Before Michelle Kwan was forced to bid a sad adieu to her gold-medal dreams... before Ted Ligety came from nowhere to win the alpine combined... and before the world had ever heard of a Flying Tomato, these Winter Olympians gave TV-viewers much to talk about and forever remember.
1. Heiden's Fantastic Five — Lake Placid 1980In the speed-skating equivalent of running — and winning — a sprint, a mile, a marathon and nearly everything in between, Eric Heiden achieved what fellow Olympian Dan Jansen calls "the single greatest feat in the history of sports." Hard to disagree. Looking more superhero than mere mortal in his skin-tight uniform, the thunder-thighed skating machine collected five individual gold medals, setting four Olympic records and smashing a world record in his last event, the grueling 10,000-meter race, by more than six seconds. His incredible accomplishment has never been duplicated.
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Before Michelle Kwan was forced to bid a sad adieu to her gold-medal dreams... before Ted Ligety came from nowhere to win the alpine combined... and before the world had ever heard of a Flying Tomato, these Winter Olympians gave TV-viewers much to talk about and forever remember.
1. Heiden's Fantastic Five — Lake Placid 1980In the speed-skating equivalent of running — and winning — a sprint, a mile, a marathon and nearly everything in between, Eric Heiden achieved what fellow Olympian Dan Jansen calls "the single greatest feat in the history of sports." Hard to disagree. Looking more superhero than mere mortal in his skin-tight uniform, the thunder-thighed skating machine collected five individual gold medals, setting four Olympic records and smashing a world record in his last event, the grueling 10,000-meter race, by more than six seconds. His incredible accomplishment has never been duplicated.
read more