LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dorothy Hamill: Skating Life
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Hamill spent endless hours skating on the pond until she was nearly frozen. Then, she would run inside and get a cup of steaming sugar - and - cream - rich coffee from her grandmother. Hamill was hooked; she begged her mother for a new pair of properly fitting skates. One day, she returned home from school to find them sitting on the table. Hamill took them to the neighborhood pond for a trial but was dismayed because the other kids could already skate backward. She begged her parents for lessons and they gave in.
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Hamill was U.S. champion from 1974 through 1976. She is credited with developing a new skating move; a camel spin that turns into a sit spin, which became known as the "Hamill camel." The bobbed hairstyle that she wore during her Olympic performance started a fad. A Dorothy Hamill doll was made in 1977. She quickly became America's sweetheart.
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From age eight, when she discovered she loved skating, to age 19, when she won her Olympic gold medal, Hamill's parents sacrificed and scraped so she could train. This memoir is her homage to them, as well as her frank recounting of the difficulties women faced in professional sports in the 1970s. Hamill's father worked to support the family, so her mother, Carol, would drive her to most practices and competitions, battling "the sport's old boys' network" on her daughter's behalf. After the Olympics, it was up to Hamill to figure out what to do. She was young and unschooled in life off the rink, with no female role models for the professional career she wanted. She struggled to pay back her parents, find a man who'd love her, and keep skating beautifully, but she couldn't do it all.
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Hamill's flawlessly executed performance wowed the crowd. Her routine included her trademark "Hamill Camel," a camel spin lowered into a back sit spin. In a regular camel, the skater jumps with one leg extending backwards in the air while bent at the waist. The skater then lands on the other leg and spins. Hamill took it one step farther, bending her legs and dropping into a sit spin. She won the gold and went on to win the World Figure Skating Championship in Göteborg, Sweden, a few weeks later.
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Hamill is one in a long line of great U.S. ladies' figure skaters. She entranced the world with her gold medal-winning performance in Innsbruck in 1976. She ... entranced the judges, as evidenced by their unanimous vote. Hamill won two world championships and three U.S. championships in her skating career. She also had a big impact on women's fashion, as Life magazine called her "wedge" hairstyle "one of the most important fashion statements in 50 years."
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Hamill immediately fell in love with the sense of freedom skating gave her. "I just remember the first time stepping on the pond, being out there by yourself and the wind at your face. It was just this great feeling," she said. "My sister was there and my neighbor and they were skating backwards and nobody would help me."
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