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When the skaters warmed up for the 10,000-meter race that would be Heiden's chance for a fifth gold medal, the arena was jammed with spectators. Along Main Street, fans who had not been able to get tickets climbed homemade ladders in order to peer over the fencing. Heiden stayed in perfect form. "He's not a beauty skater, he's a strength skater," says Leah Poulos Mueller, an American speed skater who won silvers in the women's 500- and 1,000-meter races. Yet in the end Heiden's strength was beautiful to watch. As he raced, Heiden precisely placed one blade just four or five inches in front of the other, pushed out at a 45° angle and then screwed his blade into the ice for power by rolling from the outside to the inside edge.
In the last four 400-meter laps, Heiden was magnificent. Despite the growing pain, he skated each lap in exactly 35.2 sec. Finishing in 14:28.13, he was so tired that he could not even lift his head on his victory lap, let alone acknowledge the cheers.
With one of the great performances in Olympic history behind him, Heiden plans a sort of post-Olympic idyl of "goofing off"—racing bicycles in Florida, then camping and traveling in the western U.S., passing up his killer drills for the first time in years. "It's been so long since I've had a lot of free time, no training, no meets. Now I can do what I want to do." Eventually, he expects to go into sports medicine, possibly as an orthopedic surgeon like his father. He will spend next year studying at a sports medicine institute in Norway, where he has a Norwegian girlfriend.
"After I come back," says Eric, "I may do some endorsements, if people are still in me. People forget awfully fast. I remember in 1977 after I won the world championships. The man who held the title before me was skating around the rink and nobody recognized him. I came out and was mobbed. Popularity drops pretty quick after you stop being on top. Things will cool off for me, and that's the way I want it." How would he like to be remembered? "The way I am. Just me, Eric Heiden."
Eric's celebrity left his little sister, Beth, 20, in a bittersweet state. She had been swept along in her brother's wake, and some said she could take four golds. The expectations were much too high and put far too much pressure on her. Although she had won the World Championship in 1979, some of her rivals were then still rounding into top form. They were ready for Lake Placid, and Beth finished seventh in the 500, fifth in the 1,000 and seventh in the 1,500 meters. It was an excellent showing, but some newsmen treated her like a failure.
Beth had a good excuse, but did not use it: her left ankle had been injured a month ago much more seriously than outsiders suspected. When she began to favor the leg, the other ankle flared up, and her main strength—the efficiency of her strokes—was impaired. For all that, Beth finally won a bronze medal in the 3,000 and would have been the all-round women's skating champion if the events had been judged collectively, as they are in the world championships. Still, her medal brought tears of anguish as well as joy. At her press conference, she said: "I'm happiest when I skate for myself. But this year I feel I have to skate for the press. The hell with you guys."