Beth Heiden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Competitor for the  United States |
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| Speed skating | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Bronze | 1980 Lake Placid | 3,000 m | |
Elizabeth ("Beth") Lee Heiden-Reid (born 27 September 1959) is an American athlete who excelled in speed skating, cross-country skiing, and bicycle racing. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Her brother Eric was a gold-medalist speedskater at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics.
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[edit] Short biography
Her first year in high school, Heiden was a tennis and soccer player, and later that year she ran a national record in the mile for her age group, and ran in states for both the eight hundred and the mile.
In 1979, she won the World Allround Speed Skating Championships, making her only the second female American to do so. Kit Klein had been the first, winning the first official World Championships in 1936. At the 1980 Winter Olympics of Lake Placid, Heiden won a bronze medal in the 3,000 m event.
In the sport of bicycle racing, which she originally took up as a form of cross training outside the skating season, Heiden won both the U.S. Road Race Championships and (in 1980) the World Road Race Championships. She is often acclaimed to be both a better biker and a better runner than her brother Eric Heiden.
After the Olympics, while a student at the University of Vermont (UVM), she was the NCAA Women's National Champion in cross-country skiing in 1983 and an All-American in the same sport. She graduated from the University in 1983 and was inducted into the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.
She was inducted in both the Bicycling Hall of Fame[citation needed] and the Speed Skating Hall of Fame.
[edit] Speed skating
For most of her speed skating career, Heiden was still a junior, but she already belonged to the absolute world top. This led to the situation that she participated in both junior and "regular" championships during the same season several times, both with great successes. This was most obvious in 1979, when she became World Allround Champion and, three weeks afterwards, World Junior Allround Champion, while at both championships winning all four distances. In addition, in between those two championships, she also won silver at the World Sprint Championships, winning both 1,000 m races.
Much was expected of her the following year at the 1980 Winter Olympics, but an ankle injury prevented her from skating at her full potential. Despite that, she still managed to win a bronze medal on the 3,000 m.
As of 2007, Heiden still is one of only two American women to have become World Allround Champion, the other one 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.
[edit] Medals
An overview of medals won by Heiden at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:
| 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 |
– |
[edit] Personal records
To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Heiden skated her personal records.
| Event | Result | Date | Venue | WR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 m | 41.78 | 6 March 1980 | Inzell | 40.68 |
| 1,000 m | 1:23.66 | 21 January 1980 | Davos | 1:23.46 |
| 1,500 m | 2:07.87 | 19 January 1980 | Davos | 2:07.18 |
| 3,000 m | 4:32.60 | 21 January 1980 | Davos | 4:31.00 |
| 5,000 m | 8:06.93 | 18 March 1979 | Savalen | none |
Note that the 5,000 m was suspended as a world record event at the 1955 ISU (International Skating Union) Congress and was reinstated at the 1982 ISU Congress.
Heiden has an Adelskalender score of 178.529 points.
[edit] Halls of Fame
Heiden was inducted in several Halls of Fame:
- 1989: National Speedskating Hall of Fame
- 1993: UVM Athletic Hall of Fame (University of Vermont – for her achievements in skiing)
- 2005: Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame
[edit] References
- Beth Heiden at SkateResults.com
- Beth Heiden. Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V. (German Skating Association).
- Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database
- Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages
- Historical World Records. International Skating Union.
- Speedskating Hall of Fame – Speed Skaters. The National Speedskating Museum and Hall of Fame.
- Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, which also has a picture of Beth Heiden
- University of Vermont Catamount Hall of Fame
- Skiing: University of Vermont
- Beth Heiden. Wisconsin Historical Society.
| Preceded by Bruce Baumgartner John Elway Richard J. Giusto Charles F. Kiraly David R. Rimington |
NCAA Top Five Award Class of 1984 John E. Frank Beth Heiden Terrell L. Hoage Stefan G. Humphries Steve Young |
Succeeded by Gregg Carr Tracy Caulkins Doug Flutie Mark J. Traynowicz Susan E. Walsh |
