Beth Heiden Also Made a Mark

Beth Heiden didn’t win five speedskating gold medals at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. She won a single bronze, in the 3000 meters. But that medal was almost as amazing as Eric Heiden’s five golds and it made the Heidens, brother and sister from Madison, Wis., the biggest story of the Olympics.

Her achievement was surprising because Beth was tiny, 5 feet 2, 105 pounds, in a sport where most women were at least six inches taller and 50 pounds heavier.

A year earlier, Beth Heiden had won four gold medals and the all-around title at the 1979 World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands. At the Olympics, Heiden had a sore ankle and was fighting the elements. “At my size,” Heiden says, “skating outdoors was tough. Cutting through the wind made things harder for me.”

After the 1980 Games, where she also finished seventh in the 500 meters, fifth in the 1,000, and seventh in the 1,500, Heiden won a U.S. cycling championship and, as a senior at the University of Vermont in 1983, became the first women’s NCAA cross-country skiing champion.

At 42, Beth Heiden Reid is the mother of 14-year-old Garrett, 12-year-old Carl and 9-year-old Joanne. Her husband, Russell Reid, is on sabbatical from teaching mathematics at Michigan Tech. He is working for Apple Computers. The family lives in Palo Alto.

Reid, who was a college wrestler, and Beth built a 15-kilometer cross-country ski trail in Hancock, Mich. They raised $5,000 and did the work themselves with, Heiden says, “the help of good friends who would come out in the rain and snow.” The trail is called Maasto Hiihto, Finnish for “cross-country.” Heiden said it was named to honor the large Finnish population in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Their oldest son, Garrett, has made the Western junior Olympic cross-country ski team.

While her husband is at Apple, Heiden has taken time off from her teaching career. She has an undergraduate degree in math and an master’s of science in civil engineering.

“If I look at it now,” Heiden says, “speedskating wasn’t a good choice for me, not at my size. My brother and I started out as figure skaters because we had a house on the lake. But Eric and I both spent most of our time at figure skating practice racing around the rink. And it’s still always a thrill to see an Olympic opening ceremony. It takes me back and there’s no getting around the excitement of being an Olympic participant.”

Diane Pucin