Scott Hamilton could write a book about the elevator at the Ritz-Carlton downtown.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in that elevator and an icon has stepped into the elevator with me,” says the 1984 Olympic figure skating champion.

 

Hamilton spends a fair amount of time here, whether he’s in town for a checkup at the Cleveland Clinic — where he was treated for testicular cancer and a benign brain tumor — or to host his annual Evening with Scott Hamilton and Friends benefit for the Taussig Cancer Institute.

 

And while staying at the Ritz-Carlton during those visits, he’s met everyone from the Blind Boys of Alabama to Aerosmith. Then there was the

time he ran into former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant.

“I totally made a fool of myself,” Hamilton confesses. “I’m not even going to go into it. But let’s just say that we’ve all had those times when the words come out and you just want to suck them back into your mouth.”

 

Hamilton will no doubt be more composed as an analyst for NBC’s coverage of the 2009 U.S. Figure Skating Championship at Quicken Loans Arena Jan. 18 through 25.

The 50-year-old father of two also has a second book coming out Jan. 6, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable), and a stint on the next installment of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice.