Good News on Scott Hamilton’s Brain Tumor

1984 Olympic men’s champion announced his third brain tumor has started shrinking, does not expect it will require surgery.

Back in October, much to distress of many figure skating fans, Scott Hamilton announced he had been diagnosed with a second reoccurrence of craniopharyngioma. The 1984 Olympic men’s skating champion survived a bout of cancer twenty years ago, but has since undergone surgery twice to remove brain tumors. The second surgery was not without complications.

Happily, it looks like he won’t need a third. Earlier this week, he announced that last month, an MRI determined that his current tumor is shrinking on its own. It’s not gone yet, but right now it looks like they won’t have to do anything about it.

It’s something that stunned his doctors. Usually cranipharyngioma, though typically not malignant, requires surgery to avoid brain damage. Hamilton called it simply, “a spectacular miracle.” He’s always been very Christian, and is all the more so now. He did alter his diet, eliminating refined sugar, which might have played a part.

The tumor certainly didn’t slow Hamilton down any. On the contrary, he seemingly developed a new zeal for life and activity out of it. He’d already been fighting the fight against cancer, with his own foundation, Scott Hamilton CARES, and remained so. Back in December, his foundation even teamed up with U.S. Figure Skating for a fundraising initiative.

Hamilton also increased his profile within the sport after the diagnosis. A week after he first announced it, he also debuted the first episode of “The Scott Hamilton Show,” his skating-themed podcast. His original aim was to have a new episode on Icenetwork each week. They didn’t manage to quite keep up that pace. But he’s now eleven episodes in. The show’s interviewed many of the current and past top figures in the sport, including the legendary Michelle Kwan. When the doctors have told him to keep doing what he’s doing, one can assume he’ll do just that, and he’ll remain more active.

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All in all, it seems things have worked out well for Scott Hamilton. He truly is a very lucky man.