 At the 1920 Summer Olympics he won the silver medal in the decathlon, losing to the Norwegian Helge Løvland by only four points, and finished sixth in the pentathlon.He placed seventh in the pentathlon at the 1924 Summer Olympics.Besides athletics Hamilton was a second-string end on the 1921 Walter Camp All-American football team, and in 1923 he played on the Kansas City Athletic Club basketball team that won the National AAU Championship.