Generally, at the Olympic level, skaters hone their skills for either the short races or for the long races, but nobody before or since has even won all five events. In fact, Heiden was one of only two men competing in all five events that year. He beat 144 competitors in the five events.

As a kid, Eric Heiden played soccer and hockey, then decided at 14 he'd be a speed skater. He trained five hours a day, winter or summer. When there was no ice, he practiced in his basement, in stocking feet, 'skating' on a six-foot wide plastic sheet. His sister Beth was also a speed skater, winning a bronze medal in the women's 3,000 meter race in the same Olympics.

Like many speed skaters, Heiden trained as a cyclist in the off-season to stay in shape, and Heiden was damned good at that, too. He was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic cycling team in 1980, won the 1985 U.S. professional cycling championship, and was a member of the first U.S team to compete in the Tour de France, in 1986.< At the 2002 Olympics, Heiden was asked to carry the torch into the stadium for the opening ceremony, but declined when he learned he was expected to hand it to a member of the 1980 gold medal U.S. Olympic hockey team, who would then light the flame for the Games.

After the Olympics, Heiden did a few endorsements and used the proceeds to pay his medical school tuition at Stanford. He became an orthopedic surgeon, and he's now an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of California at Davis. He was the team doctor for the U.S. ice skating team at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.