Amazing Moments in Olympic History: Dorothy Hamill

At the Innsbruck 1976 Olympic Winter Games, 19-year-old figure skater Dorothy Hamill accomplished her lifelong dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. Her status as an Olympic champion led to the creation of a Dorothy Hamill doll and to wedge haircuts on thousands of young girls in America.

The figure skater was overwhelmed. The painstakingly shy Dorothy was the youngest child in the Hamill family from Riverside, Conn., and she felt she never quite fit in with her parents, her older brother and her older sister. But she embraced the media frenzy as she became a cultural icon, and she never got rid of her skates in the process.

When Hamill found out she had a knack for ice skating at age 8, her family members rearranged their lives. Hamill became a rising star in her sport and began training all over the country, from Lake Placid, N.Y., to Colorado Springs, Colo.

Leading up to the Winter Games, Hamill was a three-time national champion (1974-1976). Hamill followed up her Olympic medal by capturing the 1976 world title.

Hamill was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1991, the Academy of Achievement's Olympic Hall of Fame in 1996, and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000. She even has a skating rink named after her in Greenwich, Conn. Her signature move, the Hamill camel, remains one of the most recognizable maneuvers in the sport.

In 2007, Hamill's compellingly honest memoir, "A Skating Life: My Story," hit the shelves. The book reveals Dorothy's struggle with depression and how it's impacted her life. The biography was so popular that it made The New York Times' Best-Seller List.

Through it all, Hamill has continued to skate. At 50, Hamill was skating an average of three hours a day, five days a week. She suffers from osteoarthritis, so she's not as flexible as she used to be. However, her enthusiasm for skating has never faltered. She said she might even love it more now than she did at the peak of her career. Skating shows are much less stressful than competition.

In January 2008, when Hamill was 52, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she took a year off from performing to endure radiation and medication. She said the treatments are painful, but this past summer, she returned to the ice. She's not yet cured and therefore still doesn't feel 100 percent, but she's happy to be back performing.

In addition to battling breast cancer, Hamill, now 53, runs a skating camp for adults; is planning her wedding, which will take place this month; and mentors two-time U.S. silver medalist Rachael Flatt, a 2010 Olympic hopeful in figure skating. Almost 33 years after winning Olympic gold, Hamill remains a fixture on the ice.