10,000 metres, Men

Eric Heiden celebrated his first four gold medals by going to watch the USA-Soviet Union ice hockey match the night before the 10,000. When the US won in a big upset, Heiden was excited, having two close friends on the US team, and he slept little. Oversleeping a bit, his breakfast consisted only of a few pieces of bread grabbed on the way to the rink. The first pair was a tough one with Norway’s Tom Erik Oxholm, who had won bronze in the 5,000, facing American Mike Woods, fourth at the 1979 World All-Arounds. Oxholm got off to a fast start on Woods, who never caught up, with Oxholm posting 14:36.60 and Woods 14:39.53.

Heiden was in the second pair with Soviet Viktor Lyoskin, the world record holder at 14:34.33, a top international competitor, and considered a formidable opponent. Heiden’s PR going into Lake Placid was 14:43.11 and Lyoskin tried to intimidate him, starting out at a suicidal pace, leading by over 2 seconds at eight laps. But Heiden skated his own race, steadily grinding Lyoskin down, catching him shortly after the 12th lap, and then crushing him in the second half of the race, eventually bettering his time by over 23 seconds. Heiden finished in 14:28.13, a remarkable world record considering the slow Lake Placid rink and it would bring him his unprecedented fifth gold medal.

This was the first time that any Olympic athlete had won five individual gold medals at a single Olympic Games, and that would not be equaled until Michael Phelps did so in swimming at Beijing in 2008. Oxholm would eventually win a bronze medal, with Woods finishing fourth, as the silver medal went to Dutchman Piet Kleine, the defending champion, who had been competing internationally since the early 1970s and went off in the sixth pair.