If you want insight into how Cheyenne Mountain High’s Rachael Flatt skated her way onto the Olympic team with all the nerves of a senior dancing at her prom, look into the history of her mentor.
Go back to 1976. Innsbruck, Austria. Dorothy Hamill is leading the Olympics after the short program and is ready to take the ice for the long. She looks up in the stands and someone is holding up an obnoxious sign.
“Which of the West? Dorothy,” it read.
How’s that for timely heckling? You’re trying to win Olympic gold right after the pro-European crowd calls you a witch.
“I looked up, and I thought, ‘Ah! How dare they! I haven’t done anything to you,’ ” Hamill said Friday from Baltimore. “It brought a little tear to my eye.”
Instead of crumbling into a cascade of tears, Hamill had the best long program en route to winning the gold. As it turns out, the sign wasn’t a European’s fractured English for the word “witch.” It meant “which” Western skater would beat East Germany’s highly touted Christine Errath — the Netherlands’ Dianne de Leeuw or Hamill?
The point is, she didn’t know that when she skated the most pressure-packed routine of her life.
“I kind of had a little bit of calm come over me at that point,” Hamill said. “People were cheering. I kind of realized, ‘Oh, that’s a good thing.’ “
So, it’s no wonder that Flatt has never failed at a major competition. Look it up. At 17, she followed consecutive national runner-up finishes with the national title and Olympic berth Jan. 23. She came out of nowhere to finish fifth at last year’s world championships.
She won the 2008 world junior championship. Guess her nickname. The Rock.
“She is a fantastic, focused, athletic, consistent skater,” Hamill said. “She’s come a long way.”
Credit Flatt’s balanced life of skating and intense academic focus, but don’t discredit the Hamill factor. The two started working together after nationals last year. Hamill also trained at the World Arena in Colorado Springs.
“It’s just been incredible to have her by my side as I go through this year,” Flatt said. “She obviously has so much experience and had some great bits of information for how to prepare for the Olympics and the season preceding that.”
Hamill had similar consistency to Flatt. She took runner-up in the world championships twice and won three national titles before her Olympic gold at age 20.
Now 53 and a cancer survivor, Hamill said she wasn’t nearly as cool as Flatt.
“I was folding inside,” said Hamill, who busies herself today giving health tips to women. “I was a nervous wreck. I was almost nauseous. My dad was a very calming influence. He was just quietly there, and I knew if I needed anything, he was the guy I could go to, whether it was a handkerchief or water.”
“Rachael’s very kind to say I’ve helped her stay calm. But she’s such a together young lady.”
Hamill sees enough in her — and has seen enough unpredictable Olympics — to know Flatt has a chance.
“She’s so consistent and winning an Olympic medal, she’s going to have a great shot at it because she’s not an up-and- down skater,” Hamill said. “She’s got to get a little fight in her, and I know she will.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
