University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Beth Heiden Reid 1983 - Skiing
One of the greatest athletes in women's sports in the late 21st century, Beth Heiden Reid, a 1993 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, was a World Champion and Olympian in speed skating, a World Champion in cycling and an NCAA individual champion in cross country skiing. On top of her remarkable athletic achievements, she was a top student earning the highest academic athletic award presented by the NCAA, the NCAA Top Five Award. Heiden Reid was presented this award at the NCAA's annual convention in Dallas in 1983.
After winning the world cycling championship in Paris in 1980 - and a world title in speed skating in 1979 - Heiden Reid was intrigued with a new sport - cross country skiing. Knowing that UVM had one of the most successful programs in the nation, she transferred from the University of Wisconsin in 1981.
During Heiden Reid's first year at Vermont, her goal was to make the women's ski team, the defending national champions. She did. Goal No. 2 was to excel at the sport. She did, winning the NCAA individual 7.5K freestyle cross country championship at Bozeman, Mont. in 1983. Her performance boggled the minds of many ski experts, as her rapid progression in her first attempt at competitive cross country skiing just wasn't the norm. But, then again, Beth Heiden Reid isn't any normal athlete.
After the Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980 - where she earned a bronze medal in speed skating - Reid was anxious to escape the pressures of the publicity that hounded her at the Winter Games and decided the quiet of Burlington, Vt. - and the low profile sport of cross country skiing - was a perfect fit. The classic student-athlete, she finished with a 3.40 GPA in mathematics and physics in her two years at UVM.
