Placer High graduate, Olympic medalist Jeff Hamilton dies at 56

Placer High School graduate and 1992 Olympic bronze medalist Jeff Hamilton passed away in Truckee on Tuesday following a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56. Hamilton got his start with the Auburn Ski Club and as a member of the Placer High School ski team. After college, he tried his hand at speed skiing, an emerging sport that was set to be a demonstration at the Olympics. In just his seventh race, Hamilton represented the United States at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, as a speed skier. He earned a bronze medal and went on to be a four-time world champion. In 1995, Hamilton broke the world record for fastest speed recorded in a non-motorized sport at 150.02 miles per hour. When he broke the record, Hamilton also became the first person in the world to ski more than 150 mph. Bill Clark, Hamilton's coach in the Auburn Ski Club, said Jeff always had a desire to go fast. "Kids like to do straight lines down the hill here at Boreal, and of course us coaches don't want the kids going straight down like that," Clark said. "But Jeff was always sort of the renegade and he liked speeding down the hill so we were always after him. The ski patrol was always chasing him. We should have known right there that he would end up being a speed skier." Clark added the training hill at Boreal will be renamed in honor of Hamilton in hopes it can inspire other skiers from small mountains to achieve their goals of making it to the highest stage. "That's where Placer High trains. Colfax and Nevada Union, too. All these kids from all over train there, and hopefully, it'll give them that inspiration that they too can come from a small mountain and still go all the way," Clark said. After his professional career was over, Hamilton served as president of the board of directors for the Auburn Ski Club, giving back to the program that gave him his start. "We're just devastated," Clark said. "We'll be missing his voice. It's hard to imagine going on without him, but we certainly will and we'll just keep asking ourselves, 'What would Jeff do?' " Hamilton also held the world record for the fastest crash in the sport at 151 mph, noting in an interview with the Auburn Journal, "I never knew snow could be so hot. The friction was insane." Even as a world record holder and Olympic medalist, Hamilton was star-struck as he sat next to Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan watching the men's speedskating championships. As great as Hamilton was in his athletic career, he was even better at life. "He was bigger than any words that you can put in the story but humble enough that he wouldn't be embarrassed about any of that," said Hamilton's best friend, David Harrison of Auburn. "He was super humble for an Olympian and a world record holder. He was everything you could want as a friend, as a son, as a husband. He was the best in all the hats that we wear in life. He was just an exceptional human." Harrison said Hamilton was one of the most competitive people he knew, even when they were kids growing up next door to each other. "Nothing he did surprised me," Harrison said. "He literally played the best golf of his life on Labor Day weekend after having surgery to remove his spleen and pancreas. He could barely turn and twist, and he's playing the best golf because he figured out how to do it with his body." "He was such a strong person and he valued his life and his family. He loved life. He loved his family and friends. He fought so hard to be here for them," said Hamilton's mother, Mary Ann Hamilton. "He was just a very kind and beautiful person. I don't know what to say. I mean, he was just my sweet, wonderful son." Hamilton is survived by his wife, Carolyn, daughters Eleanore and Frances, sister Mary Beth and mother Mary Ann. He was preceded in death by his father, Richard, with whom he shared his love for skiing.. "Carolyn was unbelievable and was always making sure that he did everything he was supposed to, and he couldn't have done it without her for sure," Harrison said. Asked if there was one thing that summed up the type of person Hamilton was, Harrison said, "I asked him if there's anything that he wanted to do that he hadn't done in his life yet. And he said, 'All I want to do is spend time with my family and the people that I love and my friends who are close to me.' " Harrison added, "He was the godfather to my son. When he was winning his Olympic medal, he was still making sure to be standing beside me at my wedding. It's hard to say the right words. He's just one of a kind." Hamilton wanted to excel at everything he did, and that held true as he fought cancer. When Hamilton was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2021, he told doctors, "I just want to be clear. I am going to my daughter's graduation in St. Andrews, Scotland, on June 9. That is what I am doing." "They were astonished that he could do it," said Hamilton's wife, Carolyn. "But he was on that plane and on June 9, he was celebrating Eleanore's graduation. After having a Whipple procedure on April 14. It's unheard of. "He was present. He was playful. He was patient," Carolyn added. "He absolutely thought life was so damn much fun, and one of the things he said to me was, 'I don't have any regrets. I loved my life. I just want more. I just want more of it.' " In lieu of flowers, the family asks that people support the Jeff Hamilton Legacy Fund through JeffHamiltonLegacyFund.com. The family also has set up JeffHamiltonSpeedSkier.com to archive his professional career and achievements. Hamilton's memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, at the Olympic Village Inn in Olympic Valley.