Eric Heiden Medals

Eric Heiden is a former long-track speed skater, road cyclist, and track cyclist. Heiden is a present-day physician who is regarded as the most successful Winter Olympian from a single edition of any Winter Olympics. Considered by many to be one of the best speed skaters of all time, he used to win competitions in both sprint and long-distance events. ESPN ranked him 46th on its list of SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century, published in 1999. Heiden was the only speed skater to make that list.

Heiden was the recipient of the Oscar Mathisen Award (annually presented to the skater with the most outstanding performance in the season) four times in a row from 1977 to 1980. On top of that, he is the only skater to have won that award four times as of 2025. Heiden stood at the top of the ranking system for long-track speed skating, known as Adelskalender, for a record 1,495 days.

How many medals has Eric Heiden won?

Eric Heiden won thirteen medals, including five Olympic medals and eight at the World Championships during his HOF career. All of his 5 Olympic medals were gold, and he won all of them in a single Winter Olympics held at Lake Placid in 1980. Heiden won all speed skating events at Lake Placid, ranging from 500m to 10000m, securing 5 gold medals in the process (via Heiden’s page on Team USA).

In the World championships, Eric Heiden has won seven gold medals and one silver medal. All of his seven gold medals came in Big Combination and Sprint Combination. He won three gold medals in the Big Combination at the 1977, 1978, and 1979 World Championships. Heiden won the remaining 4 gold medals in the Sprint Combination category from the 1977 to 1980 World championships. His lone silver medal came at the 1980 world championship in Big Combination (via Heiden’s page on Team USA).