Dorothy Hamill

Dorothy Hamill
Hamill (right) presents Laura Bush the Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award, June 22, 2007.
Personal information
Country represented	United States
Born	Dorothy Stuart Hamill (1956-07-26) July 26, 1956 (age 60) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Height	5 ft 5 in (165 cm)
Former coach	Otto Gold, Gustave Lussi, Sonya Dunfield, Carlo Fassi, Peter Burroughs
Retired	1976
Medal record Representing the  United States Figure skating: Ladies' singles Winter Olympics 1976 Innsbruck Ladies' singles World Championships 1976 Gothenburg Ladies' singles 1974 Munich Ladies' singles 1975 Colorado Springs Ladies' singles

Dorothy Stuart Hamill (born July 26, 1956) is a retired American figure skater. She is the 1976 Olympic champion and 1976 World champion in ladies' singles.

Hamill was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Chalmers and Carol Hamill. Her father was a mechanical engineer. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to the Riverside neighborhood of Greenwich, Connecticut, where Hamill spent the rest of her childhood. She has two older siblings, a brother, Sandy, and a sister, Marcia.

Hamill first started skating in early 1965 at the age of 8, taking once-a-week group lessons. She became more serious about the sport the next season, taking regular private lessons and passing her preliminary and first figure test before the seasonal rink closed in March. She would wake early in the morning to go to the rink for practice at 4:30 am. Hamill was first coached by Otto Gold and Gustave Lussi. Ice time was limited in her area, so she eventually began training at Sky Rink in New York City, staying overnight in the city with friends when possible. In the summers, Hamill trained in Lake Placid, New York and later in Toronto with her coach at the time, Sonya Dunfield. During her career, her father would spend up to $20,000 a year on her skating expenses, including skating lessons, travel, living expenses, and costumes.

Until the spring of 1970, Hamill attended public schools in Riverside, but at that point she switched to a small school with flexible tutoring to accommodate her skating schedule. She attended and graduated from Colorado Academy high school.

Hamill's first national success came in 1969, when she won the novice ladies' title at the U.S. Championships at the age of 12. Later that spring, Hamill was invited to perform in Madison Square Garden with the exhibition tour (in later years known as Champions on Ice) that followed the 1969 World Figure Skating Championships. She placed second at the junior level at the 1970 Championships, and made her senior debut in 1971. The U.S. Figure Skating Association arranged for her to be coached by Carlo Fassi when she began to compete internationally.