Speed Skating at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games:

By the time the 1,500 started, Eric Heiden had won three gold medals and he was a safe bet in the 1,500. The 1,500 was one of his two best distances, with the 1,000. He had not been defeated internationally since the 1977 World All-Arounds, and in January 1980, had broken the world record, posting 1:54.79 in Davos only a month before the Olympics. His biggest competition was expected to come from two Norwegians, Jan Egil Storholt and Kai Arne Stenshjemmet. Storholt had been second at the last three World All-Arounds, to Heiden, and was the 1977 and 1979 European All-Around Champion, but his 1,500 PR was 1:55.18, not far from Heiden’s world record, and the previous world mark, but it had been set at the Kazakh speed factory of Medeo. Stenshjemmet usually had trouble beating Storholt, placing second to him at the 1977 and 1979 Europeans, and third at the 1979 World All-Around, and his 1,500 best was much slower than Storholt’s, at 1:57.50. Storholt started in the first pair and posted 1:57.95 on the slow Lake Placid ice. Nobody in the second or third pairs bettered that time, and it came down to Heiden and Stenshjemmet, skating together in the fourth pair. Heiden set off at a mad pace, posting 24.49 for the first 300 metres and was well ahead. But near the end of the second lap, at about 600 metres, he hit a rut in the ice, and almost fell, having to put down a hand to steady himself. It seemingly cost him up to a second in time, but it mattered little, as he recovered easily and defeated Stenshjemmet by slightly over 1¼ seconds in 1:55.44. Stenshjemmet’s time would be good enough for his second silver medal, adding to one from the 5K. Skating in the next pair, another Norwegian, Terje Andersen, posted 1:56.92 for the bronze medal. Heiden now had four gold medals, tieing him with Lidiya Skoblikova , who in 1964 had won all four women’s speed skating events. He had only the 10K left to conquer.