Dorothy Hamill: America's Sweetheart Quiz

Answer: Chicago, Illinois

Shortly after Dorothy was born in Chicago, her parents, Carol and Chalmers Hamill, moved to Riverside, Connecticut. Riverside is a community in the town of Greenwich. Dorothy was the youngest of three children. She has an older brother, Sandy, and an older sister, Marcia.

Answer: Innsbruck, Austria

Dorothy was 19 years old when she took the gold medal at Innsbruck, and the judges awarded her a perfect score of 6.0 for her short program. 1976 marked the second time that Innsbruck played host to the Olympic Winter Games; the first was 12 years earlier, in 1964.

The Grenoble Winter Games were held in 1968, and the site of Peggy Fleming's gold medal triumph. Calgary hosted the Winter Games in 1988, and Katarina Witt took home the gold medal (her second). The Lake Placid Games took place in 1980, and are most often remembered for the US Men's Ice Hockey Team and the "Miracle on Ice".

Answer: 1976

Dorothy won the 1976 World Championship in Gothenberg, Sweden, shortly after she took the gold medal at the Innsbruck Winter Games. She had previously won two silver medals in World Championship competition in 1974 and 1975. Earlier, in 1973, Dorothy took second place at the US National competition, and fourth place at the World Championships. Of her many skating accomplishments, Dorothy has often said that she is most proud of her World Championship victory.

She was once quoted by ESPN as saying, "In some ways this victory meant more to me than any other. I won the Olympics for my country, but I won the World Championship for myself".

Answer: 5

Dorothy won five consecutive World Professional Figure Skating Championships from 1983 through 1987.

Answer: Carlo Fassi

Carlo Fassi was an Italian National Champion in the 1950s, but achieved his greatest success and notoriety as a skating coach. He died of a heart attack in 1997 at the age of 67. Prior to working with Dorothy, Fassi coached Peggy Fleming to her gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in Grenoble.

Dick Button was a champion skater, not a coach, winning five World Championships and two Olympic gold medals from 1948 to 1952. Button has become best known for providing expert analysis and commentary during television broadcasts of figure skating competitions. John Nicks was a champion pairs skater in Great Britain during the 1950s, also winning a pairs World Championship in the same era. As a coach, Nicks has specialized in what he knows best, pairs skating, coaching many famous duos including Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner. Jutta Muller coached many prominent East German skaters, most notably Katarina Witt.

Answer: No

Dorothy practiced triple jumps while training, but didn't feature them in her competitive routines. In the contemporary era, successfully landing "a triple" is almost a defacto requirement for any winning program, but the triple jump was not yet considered an essential element in 1976 when Dorothy won her gold medal. Dorothy was the last female figure skater to win a gold medal at the Olympics without featuring at least one triple jump.

Answer: Yes

Dorothy was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000. Previously, she was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame (1991), and the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame (1992).

Answer: Oversized eyeglasses

Dorothy's instant popularity was partly attributable to her well-scrubbed, attractive "girl next door" appearance. Her unique "wedge" hairstyle was created by the noted stylist Yusuke Suga of New York. The styling caused such an impact, "Life" magazine described it as "one of the most important fashion statements of the last 50 years". Dorothy later became a paid spokesperson for Clairol, endorsing their "Short and Sassy" line of hair care products.

Dorothy's vision problems were first discovered by her coach, Carlo Fassi. He suggested the large frames, so that Dorothy could more easily see the ice surface when tracing compulsory school figures.

Answer: Yes

Dorothy won an Emmy in 1984 for "Romeo and Juliet", which aired on the CBS television network. She starred as Juliet.

Answer: Ice Capades

When Dorothy signed with the Ice Capades, she became the first female athlete to ever sign a million dollar a year contract. She later purchased the Ice Capades in 1993, and was credited with improving the working conditions for the skaters in the cast, increasing the amount of training and practice time available, and eliminating hated weekly weigh-ins. Dorothy revised the format of the show, changing it into an ice ballet.

Her new format proved to be an unpopular failure, and Dorothy sold her interest in the Ice Capades in 1995.

Her ill-fated experience owning the Ice Capades was one factor which contributed to Dorothy declaring bankruptcy in 1996.

Answer: Dean Paul Martin

Dorothy's first husband was the son of the legendary "Rat Pack" entertainer Dean Martin. Dorothy and Dean Paul were married for only two and a half years before divorcing, and they had no children during their brief marriage. In addition to his work in the entertainment field, Dean Paul was also a military pilot in the United States (California) Air National Guard. During a routine training flight, he was killed in an aircraft crash at the age of 35, in March of 1987.

Answer: Alexandra

Dorothy and Kenneth were married in 1987, separated in 1995, and later divorced. By most media accounts, it was a very contentious, unpleasant divorce. Their daughter Alexandra ("Alex") was born in 1988. Dorothy and Alex subsequently moved to Baltimore, Maryland, a city which Dorothy has said reminds her of Riverside, the small Connecticut town where she was raised.

Answer: Shyness and nervousness

Dorothy was painfully shy throughout her youth. Her coach, Carlo Fassi, was quoted by ESPN as saying, "Dorothy had a strong handicap in that she was negative. She had to be pushed and always said she couldn't win in competition. She was her own worst enemy. Frankly, I didn't think she could do it, either, for a long while." During a June 2000 interview with the Academy of Achievement (www.achievement.org), Dorothy herself said that nervous pressure often caused her to throw up before competitions, adding, "I really would get violently ill. So I never ate very much before I competed because I couldn't keep it down. I often thought it was really like going to your own execution".

Much later in life, as she entered her 40s, Dorothy was diagnosed with osteoarthritis (a painful medical condition involving degeneration of the joint cartilage). Her skating career was threatened, but Dorothy responded well to treatment and medication, and has been able to maintain her agenda of skating appearances. In 2001, Dorothy became a paid spokesperson for a major pharmaceutical house, Merck, marketing their drug Vioxx, which is used to combat osteoarthritis.

Answer: Smoking cigarettes

Dorothy worked with Pat Collins to quit smoking, a habit she'd had since her teenage years. In 1976 (at age 20), Dorothy told "People" magazine, "I've been puffing these - maybe half a pack a day - since I was 15." Pat Collins was a celebrity hypnotist who attained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, making numerous appearances on US television. Collins died of a stroke in 1997.

At the time of Collins' death, the E! television network described Dorothy as "one of her serious students".

Answer: Hamill Camel

The Hamill Camel combines two standard elements, the camel spin and the sit spin, into one unique move. It is performed by executing a camel spin, and then moving directly and fluidly into the sit spin position. Dorothy's original creation has maintained its popularity, and continues to be performed regularly by other skaters.