Wisconsin Agriculture Group Drops Favor Hamilton

The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association has severed its contract with Suzy Favor Hamilton, after revelations that the former Stevens Point track star led a double life as a high priced escort.The Potato and Vegetable Growers revoked their contract after it was revealed that Hamilton made $600 dollars an hour as a Las Vegas escort. In their newsletter, the growers say, “she has indicated to us that the story we are hearing in the news is true. (We) sincerely wish her well in finding stability in her future.”

The three time Olympic track star’s double life also came as a shock to Susan Ford-Hoffert of Wausau, who hired Hamilton to be a spokeswoman for the local Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure against cancer, “I’m disappointed. I hope she gets some help and straightens out. It’s too bad. We did see her as a role model, and it’s just sad all the way around.”

Hamilton, in a series of tweets, said her double life was linked to her ongoing battle with depression, a condition aggravated by her loss in the 2000 Olympics and the suicide of her brother. In a Wisconsin Public Radio interview in 2010, she said those who suffer from the illness often lead lives of pretense, “Depression is an illness that you can disguise. You can pretend that everything is fine, but inside you’re really suffering. And I speak because I suffer from depression.”

In that same interview, she described the infamous Olympics race in which she deliberately fell when it became apparent she would not win, “I thought that was what my life was all about, was that one race, and it didn’t go well. So my life must not have gone well.”

Suzy Favor Hamilton currently lives in Madison. She did not return our phone calls in time for this story.