Blade Runners; They're Stars, but they've skated on thin ice

Copyright 2001 Tower Media, Inc.

The Daily News of Los Angeles

January 16, 2001, Tuesday, VALLEY EDITION

They call it Stars on Ice, but it might as well be known as Survivors on Ice.

Scott Hamilton, now in his farewell season with the touring company he co-founded 14 years ago, and co-stars such as fellow Olympic gold medalists Tara Lipinski and Ilia Kulik can tell stories of serious physical challenges that could have sidelined them from run-of-the-mill professions, let alone figure skating.

But even as those three talked about their trials last week in an interview at the Universal Hilton Hotel, they all displayed their passion for the thing they do so well, that blend of art and sport that seems to challenge the laws of physics.

It has been almost four years since Hamilton, 42, was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but he pronounces quickly - and with a knock on the wooden table - that his health right now is ''perfect,'' definitely not the reason for his decision to bow out as a headliner with Stars on Ice, which stops Wednesday at Staples Center and Saturday at Arrowhead Pond.

It's probably more a statement of fact than a power-of-suggestion message behind Hamilton's choice of opening numbers, James Brown's sassy signature tune ''I Feel Good.''

Hamilton makes clear he is not quitting skating publicly; in fact, he may make guest appearances with Stars on Ice in future seasons or serve in some sort of consulting capacity. He also hopes to do a skating-based show on Broadway. What about coaching?

''No,'' he replies very quickly. ''If I did coach, I'd only coach orphans.'' How sweet, you may be thinking, given that Hamilton was adopted as an infant. But then he clarifies his point. ''I would never coach anyone but orphans, and that's only because I don't like (stage) parents.''

For the time being, he has no firm plans, beyond continuing his many charity and cancer awareness endeavors and spending more time at his homes in Colorado and Westlake Village.

''The idea is when I step away (from Stars), I step away,'' he said. ''It's never belonged to me. I just think it's important that I step away and let the show develop.''

He'll be passing the headlining baton to skaters such as Lipinski, Tarzana resident Kulik, Kristi Yamaguchi, Kurt Browning, Yuka Sato and the married duo Todd Sand and Jenni Meno of Orange County.

(This production, formerly sponsored by Discover, is not to be confused with John Hancock Champions on Ice, formerly branded by Campbell's Soup, which features Nancy Kerrigan, Dorothy Hamill and Rudy Galindo. Champions on Ice, which Hamilton refers to curtly as ''the other tour,'' is slated to hit Arrowhead Pond on April 29.)

Hamilton has had a long run in his sport, dominating the men's amateur ranks through the early 1980s and then turning pro in late 1984. But choosing work that each day demands a body in peak shape and with one wrong move can take it away is, well, like skating on thin ice.

Lipinski, 18, learned that the hard way. She suffered hip pain while competing for the gold medal in 1998, and it got worse during six pro competitions (all first-place finishes) in 1998 and 1999. By last September, simple activities like getting out of bed and brushing her teeth hurt, so Lipinski was forced to pinpoint its cause. She admits she was scared of the diagnosis, scared of the treatment, even scared of the tests.

''I won't even get the flu shot because I couldn't deal with the needle, and then all of a sudden ... in the middle of rehearsals they're giving me all these shots and X-rays and machines and IVs and things up my nose, and I'm like, 'Dude, I don't want this.' ''

Doctors told her what originally had been thought to be a back injury was really torn cartilage and arthritis in her right hip. She underwent surgery and, with the wide-eyed optimism of a teen-age champion, expected to be back on the ice in two weeks.

''And then I got home and it was like, uh-uh,'' Lipinski said. ''I was like, 'Why can't I get up the stairs? Why am I still in a wheelchair?' ''

''The first week and a half, two weeks we spoke a lot,'' Hamilton said. ''I could sense the good days, the bad days, then a day when there was hope, and then a day when it really hurt and it was not happening.

''But I've been through enough physically. That's the one thing I can offer from experience,'' he said. ''It's gonna hurt, it's gonna sting, it's gonna limit you, but it's going to go away, it'll be fine, it'll be better again.''

''Actually, this time for me was good,'' Lipinski added. ''I figured out a lot of stuff about my skating and how I feel about skating. And I'm happy. I'm not doing all my jumps yet, but the ones I'm doing I feel good about, and I love skating more. I love performing more. It's given me a new outlook.''

The audiences on the tour, which began at Lake Placid, N.Y., in November, have received Lipinski warmly, apparently appreciating her style and showmanship despite her current limits.

The other day Lipinski was feeling particularly limber and decided to attempt a double toe loop for the first time since her operation.

''I did it and it was like, yeah, great. And I got off the ice and I was sore for the next two shows,'' she said. ''I realized that the technical part of it is for me, for myself, to say I'm still that skater that I was at the Olympics. I still can do everything, and I think I've kind of realized what's for the audience and what's for myself. Entertaining is for the audience, and keeping my technical abilities up is for me.''

Moscow-born Kulik, 23, says his winning the gold in Nagano three years ago was ''a miracle.''

''I had a pinched nerve in my back the whole Olympic season, and I didn't know if I could compete in Olympics at all. I missed Europeans and I missed worlds, and I was really scared,'' he said. ''It was two weeks before Olympics, and I was told I cannot jump. We did all the massage and therapies and injections and stuff, and it didn't work.

''And then I came to the Olympics, and it just went away,'' Kulik said, even though the adrenaline surge triggered by such high-pressure contests usually makes pain much worse. ''For two weeks I was good, and then next day I was coming for exhibition practice and first jump I feel a (tweak).''

''You don't even ask. You just say, 'Thank you,' '' Hamilton said, looking up.

''It's not pessimism when I say it's always going to be something,'' Hamilton added. ''It's just life. There's always going to be an issue, there's always going to be something that's tugging at you and kind of slowing you down a little bit, but you just accept it and work around it, do the best you can.''

''You've got to be prepared,'' Kulik said, ''and do special exercises while you wait because it's going to come.''

''It's like keeping an umbrella in your car in L.A.,'' Hamilton noted on that rainy afternoon. ''It's going to rain twice a year, but you'd better have it.''

International Management Group is facing its anticipated rainy day with Hamilton's departure.

''I know IMG really is always thinking constantly how they're going to make the cast,'' Hamilton said. ''What happens when I leave? Who's going to come in? What happens when the next person decides to go on?

''It's almost like nobody gets out of this tour alive,'' he said with a laugh. ''Rosalyn (Sumners) had three goodbye years. Peter and Kitty (Carruthers) had two or three goodbye years. Denis Petrov came back without (pairs partner) Elena (Bechke) this year.

''You hang onto everybody as long as possible, and it's fun because it's a unique experience, and, if all goes well, it's really magical.''