Eric Heiden, born in Madison, Wisconsin, is by many regarded to be the best speed skater ever. In his short speed skating career (from 1975 to 1980), Heiden dominated the sport from 1977 to 1980 and introduced new training methods. In 1975, Eric Heiden debuted at the World Junior Championships with a 10th position. Next year, he improved his rank to 2nd and started at the Innsbruck Olympics one month later. In 1977, he improved his World Junior Championship performance to first place, but by then he had already claimed the world title for seniors. A week later, he also won the World Sprint Championships: 3 titles in 3 weeks. He repeated that performance in 1978. In 1979, when he was too old for the Junior Championships, he won the two other titles by winning all four distances. In 1980, five days after winning his fourth Sprint title in 4 tries, Heiden started at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, where he perfomed a feat that will probably never be equalled: he won all five Olympic distances. Heiden finished his speed skating career by finishing second at the World Championships.
Heidens impressive resume lists: 4 World Sprint titles (12 distance wins), 3 Allround titles (10 distance wins), 2 Junior titles (8 distance wins), 5 Olympic gold medals, 8 World Records and 7 Junior World Records. After his speed skating career, he took up professional cycling, eventually resulting in Tour de France participation. Erics sister Beth was also a top-class speed skater.

By Jeroen Heijmans, last updated November 26, 2005