I'M THE LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE

FORTY YEARS AFTER WINNING GOLD AT THE 1984 OLYMPICS, THE SKATING LEGEND LOOKS BACK ON HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGESINCLUDING BEING DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER FOUR TIMES. 'I'M BLESSED BEYOND MY WILDEST IMAGINATION'

- GILLIAN TELLING

If Scott Hamilton were a gambling man, he'd never have bet on himself.

"I'm the most unlikely person on the planet to have experienced any of this," he says. The list of his accomplishments is remarkable: winning the first men's figure skating gold medal in 24 years at the 1984 Winter Games, starting the hugely successful Stars on Ice figure skating tour, surviving four bouts of cancer, founding a cancer charity that's touched countless lives. Then, of course, there's falling in love with his wife, Tracie, and becoming a dad of four. He grins.

"It's all been kind of miraculous, really." Hamilton, 65, who this month is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his gold-medal Olympic moment, is being modest, but he's not wrong about the series of unfortunate events that have shaped his life's course. Adopted as a baby by Ernest and Dorothy Hamilton and raised in Bowling Green, Ohio, he suddenly stopped growing at the age of 4. Doctors were unable to figure out why (years later Hamilton would learn that an undetected brain tumor was likely to blame), and the condition

took its toll on everyone. "My parents were shattered, just exhausted emotionally, financially," says Hamilton, who required a feeding tube as a child to ensure he was getting enough nutrition.