Eric Heiden

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Eric Heiden
Eric Heiden2.jpg
Heiden in 2007
Personal information
Birth name Eric Arthur Heiden
Nationality American
Born June 14, 1958 (age 59)
Madison, Wisconsin
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 84 kg (185 lb)
Sport
Country USA
Sport Speed skating
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s) 500 m: 37.63 (1980)
1000 m: 1:13.60 (1980)
1500 m: 1:54.79 (1980)
3000 m: 4:06.47 (1980)
5000 m: 6:59.15 (1979)
10 000 m: 14:28.13 (1980)
Medal record[hide]
Men's speed skating
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal � first place 1980 Lake Placid 500 m
Gold medal � first place 1980 Lake Placid 1000 m
Gold medal � first place 1980 Lake Placid 1500 m
Gold medal � first place 1980 Lake Placid 5000 m
Gold medal � first place 1980 Lake Placid 10000 m
World Championships
Gold medal � first place 1977 Heerenveen Allround
Gold medal � first place 1978 Gothenburg Allround
Gold medal � first place 1979 Oslo Allround
Gold medal � first place 1977 Alkmaar Sprint
Gold medal � first place 1978 Lake Placid Sprint
Gold medal � first place 1979 Inzell Sprint
Gold medal � first place 1980 Milwaukee Sprint
Silver medal � second place 1980 Heerenveen Allround
Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14, 1958) is an American physician and a former long
track speed skater, road cyclist and track cyclist. Heiden won 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 was the
most successful athlete at those Olympic Games, single-handedly winning more gold
medals than all nations except for the Soviet Union (10) and East Germany (9).[1]
He is the most successful Winter Olympian from a single edition of any Winter
Olympics. He delivered the Athlete's Oath at those same 1980 Games. His coach was
Dianne Holum.[2]

Heiden is an icon in the speed skating community. His victories are significant, as
few speed skaters (and athletes in general) have won competitions in both sprint
and long-distance events. Heiden is the only athlete in the history of speed
skating to have won all five events in a single Olympic tournament and the only one
to have won a gold medal in all events. He is considered by some to be the best
overall speed skater (short and long distances) in the sport's history. Heiden
ranked No. 46 in ESPN's SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century in
1999, the only speed skater to make the list. In 2000, a Dutch newspaper called him
the greatest skater ever.[3]

Contents
1 Early life, education and family
2 Athletic career
2.1 Speed skating
2.1.1 World records
2.2 Cycling
2.2.1 Track cycling
2.2.2 Road bicycle racing
3 Medical career
4 Personal life
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Early life, education and family
Heiden was born Madison, Wisconsin. His sister, Beth Heiden, is also an
accomplished cyclist, speed skater and cross-country skier. In their hometown
Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin (a neighborhood in Madison just west of the city
center), Eric and his sister Beth were the driving forces behind the creation of
the Heiden Haus, a small outpost where local children can warm up after skating or
playing hockey on the ice rink (complete with underground clay platform).[4][5]

After starting his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin�Madison,

Heiden transferred to Stanford University in California, earning a Bachelor of
Science degree in 1984 and a medical degree in 1991.

Athletic career
Speed skating
Heiden won the World Junior Speed Skating Championships in 1977 and 1978. During
his short speed skating career, Heiden won three World Allround Championships and
four World Sprint Championships. Three times he broke the world record in the 1000
metres, twice in the 3000 metres, and once each in the 1500 metres and 10000
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. He stood at the top of
the Adelskalender, a ranking system for long-track speed skating, for a record
1,495 days,[6] and he won the Oscar Mathisen Award four times in a row from 1977
until 1980. As of 2016, he still is the only skater who has won the award four
times.[6]

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.

He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.

World records

Heiden in 1977

Heiden in 1980

Heiden in 1977

Eric and Beth Heiden in 1977 in Alkmaar, the Netherlands

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

Discipline Time Date Location

1500 m junior 2.02,75 January 18, 1976 Madonna di Campiglio
5000 m junior 7.30,23 February 20, 1977 Inzell
1500 m junior 1.59,46 February 20, 1977 Inzell
Allround junior 168.716 February 19�20, 1977 Inzell
3000 m junior 4.16,2 February 4, 1977 Montreal
Allround junior 166.584 February 4�5, 1977 Montreal
5000 m junior 7.23,54 February 5, 1978 Montreal
3000 m 4.07,01 March 2, 1978 Inzell
1000 m 1.14,99 March 12, 1978 Savalen
Big combination 162.973 February 11, 1979 Oslo
1000 m 1.14,99 February 17, 1979 Inzell
3000 m 4.06,91 March 18, 1979 Savalen
1000 m 1.13,60 January 13, 1980 Davos
Sprint combination 150.250 January 13, 1980 Davos
1500 m 1.54,79 January 19, 1980 Davos
10000 m 14.28,13 February 23, 1980 Lake Placid
[7]

Cycling
After his speed-skating career Heiden became a professional cyclist.

Track cycling
As a track cyclist Heiden competed at the 1981 UCI Track Cycling World
Championships in Brno, but was not successful. He finished 19th and last in the
men's individual pursuit event.

Road bicycle racing

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. He finished the 1985 Giro d'Italia and took
part in the 1986 Tour de France, although he did not complete the race, crashing on
a downhill stretch and suffering a concussion five days from the finish.[6]

Heiden is believed to have recorded one of the fastest times at 14:10 (1986 or
1987) on one of the local benchmark climbs in Woodside, California: Old La Honda
Road.[8] In 1985, Heiden won the first U.S. Professional Cycling Championship,
becoming the American road race champion.

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

Medical career
Heiden completed medical school at Stanford University in 1991, and orthopedic
residency training at University of California, Davis, in 1996, then spent a year
at a sports medicine clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. He 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, 2006, 2010 and 2014[9] he was team physician for the US Olympic
speed skating team. He opened a sports medicine-based practice at The Orthopedic
Specialty Hospital (TOSH) in Murray, Utah and 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.
In 2008, Heiden and Dr. Massimo Testa published Faster, Better, Stronger, a book
about exercise science and exercise programs.[6]

In 2009, Heiden was one of the team of doctors assisting US speed skater J.R.
Celski as the latter recovered from a very bad speed skating crash during the U.S.
Olympic trials. Despite cutting himself to the bone and requiring 60 stitches,
Celski was able to recover in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where
he won the bronze medal in both men's 1500 m and 5000 m relay.[10]

Personal life
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2017)
A number of American former gold medal winners, including Heiden, were asked to
participate in the ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City,
Utah, but Heiden declined after he was passed over for the honor of lighting the
Olympic torch. The 1980 US Hockey Team, which won the gold medal at the 1980 games,
was given the honor instead. Said Heiden "I was probably just too stubborn. I
figured if they don�t appreciate what I did as a skater, if they don�t appreciate
now what I am doing as a human being, I�d just as soon hang out with my buddies and
watch it. I did not mean to slight the Olympic hockey team in any way."[11]

See also
List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
References
Aquitania, Ray E. (2010). Jock-Docs: World-Class Athletes Wearing White Coats.
ISBN 9781609106126.
"Eric Heiden". Team USA. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
Woldendorp, Johan (February 4, 2000). "Vrouwen snellen Heiden nu voorbij". Trouw
(in Dutch). Retrieved February 25, 2010.
Garcia, Jessie (2016-06-30). Going for Wisconsin Gold: Stories of Our State
Olympians. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 9780870207662.
"Village Heritage". Retrieved 2018-02-14.
"Eric Heiden". sports-reference.com.
"Eric Heiden". SpeedSkatingStats.com. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
Training World-class Racers And Weekend Warriors. BikeRadar (2008-09-20).
Retrieved on 2012-11-18.
Rebate wars. Findarticles.com. Retrieved on 2012-11-18.
J.R. Celski Archived December 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.. sports-
reference.com
Longman, Jere (September 30, 2009). "Former Speedskating Champion Heiden Is
Staying Close to the Ice". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
Further reading
Wangrin, Mark (1999). "Eric Heiden: True Gold". In ESPN SportsCentury. New York:
Hyperion-ESPN Books. pp. 252�3.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eric Heiden.
Eric Heiden at SpeedSkatingStats.com
PB's and a link to all his International Championships
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
Norway Sten Stensen Oscar Mathisen Award
1977�1980 Succeeded by
Norway Amund Sj�brend
Preceded by
United Kingdom Sebastian Coe United Press International
Athlete of the Year
1980 Succeeded by
United Kingdom Sebastian Coe
Preceded by
United States Kurt Thomas James E. Sullivan Award
1980 Succeeded by
United States Carl Lewis
[show] v t e
Leaders of the Adelskalender, men
[show] v t e
Olympic champions in men's 500 m speed skating
[show] v t e
Olympic champions in men's 1000 m speed skating
[show] v t e
Olympic champions in men's 1500 m speed skating
[show] v t e
Olympic champions in men's 5000 m speed skating
[show] v t e
Olympic champions in men's 10,000 m speed skating
[show] v t e
World champions in men's allround speed skating
[show] v t e
World champions in men's sprint speed skating
[show] v t e
James E. Sullivan Award winners
Authority control
WorldCat Identities VIAF: 43134807 LCCN: n80052364 SNAC: w6p05s2b
Categories: 1958 birthsLiving peopleAmerican male speed skatersMedalists at the
1980 Winter OlympicsSportspeople from Madison, WisconsinUniversity of
Wisconsin�Madison alumniJames E. Sullivan Award recipientsAmerican male
cyclistsAmerican cycling road race championsAmerican orthopedic surgeonsUnited
States Bicycling Hall of Fame inducteesSpeed skaters at the 1976 Winter
OlympicsSpeed skaters at the 1980 Winter OlympicsOlympic speed skaters of the
United StatesOlympic gold medalists for the United States in speed skatingStanford
University alumniStanford Medical School alumniFormer world record holders in speed
skatingAmerican sports physiciansOlympic Games broadcasters
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