Eric Heiden

Eric Arthur Heiden is an American long track speed skater who won all the speed skating events during the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, and in doing so set 4 Olympic Records and 1 World Record. In addition, he also won the first US Professional Cycling Championship to become an American road race champion. He became one of the rare breed of athletes to excel in more than one sport.

He also had the rare honor of taking the Olympic Oath during a ceremony at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

In 1983, Heiden was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was inducted into the Bicycling Hall of Fame. His accomplishments ranked him #46 in ESPN SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century in 1999. He was the only speed skater to make the list.

Rarer still, Heiden earned his doctorate degree from Stanford in 1991. In 1996 he completed his Orthopedic Residency Training at Cal-Davis. He began a sports medicine-based practice - Heiden Orthopaedics - at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital and has recently expanded operations to Park City, Utah.

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 1,000metres, twice in the 3,000metres, and once each in the 1,500metres and 10,000metres. 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 1,495days, 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.

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)

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 Cal-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.

Heiden's contribution to Olympic speed skating continued in 2009, when he was one of the team of doctors assisting US speed skater J.R. Celski as he recovered from a very bad speed skating crash during the US Olympic trials in 2009. Despite cutting himself to the bone and requiring sixty stitches, the doctors were able to help Celski recover in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where he won the bronze medal in the 1500 meters.

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. 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.