Eric Heiden

For more information on Eric Arthur Heiden, visit Britannica.com.

In 1980, American speed skater Eric Heiden (born 1958) became the first athlete ever to win five goldmedals in a single Olympics. After his record-setting performance, Heiden went on to compete on the cycling circuit and then became a doctor, enjoying a life of quiet obscurity.

Success Began with Training

Skates were Heiden's first shoes. Being born into a family of skaters - and growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, where winters are long and cold - gave Heiden plenty of opportunities to glide across the ice. Although hockey was his first love, at age 14 he committed all his time and energy to the sport of speed skating.

In 1972, Heiden's training was energized when Dianne Holum, the 1968 and 1972 Olympic speed skating champion, started him on an intensive training regimen. Combining on-and off-the-ice exercises, Heiden's focus became both physical and mental. His physical training concentrated on strengthening the most important muscles for any speed skater - the quadriceps - and included bicycling, weightlifting, and duck walking. His mental training pinpointed how his technique could give him an advantage over his competitors. That advantage would soon lead Heiden to five amazing victories at Lake Placid.

"Turned Ice Into Gold"

Throughout the mid to late 1970s, Heiden's hard work garnered him much success. In 1977, at only 19 years of age, he became the first American to win the World Speed Skating Championships. Thereafter, Heiden dominated every competition, amassing over 15 wins including the World Speed Skating Championships three times.

By 1980, Heiden had become the skater to beat at the Lake Placid Olympics. In fact, some had already accepted defeat. Frode Roenning, Norway's speed skating Olympian, told the Washington Post, "Heiden is the biggest, greatest skater there has ever been. The rest of us are waiting for the next Olympics," according to ESPN online. With all the publicity swarming around Heiden, many wondered if he could live up to his potential and to the hype. Heiden was unfazed by it, however. It seemed as if the grandness of the Olympics had no impact on him. In fact, ESPN online noted that Heiden told reporters that he felt that the audience's perception of the games was "overrated" and that the Olympics are "just big in the eyes of the American public."

That public watched in awe as Heiden continued his winning ways. In his next race, the 5,000 meter, no one could match his smooth strokes across the ice. He won his second gold by more than a second. In his third race, the 1,000 meter, Heiden extended his winning margin to one and half seconds. This dominance led Washington Post reporter Tom Boswell, as further noted by ESPN online, to comment, "Many athletes have muscles. Few have Heiden's strength of mind, his mulish will inside a thoroughbred's physique."

Heiden would need that strength of mind in his next race, the 1,500 meter. At the 600 meter mark, he slipped, but escaped catastrophe - "losing only a few hundredths of a second," commented ESPN online - and won his fourth gold medal. With this win, Heiden, as Dave Kindred of the Washington Post stated, had become "the first man ever to turn ice into gold." However, his gold medal count had not yet been completed. Heiden still had one more race - the 10,000 meter.

In 1980, the United States was in the midst of a harsh Cold War with their then-enemy the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The country wanted heroes and looked to the Olympics as one place to find them. After winning four gold medals, Heiden had become a national hero. As ESPN online quoted Ken Denlinger from the Post, "Heiden is not some Soviet recently emerged from a hidden lab after decades of selective breeding. He is American, from Green Bay Packer country." However, Heiden was not the only hero. The night before Heiden's last race, the American ice hockey team played their miraculous game against the USSR and won. The United States had more heroes to honor. Heiden had attended the game and, too excited about the win, could not fall asleep. Sleep is the body's time to recuperate and prepare for its next challenge. Heiden's body did not get that chance. He overslept, wolfed down some breakfast, and arrived at the track just in time for warm-ups.

Speed skating had never been a popular spectator sport - especially the 10,000 meter race. Overall, the competition is not other skaters, but the clock. At the Olympics, what spectators watched were "two people in funny suits gliding 6.2 miles in little circles with one hand behind their back," commented Washington Post reporter Dave Kindred. Gliding for 25 laps over 14 minutes and 12 seconds, Heiden beat the previous world record by six seconds and claimed his fifth gold medal. "That's the last world record I had ever expected to break," Heiden stated as noted by ESPN online. And, as he exited the rink, Heiden had what he would later recall as his "most memorable moment." He told reporter Jo-Ann Barnas of the Detroit Free Press that he thought to himself, "I'm never going to be in that kind of shape again."

Yet, much like his attitude towards the games itself, Heiden's attitude about winning a record-setting five gold medals was also blasé. Again, his focus had been skating the best that he could. "Gold, silver and bronze isn't special," he commented at a news conference, according to ESPN online. "It's giving 100 percent." Heiden had not realized the impressiveness of his wins or the worthiness of the medals. "Heck, gold medals, what can you do with them? I'd rather get a nice warmup suit," he told Kindred of the Washington Post. "That's something I can use. Gold medals just sit there. When I get old, maybe I could sell them if I need the money."

Rejected Fame for Medical School

Most Olympic medallists have cashed in on their wins by plastering their faces on cereal boxes or by pitching various products on television. Some return for further glory to their sport for the next Olympics. However, Heiden retired. "I didn't get into skating to be famous," he said according to ESPN online. He thought about continuing skating, but only if "I could still be obscure in an obscure sport.… I really liked it best when I was a nobody," he further commented.

Yet, Heiden never stopped being an athlete. He just switched sports. In the summer of 1980, he earned a spot as an alternate for the U.S. Olympic cycling team. For the next six years, he continued pedaling and in 1985, won the U.S. professional cycling championship. In 1986, Heiden raced in the prestigious Tour de France. During the race, he suffered what would be his first and only injury, a concussion. "I fell off the bike … there was blood coming out of my head," he recalled to Sports Illustrated. "That pretty much ended my cycling career."

By 1986, Heiden earned a Bachelor's degree in his pre-medicine studies, fulfilling his childhood dream. "I can remember in eighth grade making a conscious decision when I was I guess about 14 years old that I wanted to go into medicine," he told an interviewer for the University of California-Davis Medical Center (UCDMC). In 1986, Heiden entered Stanford University Medical School and faded back into an obscure, decidedly non-famous life.

By the late 1990s, Heiden had completed medical school and residency, married, became a father, joined the medical staff for the National Basketball Association's (NBA's) Sacramento Kings, and began working as an orthopedic surgeon for UCDMC. With surgery, Heiden had discovered a connection to sports. "There's a lot of preparation," he told Sports Illustrated. "The surgery itself takes maximum concentration and maximum effort, but the competition is with yourself."

Heiden had also discovered a unique connection to his patients, many of whom were injured athletes. "Having been an athlete, I have an idea what the players are going through, the pressures they're under, and what's going on mentally as they try to get back on their feet," he further told Sports Illustrated. And, with the passage of time, many of his patients as well as the general public had no idea that Doctor Heiden was Eric Heiden, five-time Olympic gold medallist. Heiden relished that fact: "I love that I can go out in public and only now and then does my face ring a bell for people." Heiden had moved on from the past, never reliving his glory days, but only focusing on the future and "being the best doctor I can be," as he commented to Sports Illustrated.

Returned to Olympics

In 2002, another Winter Olympics was being held on American soil and Salt Lake City had decided to honor past American Olympians. Heiden, however, passed on being part of the opening ceremonies after being notified that the U.S. Hockey team, not he, would be the last torch bearers. He did, however, accept the position as team physician for the American speed skating team. "I've always wanted to give back," Heiden told the Detroit Free Press. "And being a sports physician, I looked at that as an opportunity. It's a little strange (being in Salt Lake) but this is pretty rewarding." Also strange was the fact that it had been 22 years since Heiden's record-setting Olympics. "It seems like it was just a few years ago," Heiden said in the Detroit Free Press. "People always ask, 'Has it set in?' And I still say, 'It really hasn't.… I didn't consider myself a great athlete.'"

Periodicals

Detroit Free Press, February 6, 2002.

Sports Illustrated, November 16, 1998.

Washington Post, February 24, 1980.

Online

"Eric Heiden was a Reluctant Hero," Sports Century,http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00014225.html (December 26, 2003).

"Heiden was America's Golden Boy in 1980," ESPN online, http://spots.espn.go.com/oly/winter02/gen/geature?id=1307965 (December 26, 2003).

"Profile: Dr. Eric Heiden," Pulse,http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/pulse/scripts/01_02/dr%20_eric_heiden (December 26, 2003).

Eric Heiden
Country	United States
Date of birth	June 14, 1958 (1958-06-14) (age 51)
Place of birth	Madison, Wisconsin
Height	1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in)
Weight	86 kg (190 lb; 13.5 st)

Medal record
Men's speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	500 m
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	1000 m
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	1500 m
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	5000 m
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	10000 m
World Championships
Gold	1977 Heerenveen	Allround
Gold	1978 Gothenburg	Allround
Gold	1979 Oslo	Allround
Gold	1977 Alkmaar	Sprint
Gold	1978 Lake Placid	Sprint
Gold	1979 Inzell	Sprint
Gold	1980 Milwaukee	Sprint
Silver	1980 Heerenveen	Allround

Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14, 1958) is an American former long track speed skater who won all the men's speed skating races, and thus an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, United States. He also took the Athlete's Oath at those same games. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin.

Heiden is an icon in the speedskating community and, in particular, in Europe where the sport is highly regarded. His victories are significant as few speed skaters (and athletes in general) have won competitions in both sprint and long-distance events. He is considered by some to be the best overall speedskater (short and long distances) in the sport's history. Heiden ranked #46 in ESPN's SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century in 1999, the only speed skater to make the list.

His sister Beth Heiden was also a successful athlete.

Contents 1 Skating career 2 World records 3 Road bicycle racing 4 Medical career 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Skating career

During his short speed skating career, Heiden won 3 World Allround Championships and 4 World Sprint Championships.

Three times, Heiden broke the world record in the 1,000 metres, twice in the 3,000 metres, and once each in the 1,500 metres and 10,000 metres. He also broke the points world record in both allround and the sprinting distances.

Heiden finished his speed skating career by finishing second behind Hilbert van der Duim at the 1980 World Allround Championships in Heerenveen. Heiden stood at the top place of the Adelskalender for an impressive time period of 1,495 days, and won the Oscar Mathisen Award four times in a row from 1977 until 1980. As of 2006, he still is the only skater who has won the award four times. He received the 1980 James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. In 1983, he was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.

World records

Over the course of Heiden's career he skated 15 world records:

• 1500-m junior, 2:02.75 (18 January 1976, Madonna di Campiglio; beaten by Heiden)
• 5000-m junior, 7:30.23 (20 February 1977, Inzell; beaten by Heiden)
• 1500-m junior, 1:59.46 (20 February 1977; beaten by Aleksandr Klimov 24 March 1983)
• Allround junior, 168.716 (19-20 February 1977, Inzell; beaten by Heiden)
• 3000-m junior, 4:16.2 (4 February 1977, Montreal; beaten by Tomas Gustafson 26 January 1980)
• Allround junior, 166.584 (4-5 February 1977, Montreal; beaten by Aleksand Klimov 24 March 1983)
• 5000-m junior, 7:23.54 (5 February 1978, Montreal; beaten by Tomas Gustafson 27 January 1980)
• 3000-m, 4:07.00 (2 March 1978, Inzell; beaten by Heiden)
• 1000-m, 1:14.99 (12 March 1978, Savalen; beaten by Heiden)
• 1000-m, 1:13.60 (13 January 1980, Davos; beaten by Gaetan Boucher, 31 January 1981)
• Allround, 162.973 (10-11 February 1980, Bislett, Oslo; beaten by Viktor Shasherin, 25-26 March 1983)
• 3000-m, 4:06.91 (18 March 1979, Savalen; beaten by Dmitri Ogloblin 28 March 1979)
• Sprint, 150.250 (12-13 January 1980, Davos; beaten by Gaetan Boucher 30-31 January 1980)
• 1500-m, 1:54.79 (19 January 1980, Davos; beaten by Igor Zhelezovski 26 March 1983)
• 10,000-m, 14:28.13 (23 February 1980, Lake Placid; beaten by Dmitri Ogloblin 29 March 1980)

Road bicycle racing

After his speed-skating career, Heiden became a professional racing cyclist. He was one of the first cross-over athletes, becoming a founding member of the 7-Eleven Cycling Team. Together with his former speed skating coach (and ex-bike racer), Jim Ochowicz, he conceived of the idea of a European-style sponsored team for North American riders.[1] Heiden won a few American professional races and took part in the 1986 Tour de France, although he did not complete the race as he fell five days from the finish.

Heiden is believed to hold the unofficial record on one of the local benchmark climbs in Woodside, California: Old la Honda Rd. In 1985, Heiden won the first US Professional Cycling Championship and thus became the American road race champion.

In 1999, Heiden was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.

Medical career

After starting his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Heiden earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University in 1984 and earned his M.D., also from Stanford, in 1991. He completed orthopedic residency training at UC Davis in 1996, and after a year at a sports medicine clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, returned to California to practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Sacramento. At that time, he also served as team physician for the NBA's Sacramento Kings and the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA. In 2002 and 2006, he was team physician for the U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team. He opened a sports medicine-based practice at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) in Murray, Utah and has recently expanded Heiden Orthopaedics with an additional office in Park City, Utah.

He has followed in the footsteps of his father, Jack Heiden, a longtime orthopedic surgeon in Madison, Wisconsin. His sister, Beth Heiden, is also an accomplished speedskater and cross-country skier.

In 2008, Heiden published Faster, Better, Stronger, a book about exercise science and exercise programs.

References

Further reading

• Wangrin, Mark (1990). "Eric Heiden: True Gold". In ESPN SportsCentury. New York: Hyperion-ESPN Books. pp. 252-3.

External links

• Eric Heiden at SkateResults.com
• Eric Heiden's U.S. Olympic Team bio ... notes, quotes, photos
• Eric Heiden interview on 25th anniversary of Olympic heroics
• IOC 1980 Winter Olympics
• Current skaters comment on Heiden's legacy
• Race-by-race analysis by Heiden
• Scientific approach to find the best skater of all times, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (Dutch)
• Book Review of Faster, Better, Stronger at Letters on Pages

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Sten Stensen	Oscar Mathisen Award 1977–1980	Succeeded by Amund Sjøbrend
Preceded by Sebastian Coe	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1980	Succeeded by Sebastian Coe
Preceded by Kurt Thomas	James E. Sullivan Award 1980	Succeeded by Carl Lewis
Preceded by Werner Delle Karth	Athlete's Winter Olympic Oath 1980	Succeeded by Bojan Križaj

v • d • e Leaders of the Adelskalender, Men Rudolf Ericsson • Peder Østlund • Jaap Eden • Oscar Mathisen • Ivar Ballangrud • Michael Staksrud • Åke Seyffarth • Nikolay Mamonov • Hjalmar Andersen • Boris Shilkov • Dmitriy Sakunenko • Juhani Järvinen • Knut Johannesen • Jonny Nilsson • Per Ivar Moe • Eduard Matusevich • Ard Schenk • Kees Verkerk • Magne Thomassen • Hans van Helden • Vladimir Lobanov • Jan Egil Storholt • Sergey Marchuk • Vladimir Belov • Eric Heiden • Viktor Shasherin • Andrej Bobrov • Nikolay Gulyayev • Michael Hadschieff • Eric Flaim • Johann Olav Koss • Falko Zandstra • Rintje Ritsma • Gianni Romme • Jochem Uytdehaage • Chad Hedrick • Sven Kramer • Shani Davis

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 500 m Speed Skating 1924: Charles Jewtraw | 1928: Bernt Evensen + Clas Thunberg | 1932: Jack Shea | 1936: Ivar Ballangrud | 1948: Finn Helgesen | 1952: Ken Henry | 1956: Yevgeny Grishin | 1960: Yevgeny Grishin | 1964: Terry McDermott | 1968: Erhard Keller | 1972: Erhard Keller | 1976: Yevgeny Kulikov | 1980: Eric Heiden | 1984: Sergey Fokichev | 1988: Uwe-Jens Mey | 1992: Uwe-Jens Mey | 1994: Aleksandr Golubev | 1998: Hiroyasu Shimizu | 2002: Casey FitzRandolph | 2006: Joey Cheek

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 1000 m Speed Skating 1976: Peter Mueller · 1980: Eric Heiden · 1984: Gaétan Boucher · 1988: Nikolay Gulyayev · 1992: Olaf Zinke · 1994: Dan Jansen · 1998: Ids Postma · 2002: Gerard van Velde · 2006: Shani Davis

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 1500 m Speed Skating 1924: Clas Thunberg | 1928: Clas Thunberg | 1932: Jack Shea | 1936: Charles Mathiesen | 1948: Sverre Farstad | 1952: Hjalmar Andersen | 1956: Yevgeny Grishin + Yuri Mikhaylov | 1960: Roald Aas + Yevgeny Grishin | 1964: Ants Antson | 1968: Kees Verkerk | 1972: Ard Schenk | 1976: Jan Egil Storholt | 1980: Eric Heiden | 1984: Gaétan Boucher | 1988: André Hoffmann | 1992: Johann Olav Koss | 1994: Johann Olav Koss | 1998: Ådne Søndrål | 2002: Derek Parra | 2006: Enrico Fabris

v • d • e Olympic champions in men's 5000 m speed skating 1924: Clas Thunberg | 1928: Ivar Ballangrud | 1932: Irving Jaffee | 1936: Ivar Ballangrud | 1948: Reidar Liaklev | 1952: Hjalmar Andersen | 1956: Boris Shilkov | 1960: Viktor Kosichkin | 1964: Knut Johannesen | 1968: Fred Anton Maier | 1972: Ard Schenk | 1976: Sten Stensen | 1980: Eric Heiden | 1984: Tomas Gustafson | 1988: Tomas Gustafson | 1992: Geir Karlstad | 1994: Johann Olav Koss | 1998: Gianni Romme | 2002: Jochem Uytdehaage | 2006: Chad Hedrick

v • d • e Olympic champions in men's 10000 m speed skating 1924: Julius Skutnabb | 1928: abandoned | 1932: Irving Jaffee | 1936: Ivar Ballangrud | 1948: Åke Seyffarth | 1952: Hjalmar Andersen | 1956: Sigvard Ericsson | 1960: Knut Johannesen | 1964: Jonny Nilsson | 1968: Johnny Höglin | 1972: Ard Schenk | 1976: Piet Kleine | 1980: Eric Heiden | 1984: Igor Malkov | 1988: Tomas Gustafson | 1992: Bart Veldkamp | 1994: Johann Olav Koss | 1998: Gianni Romme | 2002: Jochem Uytdehaage | 2006: Bob de Jong

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