Portrait of Eric Heiden, 5 Time Gold Medal Olympian

The New York Times has a short portrait of Dr. Eric Heiden. Dr. Heiden was the first athlete to win 5 gold medals in an Olympics. Eric is a fine sports orthopedist and he is still an inspiration to athletes and skaters around the world. He trained under Dr. James Andrews, another excellent sports medicine doc. Dr. Heiden’s patients have said he is straight forward, honest, and humble. The Times didn’t paint him entirely that way, but the story is still an interesting read. His performance in 1980 was riveting. Even if you had no interest in skating, you’d turn it on to watch him in those Olympics. And yes, 1980 was also the year of the miracle U.S. hockey team. (And 1980 was also the year of an unfortunate summer Olympics boycott in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.)

Way back then technology was so bad you’d actually have to watch the Olympics live instead of taped, cut, and canned the way we can now. But, wouldn’t it be nice to have an option to see the next Olympics live? The upcoming Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, Canada this February. Vancouver is a fine venue with beautiful surroundings and friendly people. I was lucky enough to attend two meetings there. My last visit to Vancover was a few years ago as a participant with the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Sports Science. I’d be happy to visit Vancouver again. But, I’ll be watching the Olympics next year by satellite.