An Olympic champion in Lake Placid: Dorothy Hamill mentoring Olympic hopeful Rachael Flatt
HEATHER SACKETT, News Staff Writer
LAKE PLACID — One of America’s figure skating greats was in the Olympic Village over the weekend to lend her expertise to one of the country’s up-and-coming skaters.
Rising star Rachael Flatt and Dorothy Hamill, winner of a gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, were on the ice together for the first time Saturday and Sunday at the 1980 Rink in the Olympic Center. Hamill is a mentor to 17-year-old Flatt.
Flatt is the 2008 World Junior Champion and the 2008 and 2009 U.S. silver medalist. One of her goals is to make the U.S. Olympic Team.
Flatt was in town to perform her short program to Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” in Saturday night’s Lake Placid Ice Show. She left Lake Placid on Sunday, bound for Salt Lake City to do some filming for NBC, before heading back home for the start of her senior year on Tuesday. Flatt will return to Lake Placid in November for Skate America.
Hamill was here to lend Flatt a helping hand and a sympathetic ear.
“(Hamill) was at National’s this past year and we had kind of been exploring having a mentor,” Flatt said. “They weren’t my best performances, but I guess she sort of saw something.”
Hamill remembers the first time she saw Flatt skate in a slightly different way.
“I saw her skate in Cleveland in Nationals this past year and I remember being completely captivated by her and by her program,” Hamill said.
Over the past few months, Hamill has been talking with Flatt, listening and giving advice as the pressure builds for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. Hamill said she can’t really help Flatt with her technical moves, since figure skating has come so far since the 1970s and 80s, but what she can give her is moral support.
“I’m not her coach,” Hamill said. “I’m just another set of eyes. There are things I can’t help her with, like technique on a triple lutz. I just want to be there for her whenever she needs me.”
It can be a bit of a challenge to coordinate time to see each other since Flatt lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. and Hamill lives in Baltimore, Md., so the two talk on the phone and text message.
“She’s just been a wonderful person to talk to,” Flatt said. “She’s had so many experiences I can only dream of.”
Hamill knows the kind of pressure high-level skaters are under. Having someone to talk to could also help skaters avoid psychological problems. Hamill wrote a book called “A Skating Life: My Story,” published in 2007, about her struggles with depression.
Although Hamill had skaters she looked up to — Janet Lynn, Peggy Flemming, John Misha Petkevich — she never had a mentor. But she wishes she had.
“I remember sitting in the front row watching John Misha Petkevich,” she said. “He was just the cat’s meow. But never had any association with them, I just watched from a distance.”
As another set of eyes, Hamill watches Flatt’s performances for things she does well, because there’s nothing to criticize about Flatt’s skating, Hamill said.
“I want her to know she’s great the way she is,” Hamill said. “Because it’s a subjective sport and is supposed to be aesthetically pleasing, there’s a lot of attention paid to costumes and hair and all that stuff. But all that stuff is just the packaging. She’s got the real deal here. To take the raw talent and just make it sing — she has that.”
Hamill spent time in Lake Placid while she was skating competitively and visited in the years after. She spent the summer of 1967 training in Lake Placid under famed coach Gustave Lussi and also made an appearance at the 2000 Goodwill Games.
She said being back in town was overwhelming. When she arrived last week, Hamill asked her driver to take her down Main Street.
“The minute he pulled in front of the arena, the floodgates just opened and I just started crying,” she said. “So much of my life and so many significant memories I have are right here. This was my first time skating away from home. I just love it. There’s a lot of history in this little town.”
POSTED: August 20, 2009
Photos
Rising star Rachael Flatt and Dorothy Hamill, winner of a gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, were on the ice together for the first time Saturday and Sunday at the 1980 Rink in the Olympic Center. Hamill is a mentor to 17-year-old Flatt.
Flatt is the 2008 World Junior Champion and the 2008 and 2009 U.S. silver medalist. One of her goals is to make the U.S. Olympic Team.
Flatt was in town to perform her short program to Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” in Saturday night’s Lake Placid Ice Show. She left Lake Placid on Sunday, bound for Salt Lake City to do some filming for NBC, before heading back home for the start of her senior year on Tuesday. Flatt will return to Lake Placid in November for Skate America.
Hamill was here to lend Flatt a helping hand and a sympathetic ear.
“(Hamill) was at National’s this past year and we had kind of been exploring having a mentor,” Flatt said. “They weren’t my best performances, but I guess she sort of saw something.”
Hamill remembers the first time she saw Flatt skate in a slightly different way.
“I saw her skate in Cleveland in Nationals this past year and I remember being completely captivated by her and by her program,” Hamill said.
Over the past few months, Hamill has been talking with Flatt, listening and giving advice as the pressure builds for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. Hamill said she can’t really help Flatt with her technical moves, since figure skating has come so far since the 1970s and 80s, but what she can give her is moral support.
“I’m not her coach,” Hamill said. “I’m just another set of eyes. There are things I can’t help her with, like technique on a triple lutz. I just want to be there for her whenever she needs me.”
It can be a bit of a challenge to coordinate time to see each other since Flatt lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. and Hamill lives in Baltimore, Md., so the two talk on the phone and text message.
“She’s just been a wonderful person to talk to,” Flatt said. “She’s had so many experiences I can only dream of.”
Hamill knows the kind of pressure high-level skaters are under. Having someone to talk to could also help skaters avoid psychological problems. Hamill wrote a book called “A Skating Life: My Story,” published in 2007, about her struggles with depression.
Although Hamill had skaters she looked up to — Janet Lynn, Peggy Flemming, John Misha Petkevich — she never had a mentor. But she wishes she had.
“I remember sitting in the front row watching John Misha Petkevich,” she said. “He was just the cat’s meow. But never had any association with them, I just watched from a distance.”
As another set of eyes, Hamill watches Flatt’s performances for things she does well, because there’s nothing to criticize about Flatt’s skating, Hamill said.
“I want her to know she’s great the way she is,” Hamill said. “Because it’s a subjective sport and is supposed to be aesthetically pleasing, there’s a lot of attention paid to costumes and hair and all that stuff. But all that stuff is just the packaging. She’s got the real deal here. To take the raw talent and just make it sing — she has that.”
Hamill spent time in Lake Placid while she was skating competitively and visited in the years after. She spent the summer of 1967 training in Lake Placid under famed coach Gustave Lussi and also made an appearance at the 2000 Goodwill Games.
She said being back in town was overwhelming. When she arrived last week, Hamill asked her driver to take her down Main Street.
“The minute he pulled in front of the arena, the floodgates just opened and I just started crying,” she said. “So much of my life and so many significant memories I have are right here. This was my first time skating away from home. I just love it. There’s a lot of history in this little town.”
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