{"id":39323,"date":"2018-04-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/"},"modified":"2018-04-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T00:00:00","slug":"gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former figure skater Scott Hamilton won the National and World Championships in 1981 before winning a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic. Hamilton and his wife Tracie have four children, including two children adopted from Haiti. He&#39;s also a committed follower of Christ. While he was pursuing his success as a skater, he once said he dropped out of church involvement and started what he jokingly called &quot;The Church of Scott.&quot; But through the love of his wife and other Christians, he came to a sincere faith in Christ.<\/p>\n\n<p>Rooted in his faith, Hamilton had an interesting take on dealing with personal sin and failure. In a 2018 <em class=\"citation\">New York Times<\/em> interview Hamilton said: &quot;I calculated once how many times I fell during my skating career&mdash;41,600 times. But here&#39;s the funny thing: I got up 41,600 times. That&#39;s the muscle you have to build in your psyche&mdash;the one that reminds you to just get up.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3865,4191,4482,4626,4629,4630,4825,5046,5091,5095,5191,5193,5265,5278],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39323","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-endurance","tax_ctp_tags-humiliation","tax_ctp_tags-mistakes","tax_ctp_tags-performance","tax_ctp_tags-perseverance","tax_ctp_tags-persistence","tax_ctp_tags-restoration","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-struggles","tax_ctp_tags-stumbling","tax_ctp_tags-trial","tax_ctp_tags-trouble","tax_ctp_tags-weakness","tax_ctp_tags-winning-losing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former figure skater Scott Hamilton won the National and World Championships in 1981 before winning a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic. Hamilton and his wife Tracie have four children, including two children adopted from Haiti. He&#039;s also a committed follower of Christ. While he was pursuing his success as a skater, he once said Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/\",\"name\":\"Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-02T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-02T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/gold-medal-winning-skater-fell-and-got-up-41600-times\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gold Medal Winning Skater Fell, and Got Up, 41,600 Times - CT Pastors","og_description":"Former figure skater Scott Hamilton won the National and World Championships in 1981 before winning a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic. 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