Was Eric Heiden's 5 Individual Gold Medals at 1980 Lake Placid greatest Olympic performance ever?

Meltdown99

Big Bank Hank said:

Eric Heiden swept all 5 of the men's speed skating events, no one has ever come close to doing it in swimming or sprinting, he won the sprints & the distance events, he absolutely crushed all his competition
Eric Heiden 1980 Lake Placid Olympics results:
500M Gold-Olympic Record
1000M Gold-Olympic record
1500M Gold-Olympic record
5000M Gold-Olympic record
10000M Gold-Olympic Record

Eric Heiden - ESPN's SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyfUh1wA96o

Yes, so much more can go wrong when a piece of equipment such as ski's/skates also have to be in peak condition as well...

Meltdown99

Big Bank Hank said:

rgambs said:

Big Bank Hank said:

HesCalledDyer said:

2004 USA softball team:
Undefeated 7-game run to win the gold, allowing only 19 hits and outscoring opponents 51-1 along the way.  4 wins came by run rule and that lone run allowed occurred in the next to last inning of the gold medal game.

people watch softball?

Beats the pants off the overblown game of shuffle board they call Curling.

oh wow really? sure doesn't get the ratings, in fact didn't they toss softball out of the olympics for drawing too little attention?

It was such a popular sport...lol

Meltdown99

KC138045 said:

Big Bank Hank said:

rgambs said:

Big Bank Hank said:

HesCalledDyer said:

2004 USA softball team:
Undefeated 7-game run to win the gold, allowing only 19 hits and outscoring opponents 51-1 along the way.  4 wins came by run rule and that lone run allowed occurred in the next to last inning of the gold medal game.

people watch softball?

Beats the pants off the overblown game of shuffle board they call Curling.

oh wow really? sure doesn't get the ratings, in fact didn't they toss softball out of the olympics for drawing too little attention?

They tossed because the USA kicked everyone's ass.  Too little competition.

if thats the case why haven't tossed men's basketball and woman hockey...

mace1229

ehbacon said:

Remember when Kerri Strug won the US gymnastics team gold with a sprained ankle? That.

Yeah, but if she didn't screw up her first attempt she wouldn't of had to do it on a sprained ankle!
just kidding.

HughFreakingDillon

bootlegger10 said:

rgambs said:

He skated fast.
Phelps swam fast.

Sure, they both dominated hardcore, but they only did 1 thing with minor tweaks.
A single gold medal in the decathlon or all-around gymnastics is more impressive than either of their very impressive Olympic runs.

COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU.

I've never understood why the public and the media tends to call Phelps and others who compete in ONE sport with, as gambs said, a few minor tweaks, can be considered the greatest athlete of all time because of the number of medals. if there was multiple events for each sport, everyone would be the GOAT. 

Meltdown99

As Big Bang pointed out Heiden won gold and set Olympic records in both sprint and distance event...I’m guessing that no one has accomplished that since ... so if it’s so easy, I’m sure it would have accomplished since.

HughFreakingDillon

Meltdown99 said:

As Big Bang pointed out Heiden won gold and set Olympic records in both sprint and distance event...I’m guessing that no one has accomplished that since ... so if it’s so easy, I’m sure it would have accomplished since.

I don't think it's easy. but it doesn't automatically qualify for greatest of all time in and of itself. at least not where phelps is concerned. 

edit: looking again, even though they are all running, there is a much different strategy and conditioning for sprint vs distance events, so yes, i would say he's definitely in the top. 

Meltdown99

HughFreakingDillon said:

Meltdown99 said:

As Big Bang pointed out Heiden won gold and set Olympic records in both sprint and distance event...I’m guessing that no one has accomplished that since ... so if it’s so easy, I’m sure it would have accomplished since.

I don't think it's easy. but it doesn't automatically qualify for greatest of all time in and of itself. at least not where phelps is concerned. 

edit: looking again, even though they are all running, there is a much different strategy and conditioning for sprint vs distance events, so yes, i would say he's definitely in the top. 

I’m not discounting what other great olympians have accomplished.  More or less just acknowledging that he set Olympic records in both distance and sprint...to my knowledge no one has accomplished that feat.  Someone will eventually eclipse Phelps.  But so far no one has done what Heiden has done in a single olympics...

all Olympians mentioned are great athletes.  Canada has the most decorated figure skaters of all-time (Moir, Virtue), so this thread can also be subjective...a case could be made for them as well, figure skaters are amazing athletes as well.  It’s fun to debate this kind of stuff.

i also agree 100% with rgamgs ... biathletes are just amazing athletes as well

F Me In The Brain

Figure skaters could be called the greatest olympic performance ever?  I guess we have different levels of respect for some of these athletes.
I agree it is damned impressive, but figure skating is never going to impress me as much as about 3/4 of the other sports and what they do.
Just not my thing, although I can/do freely admit that people seem to be getting 'better' at dancing on skates.
(I am not partial, in general, to the sports that get 'scored' vs. ones with actual ways to determine winners that are clear/clean.) 

Meltdown99

F Me In The Brain said:

Figure skaters could be called the greatest olympic performance ever?  I guess we have different levels of respect for some of these athletes.
I agree it is damned impressive, but figure skating is never going to impress me as much as about 3/4 of the other sports and what they do.
Just not my thing, although I can/do freely admit that people seem to be getting 'better' at dancing on skates.
(I am not partial, in general, to the sports that get 'scored' vs. ones with actual ways to determine winners that are clear/clean.) 

At least figure skaters can call themselves legit athletes ... not so sure curlers can.  

eddiec

What Heiden did will never be repeated. Imagine Bolt winning the gold in the 3000m. Never in a million years would it happen.

HesCalledDyer

No

If someone trains to do it, it can be repeated and outdone. It must just be that no one (or anyone any good) ever trains for both sprint and distance events.

Three times in the Tour de France, Eddy Merckx won both the general classification (overall, Yellow jersey) and points classification (sprints - Green jersey). When he did it in 1969, he also won all three individual Time Trial stages, his team won the team time trial, and he also took the mountains classification (climbing - Polka dot jersey) and combativity classification (most time spent in breakaways from the peloton).  All those things take very different skillsets, mindsets, and different tolls on the body.  Bernard Hinault is the only other rider to ever win both the general & points in the same year when he did it in 1979.