Runner Suzy Favor Hamilton has appeared in three Summer Olympics (1992, 1996, 2000) and was a very accomplished runner during her professional career.
In the past year, Suzy has found favor as a high-end Las Vegas call girl for Haley Heston’s Private Collection bringing in $600 a hour for her work according to The Smoking Gun.
Beginning last December, Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, has worked with one of Las Vegas’s premier escort services, booking scores of “dates” in Sin City and other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.
While Favor Hamilton (seen at right) has used an alias, “Kelly Lundy,” when working as an escort, she inexplicably shared her true identity with several male clients, believing that her secret was somehow safe with strangers who paid for her company by leaving envelopes stuffed with cash on bathroom vanities in swanky hotels.
When approached by a reporter earlier this month in the lobby of a Las Vegas hotel, Favor Hamilton initially denied any connection with the escort service, Haley Heston’s Private Collection. But Favor Hamilton–who is married to her college sweetheart, a lawyer, and is the mother of a seven-year-old girl–eventually acknowledged her work as “Kelly.”
“I take full responsibility for my mistakes. I’m not the victim and I’m not going that route,” Favor Hamilton said. “I’m owning up to what I did. I would not blame anybody except myself.” She added, “Everybody in this world makes mistakes. I made a huge mistake. Huge.”
She held the U.S. record for the 1000m, had five sub-4 minute 1500’s, won a bronze at the Goodwill Games in 1998, and was the #1 U.S. female runner from 1989-2002. Hamilton is one of the most famous mid-distance runners of the past twenty-five years.
Hamilton wasn’t per se desperate for cash but moreso for attention as she has a successful career post racing.
Favor Hamilton described the escort business as “exciting,” an illicit midlife diversion from her routine existence, one in which she operates a successful Madison, Wisconsin real estate brokerage with her husband, delivers motivational speeches, and does promotional work for various businesses and groups, including Disney’s running series and Wisconsin’s Potato & Vegetable Growers Association.
Hamilton’s husband, Mark, was aware of Suzy’s escorting but couldn’t persuade her to stop according to TSG.
Before this scandal, she was most famous for intentionally falling during the 2000 Olympics when she lost the lead with less than 200 meters to go, embarrassed because she wouldn’t be medaling.
Additionally, she told reporter Gary D’Amato how her brother Dan committed suicide in 1999, a year before she ran for the gold medal in the 1500-meter final at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium. She led that race with 200 meters to go, but when other competitors began to pass her, Favor Hamilton recalled, she intentionally tumbled to the track, ashamed that she could not medal in honor of her late sibling.
Hamilton seems to be accepting responsibility now that the story is out and doesn’t want to seek revenge on the john that she suspects outed her:
Referring to a client she suspected of contacting a reporter, Favor Hamilton said, “He totally broke all the rules by outing me.” But she stressed that returning fire was not her style. “I don’t want to be like him. Because he is scum. And I will not become scum to make myself feel good,” Favor Hamilton said. “I will not do it. I would suffer rather than go that route of being vindictive.”
One client offered The Smoking Gun money to keep the story from going public. He wrote this review of her services on the escort site:
In a July 2012 online review, the client–who recounted two separate encounters with “Kelly”–enthused, “She is worth every penny. I will go bankrupt before I stop seeing her. I hope no one else goes to see her, because I want her all to myself.” He added, “I never thought I would find anyone in this hobby like her.”
Suzy Favor Hamilton has had an interesting life for sure. This story was not exactly what every runner was expecting to come across when sipping on their coffee this morning, but it shows that runners are real people with real issues that sometimes make mistakes that we later regret.
Suzy Favor Hamilton/Kelly’s Escort Rates
- $600 Hour
- $1000 Two Hours
- $500 Additional Hour
- $1500 Couples Hour
- $4000 Overnight – 12 Hours
- $8000 Overnight – 24 Hours
And who said runners were boring?
More Photos of ‘Kelly’ Favor Hamiton
