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The 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team and Wisconsin Speedskater Eric Heiden

"Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

That now famous cry by sportscaster Al Michaels signaled the thrilling culmination of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's improbable 4-3 victory over the powerful Soviet Union at the Lake Placid Winter Games. An event Sports Illustrated named the greatest sports moment of the 20th century.

Eric Heiden, a young Wisconsin Olympic speed skater, was there to see the U.S. victory the night before he was to compete for the gold medal in the grueling 10,000-meter speed skating race. Heiden had already won four gold medals during the games, but couldn't resist staying up late to watch his friends Mark Johnson and Bob Suter - University of Wisconsin students on the U.S. team - compete against the mighty Soviets. After their dramatic, come-from-behind victory, Heiden found himself too excited to sleep.

The next morning, after a short night's rest, Heiden awoke to the sound of his coach Dianne Holum pounding on his door, saying, "What are you doing?!" His 10,000-meter race was just two hours away.

Heiden usually liked to arrive at the rink two hours before a race to go through his very specific preparation routine. But now he raced to the cafeteria only managing to grab a couple slices of whole wheat bread before dashing to the car. With little sleep, a small breakfast, and his routine "thrown out of loop," as he described it, he still went on not only to win the race, but also to break a world record. Heiden, who won all his races on outdoor tracks, had become the first - and to date, the only - athlete to win five gold medals at a single Winter Olympics.

Heiden didn’t start seriously competing in speed skating until he was 14, unusually late in life compared to other world-class speed skaters. Instead, he played hockey, a sport he loved, for West High School in Madison. He competed in the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, but did not medal. By the Lake Placid games he was ready to eclipse all other speed skaters.

In 1980, there were five men’s speed skating events: the three sprint races:500 meters, 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters; and the two long distance races: 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters. In a sport where most competitors specialize as either sprinters or long-distance skaters, Heiden dominated all five events - making it unlikely that his achievement will be repeated.

Heiden's five gold medals are on display in the online exhibit, Skating for Gold: Wisconsin's Olympic Speed Skaters, 1976-2006.

As Heiden mounted the podium to accept his unprecedented fifth gold medal, his friends Mark Johnson, Bob Suter and the rest of "miracle" hockey team still faced their gold medal test the following day.

Though this rag-tag team of American college and high school students had beaten a professional Soviet hockey team in the midst of the Cold War, they still had to play for gold against Finland. Just two days after their "miracle on ice," the team scored three third-period goals to beat Finland, 4�2.

Heiden attended the game and remembers getting "to hang out up near the commentary booth where Al Michaels and Ken Dryden [were] and basically got to hear their commentary as the game was going on. Had one of the best seats in the house," he recalled.

Hockey is still in Mark Johnson's and Bob Suter's blood. Johnson serves as head coach of the UW-Madison women's hockey team, which clinched the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's 2006 championship. Suter went on to play and coach in the Central Hockey League and served as owner and president of Capitol Ice Arena in Middleton. Suter died in 2014.