Figure skater Dorothy Hamill became a gold medalist during the 1976 Olympic Games.
“The skate, I don’t remember at all, so it’s kind of fun sometimes to see the old-time video,” Hamill said during a February 2026 appearance on the Today show. “Standing on the podium, [you have] all the thoughts that have ever gone through your mind. Every emotion of sadness, excitement [and] wondering what life will be like.”
She continued, “It’s interesting to achieve a ‘lifelong’ goal at 19. I had no idea what would come after, but it was a great relief knowing I didn’t have to go back to training.”
Hamill took home the gold medal in women’s figure skating during the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
Keep scrolling to see what Hamill’s life has been like since becoming an Olympic champion:
Dorothy Hamill’s Retirement
Dorothy Hamill skates at the 1976 Winter Olympics Games. Tony Duffy/Getty Images
Dorothy Hamill retired from figure skating after winning big at the 1976 Olympics and that year’s Worlds championship.
“I was able to get a job [afterward] because we were amateurs in those days,” Hamill recalled on the Today show in February 2026. “When I turned pro, I had wonderful offers to do commercials and have television specials and skate in ice shows [and] doing interviews.”
Dorothy Hamill’s Cancer Battle
Dorothy Hamill announced in January 2008 that she was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer.
“I do have down days and down moments, and I try not to wallow in them. I allow myself some quiet time and some positive time just to recoup,” Hamill told Coping magazine in 2008 of her diagnosis and treatment. “It’s a lot to become an expert in when you only have two weeks before you have to go in for surgery, but if you communicate with your doctors, you can figure out a way to get through it.”
Hamill celebrated eight years of being cancer-free in 2016.
Trading Her Figure Skates for Ballroom Heels
Dorothy Hamill competed on Dancing With the Stars season 16 in 2013, where she was partnered with pro dancer Tristan MacManus. Hamill withdrew from the competition after the second week of competition following a back injury.
Family Life
Dorothy Hamill has been married three times. She first married Dean Paul Martin in 1982 before they divorced two years later in 1984. Hamill moved on with Kenneth Forsythe, tying the knot in 1987. Hamill and Forsythe, who share daughter Alexandra, ultimately divorced in 1995. The Olympic athlete married her third husband, John MacColl, in 2009.
Supporting Team USA in 2026
Dorothy Hamill traveled to Milan, Italy, to watch the women’s singles figure skating competition at the 2026 Winter Games.
“Alysa Liu reminds me of a skater that I idolized, Janet Lynn, back in the mid-70s,” Hamill said on Today. “[She’s] powerful and lyrical and just such joy.”
Hamill further revealed that she had “such high hopes” for Amber Glenn despite her missteps in the short program.
“It’s figure skating, you never know what can happen,” she acknowledged before adding that Glenn’s fellow Team USA athlete Isabeau Levito was “just breathtaking” in her skating routines. “She reminds of Audrey Hepburn on ice, and then all three Japanese women are exquisite, so I’m just lucky that I’m going to be able to watch.”
