What was really funny is that as I got older all those guys who called me a sissy in junior high school wanted me to be their best friend because they wanted to meet all the girls that I knew in figure skating.

Scott Hamilton (b. 1958), the American Olympic and world champion figure skater, has often spoken about the gendered teasing he faced as a boy in the 1970s for pursuing a sport stereotyped as “unmasculine.” In this recollection he contrasts the ridicule of junior high with the later social cachet his skating connections brought him—especially access to female skaters and social circles. The remark fits Hamilton’s broader public persona as a humorous, self-deprecating storyteller who uses personal experience to comment on bullying, adolescent insecurity, and how status can flip once peers perceive social advantage.

The quote highlights the fickleness of adolescent social hierarchies and the way prejudice can be driven less by principle than by insecurity and conformity. Hamilton points out an irony: the same boys who policed masculinity through insults later sought proximity to him for social gain. Beneath the humor is a critique of bullying and of instrumental friendship—relationships pursued for access rather than respect. It also reframes figure skating as a space where Hamilton’s difference became an asset, suggesting a broader lesson about perseverance: what is mocked in one context can become a source of confidence, community, and even influence in another.