They Can Write Too!
Finish First: Winning Changes Everything by Scott Hamilton (W Publishing Group), available Feb. 6
Finding the Edge: My Life on the Ice by Karen Chen (HarperCollins)
Visit Parade.com/champs for exclusive excerpts from both books.
made me understand the process of facing a challenge,” he says. When he received his cancer diagnosis, “that didn’t make me happy. So I learned the process of getting better. Chemo, break, surgery, break, back to life. I can do that. It was not any different than failing a figures test and getting better at it. I just broke it down step by step, and I became more successful.”
Passing the Torch
Hamilton’s fondest memories are from his first games in 1980 at Lake Placid, N.Y. Team USA captains chose the 21-year-old to be the U.S. flag bearer as a reward for making the squad in the wake
of the death of his mom, Dorothy, from cancer. “That was an honor like no other, yet it was very comical,” he recalls, noting his shoes were nearly two sizes too big and his hat kept drooping over his eyes during the parade of nations.
He can still detail every day of those games, highlighted by the thrill of being in the arena when the U.S. upset Russia in the hockey semifinals, dubbed the “Miracle on Ice.”
To prepare for competitions when she was younger, Chen would play a recording of the 1998 ladies’ free skate, in which Tara Lipinski edged out fellow American Michelle Kwan in Nagano, Japan. “I would watch their programs right before I got on the ice,” she says. “I want to stand on that podium and wave to the crowd and have that medal around my neck.”
And if things don’t go exactly as planned in Pyeongchang? Well, that’s what makes the Olympics so compelling. “Everyone gets hooked on the drama because this only happens every four years,” says Hamilton. “It’s also the one time we set aside our differences, come together and celebrate the human spirit. I still can’t believe I got to be a part of it.” Visit Parade.com/chen for a behind-thescenes video of the Olympians on ice plus Hamilton’s advice for Chen.