Beth Heiden

Elizabeth Lee Heiden Reid (born September 27, 1959) is an American athlete who excelled in speed skating, cross-country skiing, and bicycle racing. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She was a speedskating bronze medalist at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, where her brother Eric won five speedskating gold medals. That same year, 1975, she ran a national record in the mile for her age and ran in the state championship for both the 800 and the mile.

She attended her first Olympics in 1976, at the age of 17. In 1979, she won the World Allround Speed Skating Championships, the second American woman to do so. (Kit Klein had been the first, winning the first official world championship in 1936.) Heiden won a bronze medal in the 3,000 m at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, skating on an ankle injury that had bothered her for some time. After the Olympics, while a student at the University of Vermont (UVM), she was the NCAA national champion in cross-country skiing in 1983 and an All-American in the same sport, as a walk on in her first year of the sport.

Speed skating For most of her skating career Heiden was a junior, but she belonged to the world top. This meant she participated in both junior and regular championships during the same season several times, both with success. This was most obvious in 1979, when she became world allround champion and, three weeks afterwards, world junior allround champion, at both championships winning all four distances. Between those championships, she won silver at the world sprint championship, winning both 1,000 m races.

Much was expected of her the following year at the 1980 Winter Olympics, but an ankle injury kept her from her potential. Despite that, she won a bronze medal in the 3,000 m. Her brother swept the five men's races at the same Olympics.

Heiden is one of only two American women to have become world allround champion, the other being Kit Klein in 1936. Heiden was inducted in the National Speedskating Hall of Fame in 1989. Her brother Eric was inducted the same day.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Heiden at important championships, listing the years :

Championships Gold medal Silver medal Bronze medal Winter Olympics – – 1980 (3,000 m) World Allround 1979 1980 – World Sprint – 1978 1979 1980 World Junior Allround 1978 1979 1976 1977 –

Personal records To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Heiden skated personal records.