Highlights Archives
Miracles on Ice: The 1980 Olympics Remembered
"Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" That now famous cry by sportscaster Al Michaels signaled the thrilling culmination of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's improbable 4-3 victory over a powerful Soviet squad at the Lake Placid Winter Games — an event Sports Illustrated named the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. And a young Wisconsin athlete who made Olympic history in his own right that year was there to see the victory with his own eyes — the night before he was to compete for a gold medal in the grueling 10,000-meter speed skating race. Eric Heiden, formerly of Madison, already had won four gold medals in speed skating, but couldn't resist staying up late to watch his friends Mark Johnson and Bob Suter — University of Wisconsin students on the U.S. team — compete against the mighty Soviets. After their dramatic, come-from-behind victory, Heiden found himself too excited to sleep.
The next morning, after a short night's rest, Heiden awoke to the sound of his coach Dianne Holum pounding on his door, saying "What are you doing?!" His 10,000-meter race was just two hours away. Usually Eric liked to arrive at the rink two hours before the race to go through his very specific preparation routine. Now he had to race to the cafeteria for breakfast, only managing to pick up some slices of whole wheat bread, before dashing to the car. With little sleep, a small breakfast, and his routine "thrown out of loop," as he described it, he went on not only to win the race but to break a world record as well. Heiden, who won all his races on outdoor tracks, had become the first — and to date, the only — athlete to win five gold medals at a single Winter Olympics.
Heiden did not start seriously competing in speed skating until the age of 14, unusually late in life compared to other world-class speed skaters. Instead, he played hockey, a sport he loved, for West High School in Madison. Eric had competed at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, but did not medal that year. By 1980 he was ready to eclipse all other speed skaters at the Olympics in Lake Placid. Male speed skaters can compete in five distances: the sprint races of 500 meters, 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters and the long distances of 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters. In a sport where most competitors specialize as sprinters or long-distance skaters, Eric Heiden dominated all five races — making it unlikely that his achievement will be repeated. Eric's five gold medals are on display at the Wisconsin Historical Museum through March 25, 2006, in the exhibit, Skating for Gold: Wisconsin's Olympic Speed Skaters, 1976-2006.
Still, as Heiden mounted the podium to accept his unprecedented fifth gold medal, his friends Mark Johnson, Bob Suter and the rest of "miracle" hockey team still faced their gold medal test the following day. Though this rag-tag band of American high school and college students had beaten a professional Soviet team in the midst of the Cold War, they still had to play for gold against Finland. Just two days after their "miracle on ice," the team scored three third-period goals to beat Finland, 4�2, for the gold. Heiden attended the game and remembers getting "to hang out up near the commentary booth where Al Michaels and Ken Dryden [were] and basically got to hear their commentary as the game was going on. Had one of the best seats in the house," he recalled.
Hockey is still in Mark Johnson's and Bob Suter's blood. Johnson serves as head coach of the UW-Madison women's hockey team, which recently clinched the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's 2006 championship. Suter went on to play and coach in the Central Hockey League and now serves as owner and president of Capitol Ice Arena in Middleton.
Relive the Excitement
Sports writer Joe Hart and photographer L. Roger Turner covered the 1980 Olympics for the Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal, respectively. They will reminisce about their experiences watching Heiden, Johnson and Suter compete so successfully at those Winter Games in a special program, Golden Memories of Lake Placid at the Wisconsin Historical Museum on Saturday, March 18th.
The 2006 Winter Games
Thirteen Wisconsin athletes are competing in the Torino Winter Olympics this year — seven of them speed skaters. Casey FitzRandolph, Chris Witty, Kip Carpenter, Catherine Raney, Maria Lamb, Elli Ochowicz and Tucker Fredericks represent almost half the U.S. speed skating team, and the first three are returning medalists. These skaters come from a long line of successful Wisconsin speed skaters that includes Peter Mueller, Dan Immerfall, Eric and Beth Heiden, and Dan Jansen.
Besides seven speed skaters, this year's Wisconsin's Winter Olympians and their sports include: Molly Engstrom of Siren (women's hockey); Maureen Brunt of Portage (women's curling); Chris Chelios and Brian Rafalski, both University of Wisconsin graduates (men's hockey); Clint Jones, originally from Monroe, (ski jumping); and Chris Cook of Rhinelander (cross-county skiing). So far Engstrom is the only Wisconsinite to medal, with the women's hockey team earning bronze.
:: Posted February 22, 2006
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