Scott Hamilton is keeping his head held high following his third cancer diagnosis.
At the Gold Meets Golden event on Saturday, March 9, the Olympian, 65, told E! News that “everything is perfect” and “as it should be” amid his health battle.
Hamilton, who opted to “get strong” instead of undergoing chemotherapy treatment or surgery again, said the choice came from an inner calling.
“I didn’t know if it was physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual,” he explained. “So I did what I did in high school: I chose ‘all the above.’”
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Hamilton added that he’s formed a deeper bond with his family throughout the process. “It’s just changed my life forever and for the better,” he said. “I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.”
The retired figure skater, instead, decided to raise cancer awareness by helping those in need.
“Cancer is something that touches us all,” he said. “It’s a horrible disease, but there’s hope. The science is way up here and the funding is still down here, and as soon as we can close the gap, millions of lives will be saved.”
Hamilton, however, noted that he’s “optimistic” that he will be able to see “all cancers being survivable” in his lifetime.
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Hamilton was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997. After undergoing surgery and receiving treatment to reduce the tumor in his abdomen, Hamilton achieved remission later that year.
He received his first brain cancer diagnosis in 2004 and a second in 2010, undergoing surgery on both occasions. The athlete revealed that he was facing a third brain tumor in 2016.
“I have a unique hobby of collecting life-threatening illness,” Hamilton quipped to People at the time. “It’s six years later, and it decided that it wanted an encore.”
Earlier this year, Hamilton explained his decision to forgo treatment for his third tumor, telling People in February that when doctors “gave me the diagnosis, they said, it’s back.”
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Hamilton continued: “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.’”
Hamilton called his decision to not receive treatment again “remarkable,” noting that the cancer has improved.
“I went back to the scan three months later and they said, it hasn’t grown,” he said. “I go back three months later and they go, it shrank 45 percent. I said to my surgeon, ‘Can you explain this?’ And he said, ‘God.’ I went back in, and it shrunk 25 percent again.”
Hamilton shares sons Jean Paul, Aidan and Maxx and daughter Evelyne with wife Tracie Robinson.
