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Eric Heiden
- Won unprecedented five winter gold medals at 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m)
- Earned 1980 Sullivan Award as the top American amateur athlete
- In his second athletic career, cycling, he won the 1985 USPro Championships and was a member of the first U.S. team to compete in the Tour de France
- Of the six gold medals that the United States won at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, Heiden won five
- Retired immediately after his stirring performance at the 1980 Games
- Won the Oscar-statuetten four times in the years 1977-1980, the only one who has won the award more than twice
- Named the 46th greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury
- Sister, Beth, was a 1980 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist in speed skating giving the Heiden family exactly half of the total medals won by the USA
- Before he went after his fifth gold medal at the 1980 Games, Heiden attended the U.S.-Soviet Union 'Miracle on Ice' game. After the Americans' dramatic victory and just hours before his race, Heiden could hardly sleep. He ended up oversleeping.
- “I have always felt that it is the single greatest feat in the history of sports,” said Dan Jansen, a speedskating legend in his own right, on Heiden’s performance in Lake Placid.
- “EVERY race. That's like Maurice Greene or Michael Johnson lacing 'em up the next day to go out and WIN the Olympic marathon. It just doesn't happen," said Casey FitzRandolph, U.S. Speedskater
- Competed at 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck
- Graduated from Stanford Medical School and followed in his father's footsteps by becoming an orthopedic surgeon
- Is an assistant professor at the University of California-Davis
Heiden now lives in Sacramento with his wife, Karen Drews, and is an orthopedic surgeon and sports team physician. He is serves as the U.S. Speedskating team physician, treating both Chris Witty, who suffered from mononucleosis, and Apolo Anton Ohno, who was cut in his famous crash in Salt Lake at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Related Links
Feature: Eric Heiden 25: 'Achieving the impossible'
Feature: Eric Heiden 25: 'Race-by-race analysis'
Feature: Eric Heiden 25: 'An exclusive interview'
Photo Gallery: Images of Eric Heiden from 1980
Audio: Heiden talks about team USA's speedskaters
Many people that have met Heiden comment on his modesty. After announcing to the press he would retire at the end of the season he said, "Maybe if things had stayed the way they were and I could still be obscure in an obscure sport, I might want to keep skating. I really liked it best when I was a nobody."
-- Wallechinsky's The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics 1998
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Born: 6/14/1958
Hometown: Madison, Wis.
Resides: Sacramento, Calif.
Sport: Speed Skating
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