Unpublished Heiden
Finding an unpublished image of Eric Heiden is quite unusual, as he retired 28 years ago.
Even more unusual is this is Eric in one of his very last speedskating competitions. This is the world Allaround Championships 2 weeks after the Olympic games in Lake Placid. I love the outdoor rink with the crowds sitting right on the ice
I send a huge thanks to Dutch Photographer Peter Van Balen for this image.
The more I know this sport, the more I am amazed at what Eric’s career was like. He was like a runner who essentially won everything from the 100m dash to the 10k. Amazing.
The fascinating thing about this photo, is that this was a day that Eric did not win. And there is another bit of information just became public recently, about how the Dutchman responsible for refrigerating the rink cheated, turning off the refrigeration, and as the ice got softer & softer, it slowed Eric down. He was 2nd overall in the allarounds, by a small margin.
Here is what Peter says about that day, and the picture.
Looking back the picture must have been taking at Heiden’s LAST world championship; also in Heerenveen, but in 1980. (in 1977 he skated in blue and I didn’t have a telezoom for my camera yet).
He was second, about the only time he was beaten; however, this was apparently not just due to his post-Olympics busy weeks (the WC were only 2 weeks later) and his lesser motivation (according to himself), but also, not known to him as far as I know, to the fact that the guy responsible for the (ice) rink maintenance decided (he admitted later) to change the ice preparation schedule on the last distance (10k), thus benefiting the later (Dutch) winner, Hilbert van der Duim.
-Peter
Filed under: from home
Hold on. Did he change the preparation schedule or turned off the refrigeration? Also, you have to consider other factors of the outdoor era… like wind, temperature, time of day, etc.
There have been lots of times when the 10k ice preparation has been a point of controversy. Everyone wants fresh ice, but not too fresh. Remember Chad’s finger cut incident?? If the Zamboni puts warm water on top of the ice, then the ice quality is not optimal until some time later. Chad used the (I cut my finger, can you find me a band-aid tactic to delay his race and allow the ice to “cure”). Now-a-days they schedule and announce the “breaks” for ice preparation at the time of the draw (of course they re-arrange that as skaters withdraw form a race and the pairs get all shifted) so to minimize this problem. The Dutch always accuse the Norwegians of open doors, etc. I never hear anyone complain in SLC about the doors opening and closing on the south-east corner (for volunteers, etc.) so I think at times rivalries find controversy by pointing to things like this.
regardless, AWESOME PIC!
Sorry to say, but this is absolute bullshit. He did not turn off the refrigerator. And the ice was not getting softer and softer. Tournaments in the open air were always tricky because of the fast changing wheater conditions. Especially in the Netherlands (wind and rain).
I think Peter got confused, he clearly didn’t remember the things exactly the way they happened.
Yes, there was a change in the ice preparation schedule but it was not during the 10K but at the 5K!
That was originally planned after every 4 pairs but it was windy and raining, and the ice got slightly worse already during each 2nd and certainly during each 3rd pair after preparation, and was pretty much hopeless in the 4th pair. So the schedule was changed - while the 5K was already under way! - to a preparation after each 3rd pair. The result was not so much different for Eric who had already started in the 3rd pair, but more that it was very beneficial to Hilbert vdDuim who, starting in pair 12 -because of the change in the preparation scheme - did not start in the 4th pair after preparation but the 1st pair after ice preparation. So, in the best possible conditions instead of the worst.
That was only one contributing factor to the surprising result. The other was the constant change of weather conditions during the Sunday distances.
- by beating Stensjhemmet in a direct confrontation on the 1500m by five full seconds! Remember, Stensjemmet came 2nd at the 1500m just a few weeks earlier at the Oympics.
Eric Heiden skated perhaps the best race of his life -which says something
That was while a storm gale blew across the open rink. But earlier, during the Hilbert van der Duim pair, there was hardly any wind at all! Only two or three pairs later it blew in full force…. and it was a storm when Heiden started later on in pair 8.
Because of that, Van der Duim took a narrow lead after 3 distances, just ahead of Heiden and Oxholm. But Heiden seemd to have ample chances to win the title because he started right after van der Duim in pair 3 of the 10K. Van der Duim held his own against Oxholm in the 2nd pair, but after that pair Heiden seemed to cruise to the title -until it started to rain and storm again in the 2nd part of his 10K….. That just proved too much.
Immediately after Eric’s race, the rain and storm disappeared. All the best times of the 10K were skated in the last 4 pairs……