Dream On. That was both the name of the ice show and gala celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games, and also the prime sentiment shared by the 1980 Olympic figure skating team coined, "The Dream Team." Nearly every member of the team was present at the event on Feb. 18 at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena, where they all skated 40 years ago, including 1980 Olympian and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, 1980 Olympic silver medalist Linda Fratianne, and 1980 bronze medalist Charlie Tickner.
 
Hamilton returned not only to participate in the 40th anniversary celebration, but also to host the Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer Frozen 5K on the Olympic Speedskating Oval. It was the first time the event was hosted in Lake Placid and on a 400-meter speedskating oval, raising over $63,000 to benefit the Scott Hamilton CARES foundation, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting local hospital Adirondack Health. 250 local and visiting skaters, wearing figure, hockey, and even speed skates, took laps around the Oval; some had the names of those they were skating for on their t-shirts. Most of the 1980 team members participated in the event, enjoying skating on the outdoor oval and supporting their teammate Hamilton. Notably, Kitty Carruthers-Conrad raised nearly $8,000, making her the top fundraiser.  
 
Hamilton had struggled with cancer himself, but he started the CARES Foundation to honor his mother Dorothy.
 
"Most of the team has met my mom at some point, and she was the center of my universe," said Hamilton. " I thought if I could raise money through skating or whatever to find a cure for her cancer that I would know why I was born. Then 20 years after I lost her, I was diagnosed with cancer and it was then that I realized everything that was missing in the cancer community and how dysfunctional it was and so I sort of went from fundraiser to activist."
 
Hamilton plans to bring Sk8 to Elimin8 back next year. 
 
Sk8 to Elimin8 was the stellar opening act for the Dream On show, a high-concept gala, show, and retrospective that was perhaps the greatest production Lake Placid has seen recently. VIP guests sat at rinkside tables, enjoyed dinner before the show and had an opportunity to skate and mingle. The brainchild of Paul Wylie, director of sport for the Olympic Regional Development Authority, the show honored the past while celebrating the future.
 
Wylie and 1994 pairs Olympian Karen Courtland Kelly opened the show, skating to a live rendition of Aerosmith's "Dream On" by the Northern Lights Ensemble. They were then joined by local skaters from the Skating Club of Lake Placid (SCLP) and High Peaks Skating Academy. The show continued to build in ceremony with the next number, set to the Olympic fanfare, and featured both local and guest skaters. It culminated with the introduction of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team. Scott Hamilton served as flag bearer, as he did in the 1980 Games, and each team member passed a lit torch to each other until it was received by Hamilton, who lit a mini-cauldron stationed rinkside to symbolize the start of the next phase of the show.
 
Guest skaters included 2020 U.S. ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates who performed two programs including their highly acclaimed Egyptian-themed free skate. Both felt honored to be a part of the celebration.
 
"We felt incredibly honored to be asked to perform in front of the 1980 team and the audience at Dream On," Chock and Bates expressed after the event. "We had the opportunity to start the Olympic torch relay and pass it to Linda Fratianne who then passed it along to her teammates before Scott Hamilton lit the Cauldron. It was incredible to skate on the same ice where they competed and to have them sitting at ice-level watching. The whole event was very special and memorable for us."
 
2019 U.S. pairs champions Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc also performed twice, including their short program, "A Storm is Coming". Lake Placid is especially important to Cain-Gribble; she had been skating in ice shows in Lake Placid since 2011, first as a singles skater and then as a pairs skater, but had some personal ties to the area as well.
 
"My father competed in the 1980 Olympics in pairs skating for Australia, my parents met and had their first date in Lake Placid when they were here for show rehearsals, my brother had hockey tournaments and camps there, and it was where my grandparents on my mothers side always got to see me skate because they lived in Canada," she said."There was a moment when we were taking our bows at the end of the show and I looked over at my dad as he was clapping and smiling and I got overwhelmed by the most incredible feeling. In 1980 he was here having one of the biggest moments of his life and 40 years later there I was skating pairs on the same ice surface. It was pretty surreal and I'm so happy we got to share that moment with each other! Timothy and I would like to thank everyone who put together this special event and invited us to be a part of it!"
 
Lake Placid ice show favorite, 2011 U.S. champion Ryan Bradley, entertained as always with Andy Grammer's "Don't Give Up on Me". He also joined fellow Ice Dance International members Jonathan Hunt and Joel Dear in "The Three Smokers", an ensemble piece choreographed by Edward Villella.
 
A vital part of the show were the Reflections segments, emceed by Paul Wylie, in which the 1980 mens, ladies, pairs, and dance team members shared their experiences. Clips from their 1980 performances were shown on the overhead scoreboard. 
 
In between the performances from guest skaters, featured skaters, and team member reflections, future skating stars entertained. Throughout the reflections, what seemed to stand out most was the importance of belief and dreaming big.
 
"It's about being bold enough to put this on your calendar and saying I'm working towards this. I'm the most unlikely person to be sitting here, I grew up in a small town with nothing, no coaching, my parents didn't have any money. Your story is meant to be told and you have to participate in it." said Hamilton. "You have to build a foundation on hard work, consistency, quality and hunger, and amazing things can come out of that."