In February 2018, hamilton was skiing at squaw valley, doing park laps with a group of friends. They broke out the GoPro for a follow-cam run in the afternoon when he went too big on a cork 7 causing him to lose speed. Thinking he would be too slow for the last jump he tucked the remaining run up and threw a backflip as he had the runs before. As soon as he was in the air he knew he was going way too fast. He slowed the rotation as much as he could but still landed on the tails of his skis and back slapped onto his upper back and neck, fracturing his C4 and C6 vertebrae. He should have listened to the classic line “when in trouble tuck for double.”

Hamilton is extremely motivated to get back to doing all the extreme sports he used to do, at the same level he used to do them. While laying in his bed in the ICU, he said to his parents, “I think someone’s already done a backflip in a sit ski so I’m going to be the first person to do a double backflip in a sit ski.” He still stands by that goal as well as many others. This grant will help him get back to doing the thing he loved the most before his injury: ski.