Olympic Skater Scott Hamilton Sees 3rd Brain Tumor Shrink After Trusting God

Olympic ice-skater Scott Hamilton has undergone chemotherapy and surgeries to fight testicular cancer and back-to-back bouts with brain tumors.

But when he found out the brain tumor returned a third time, Hamilton felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to do things a little bit differently and as a result, he saw the tumor shrink by more than 45 percent. 

The born-again Christian told PEOPLE magazine that physicians told him in 2016 that a pituitary tumor in his brain had returned for the third time. 

However, unlike in years past Hamilton decided to "just go home and get strong."

"When they gave me the diagnosis, they said, it's back," he told PEOPLE. "And so they brought in this guy, a really young, talented surgeon, and he said, 'We could do the surgery again. It'd be complicated, but we've got really talented people here that we could bring in, and I know we could pull it off if that's an option for you.'"

Hamilton shared that as the physician was talking, his mind drifted through his battles with cancer. 

In 1977, he lost his mother to breast cancer telling CBN, "It changed my life forever."

Then in 1997, the ice skating legend battled testicular cancer successfully recovering from it after surgery and chemotherapy.

In 2004, Hamilton was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. Then again in 2006 and again in 2016. Since then, he's just been waiting on the Lord.

"You know this brain tumor that keeps coming back – Craniopharyngioma – you're born with. But this journey has been miraculous. When they diagnosed me they gave me all of the different ways that I could deal with this tumor, through these actions, and prayer and exercise," he told CBN in 2018.

But as he sat in that appointment Hamilton decided not worry about it. 

"All I felt was just, don't worry about this. Just go home and get strong," he explained. "They go, 'Well, what do you want to do?' And I said, 'I think I'm going to go home and get strong.'"

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He told PEOPLE he was "just answering my spirit" and adds the results have been "remarkable."

"I went back to the scan three months later and they said, it hasn't grown. I go back three months later and they go, it shrank 45%. I said to my surgeon, 'Can you explain this?' And he said, 'God.' I went back in, and it shrunk 25% again."

However, the next time Hamilton went for an appointment to get it checked, the news was not so good. 

"It had grown," he said. "And then COVID hit and going into any kind of hospital situation was almost impossible. So in my spirit, in my inner being, I realized, I'm totally at peace with not even looking at it again unless I become symptomatic."

If Hamilton's symptoms become worse he shares that he has an "ace up his sleeve."

"There is a targeted radiation therapy that will shrink the tumor," he said. "And in that, I can avoid a lot of other things like surgery and chemo. So I don't know, I'm mostly trying to be in the moment and taking all the information and do the right thing when the time comes."

The 65-year-old realizes that his life is in God's hands and he is trusting Him in the process.

"The veil between us and the Lord is thinnest when we're in our suffering. God is most – more present in our lives in our deepest suffering," he told CBN in 2018. "We're here by His grace and mercy. Our bodies are fragile but resilient. Temporary. Temporary! So we live our days joyfully. We live our days hopefully. We live our days faithfully!"