1980 flag bearer, Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton thought he was in trouble.

Big-time trouble.

He thought he was just minding his own business, watching the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind,'' along with some American teammates in the Olympic Village when the U.S. team leaders pulled him out of the movie theater.

"I thought I was being thrown out of the Olympics,'' Hamilton said. "I kept looking around and I saw all of these Olympic officials, and I was thinking, 'What is going on?'

After a moment of dread, Hamilton was greeted with relief --- and amazement.

"Then they told me I was elected by all of the other athletes to carry the flag for the Opening Ceremonies,'' Hamilton said.

Today, Hamilton is well known worldwide as an Olympic champion. But back in 1980, at the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, he was not even the top athlete on the U.S. team. Charles Tickner was the American men's champion that year, and David Santee was the U.S. silver medalist. There were big stories brewing in speedskating with Eric Heiden vying for an unprecedented five gold medals.

"I didn't think there was a chance in the world that it would be me,'' Hamilton said. "The team captains voted, and they never told me they were going to nominate me.''

Yet here was Hamilton, a relative no-name, being chosen for one of the highest honors an athlete can receive in the Games --- especially since they were being held on American soil. He had no idea how to react. Shortly after he was told he would be the flag bearer, he walked with some officials to the cafeteria to discuss details.

"I was so nervous that I spilled coffee all over myself,'' Hamilton said.

What earned Hamilton the honor was not solely based on his skating prowess. It was the personal side of his Olympic journey that seemed to sway the voters.

Hamilton, who was adopted when he was six weeks old, overcame a childhood illness (later diagnosed as Schwachmann's Syndrome) that stunted his growth. Initially, doctors didn't think his life expectancy would be long, let alone his chances of competing in the 1980 Games. Finally, however, he was diagnosed properly and took up skating as a form of exercise.

Not only did he begin to grow, but he flourished as a figure skater. But it wasn't without overcoming obstacles. He changed coaches and actually quit skating because of financial troubles. Through the help of donors Helen and Frank McLoraine, Hamilton was able to train again. Not long afterward, Hamilton faced adversity again. His mother, Dorothy, died of cancer.

Hamilton's story of perseverance helped make him almost a unanimous choice among the American athletes to be the flag bearer.

"The criteria wasn't so much who was the guy who was going to win in the Olympics, say who was going to be the Michael Phelps of the 1980 Games, but whose story symbolized the Olympics,'' said Michael Botticelli, a pairs skater who competed in Lake Placid that year and who was the team leader for the U.S. figure skaters.

"For us, we were all excited that it was going to be a figure skater, and we were all especially excited that it was going to be Scott. We were a very close team.''

Once Hamilton got over the shock of the announcement, he began to worry about something else --- that he would botch the job. At the rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies, Hamilton said he remembered wearing boots that were too large, a hat that was too big and mittens that didn't fit, either. There was a large ramp that the athletes had to walk down to enter the Olympic Stadium.

Hamilton made it down the ramp safely, thanks to taking many baby steps, and he didn't slip in the actual Opening Ceremonies, although that proved to be an Olympic event in and of itself.

"I remember looking down that ramp and it was covered with ice,'' Hamilton said. "My hat was covering me; it was down over my nose, and all I'm thinking is, "Great. This is the host country and the guy who is carrying the flag is an ice skater who is going to fall on the ice.' ''

Hamilton made it through the day, surviving the cold and carrying the heavy flag for hours, but wouldn't have traded the experience for the world.

"It was a huge moment, the defining moment for me of those Games,'' Hamilton said. "As great as an honor as it was, however, it was stressful. But it was great.''

Hamilton placed fifth in those Games and went on to dominate men's skating the next four years. He captured the next four national and world titles and became the 1984 Olympic champion. In Sarajevo, Hamilton carried the American flag once again, during a victory lap around the Zetra arena.

His Olympic career could have come full circle as he was asked to carry the flag once again in the Closing Ceremonies for the 1984 Games in Sarajevo. As honored as he was, Hamilton decided to pass the torch, so to speak, to someone else: skier Phil Mahre.

"He won the gold that day and his (first) son was born that day,'' Hamilton said. "For him to carry the flag was the trifecta. I got so much attention during those Games, and I got what I went (to the Olympics) for. It was the right thing to do.''

Hamilton went on to achieve many other great accomplishments, founding the Stars on Ice tour, becoming a prominent TV skating broadcaster and overcoming cancer --- he was diagnosed with cancer in 1997. Now cancer-free, married and the father of two boys, Hamilton has truly achieved a trifecta of his own.