you make, you will never be happy.”
• “The path to victory is the path you’re on. It becomes a path to victory the moment you decide it does.”
• “Have you ever stopped for a minute to think about how many things had to go wrong in your life for you to end up exactly where you are?”
• “Each movement is only learned after you’ve perfected the one before it.”

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