Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Luckily, I discovered ice skating when I was eight and a half years old. There were two wonderful ponds within walking distance of my house. After all the physical activity the summer provided, I craved movement in the cold of winter. I had no skates, so Mom stuffed socks into my brother's old ones. "

Dorothy Hamill

Summer

Winter

Walking

Related Quotes:

" My parents didn't have a lot of money, but we never knew that. They really did the best they could. "

" The mind is pretty powerful. In skating, you learn to click into that zone and focus not necessarily on what you're doing but if you're doing it well. "

" If you don't know a lot about figure skating, it's easy to fall in love with ice dancing because it's so romantic and so theatrical. "

" I didn't study dance. I had some ballet lessons because I needed it for posture and for my arms, mostly. My skating coach said I really needed it, from the belly button up, as opposed to the footwork. In skating, the shoes don't move. "

" I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal. "

" My coach was a great politician, so he did most of the work. He was good. "

" I wanted to learn how to skate backwards and they wouldn't help me and they went off and left me on my own. "

" My whole family, my father's side, there was a great deal of depression, and my mother's side as well. "

" I don't think television really captures the speed and the power of skating. "

" One naively thinks that by winning the Olympics, it's going to be this switch, and then your life is going to be perfect, and that's not reality. "

" I always had the sense that nothing was never good enough - striving for perfection. My mother and I had a sort of typical mother-daughter relationship. "

" It took me two years to get an appointment with Mr. Suga who cut my hair for the Olympics. Who knew? I had no idea that it would be popular. "

" I've made a commitment to concentrate on my career as an entertainer. "

" My family had a membership to the Riverside Yacht Club where my brother, Sandy, learned to sail, and I competed in local swim races. My sister, Marcia, became a competitive springboard diver, and my brother excelled in water polo. "

" I think Princess Diana probably had the most famous haircut, or Farrah Fawcett or Jennifer Aniston. "

" I had the most incredible time on 'Dancing With the Stars.' It never occurred to me when I took it on that I would physically not be able to do it because that's not in an Olympic competitor's vocabulary! It was the most wonderful environment, such a nurturing environment. "

Dorothy Hamill

Environment

Dancing

" It was very much like Norman Rockwell: small town America. We walked to school or rode our bikes, stopped at the penny candy store on the way home from school, skated on the pond. "

" If I hadn't been born a woman, I would have certainly been gay. "

" A lot of people who have depression understand that the last thing in the world you want to do when you're feeling that way is get up and exercise. It's virtually impossible to do that. It's like somebody beating you. "

" I don't really think they saw anything in me, except the fact that I was interested in it. Some of the kids would miss a week here and miss a week there, I think they could see that I really enjoyed it. "

Dorothy Hamill

Here

Week

" I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn't have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world. "

Dorothy Hamill

Alone

Nobody

" At times, I feel overwhelmed and my depression leads me into darkness. "

" I'm really very glad that I had skating to be my love and my escape. I think that it always gave me something that made me feel good, and it was music, and it was peaceful, and not a lot of the other stresses of life. "

" In my teen years leading up to the Olympics, I loved having the excuse to skip out on parties because of skating. Partying wasn't my thing anyway. Mostly I hung out with other skaters. We were all buddies, so it's not like I missed out on socializing. I was really enjoying myself. "

" There were no competitions on television. The first skating competition I ever remember seeing on television was the 1968 Olympics when Peggy Fleming won. "

" It's different today than it was then. In those days we were strictly amateurs. If I had wanted to stay in for the '80 Olympics, my parents couldn't have afforded it. "

" When I was growing up, there were very few women athletes. I remember watching Olga Corbett, but Peggy Fleming and Janet Lynn were my role models. I never dreamt that I could be at that level. I remember thinking they seemed so elegant and regal and powerful and feminine. "

" In group lesson number six I think we learned how to turn backwards and then just kind of wiggle. That wasn't really skating backward, but I guess I was going in the right direction. "

" You see the fairy tale - four minutes of glory at the Olympics. I thought my life would be cake after that. "