Favor Hamilton began running at age nine. She attended and competed at Stevens Point Area Senior High, graduating in 1986. She was the US Junior Record Holder at 1500m and won 3 National Junior Titles in High School. She was named by Scholastic Sports Magazine as one of the top 100 High School Athletes of the Century and was inducted into the US National High SchoolSports Hall of Fame in 2010. At the University of Wisconsin, She won the Honda Cup and Babe Zaharias Awards for Top Female Collegiate Athlete in the country. She was named by the Big Ten Conference as the top Female Athlete in Conference History. Coached by Peter Tegen, she became one of the top middle distance runners in the US in the 1990s. She won a record nine NCAA championships, 32 Big-Ten championships and a silver medal in the 1989 World University Games. She won four USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and three USA Indoor Track and Field Championships all in the 1500 meters. In 1990, she won the Honda-Broderick Award as the nation's best female collegiate track and field athlete. In 1991, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female cross country runner. In addition, she was awarded the Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the nation's best female collegiate athlete. In 1991 and 1992, Favor Hamilton was a volunteer assistant cross country coach at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Competing professionally, she set two American Records, and ran her specialty 1500m under 4:00 five times and became the second fastest American Woman ever at 3:57.40, a fraction of a second behind leader, Mary Decker Slaney. In 2000, Suzy was the fastest middle distance runner in the world and was named USA Track & Field's Female Distance Runner of the Year. Favor Hamilton competed in the Summer Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2000, finishing 11th in her qualifying round race in the 1500 meters in 1992, and 4th in her qualifying race in the 800 meters in 1996. She made the finals of the 1500 meters in 2000 with the second best qualifying time. Though she led into the last lap of the final, she confessed that she deliberately tripped on the track, feigning injury after seeing she was losing the race and would not win a medal.
Prostitution
In December 2012, after being confronted by a reporter, Favor Hamilton admitted that she had worked as an escort prostitute. Favor said her decision to become a prostitute was made under the influence of her antidepressant medication, a misdiagnosis of her bipolar disorder, and an unfamiliarity with the mental illness. She cited the effects of the suicide of her brother, Dan, in 1999, on her condition. She had learned from her therapist that the antidepressant she was taking had put her in a manic state, saying "It wasn't Suzy. I keep trying to emphasize that wasn't me. It was the disease." After her prostitution became public, the Big Ten renamed its award for Female Athlete of the Year which had previously carried her name. Favor Hamilton also lost several sponsorships and athletic business relationships, including with Nike. She is now a speaker at mental health conferences, and wrote her memoir Fast Girl about healing from bipolar disorder.
Personal life
While a freshman in college, she met Mark Hamilton, then a pitcher on the university baseball team. The two married a week after she graduated. They have one daughter. Favor Hamilton lives in Manhattan Beach, California.
