Heiss, Carol E.
Figure Skating
b. Jan. 20, 1940, New York, NY
For four years, Heiss was eclipsed by Tenley Albright. She finished second to Albright in the U. S. figure skating championships from 1953 through 1956; in the 1953 and 1955 North American championships; in the 1955 world championship; and in the 1956 Olympics.
Two weeks after the Olympics, she beat Albright for the first time to win the world title. Albright then retired and Heiss succeeded her as the best in the world. She won the U. S. and world championships each year from 1957 through 1960, was the North American champion from 1957 through 1959, and she climaxed her career by winning the Olympic gold in 1960, fulfilling a promise she'd made to her mother.
Heiss began skating when she was five years old, and she immediately showed talent. At seven, she started taking lessons from Pierre and Andre Brunet of the Skating Club of New York. Pierre assured Carol's mother, "In ten years, your daughter can be the best in the world."
To pay for the lessons, Mrs. Heiss worked as a free-lance fabric designer, working on drawings in the Skating Club rink while Carol practiced. When they traveled to Cortina, Italy, for the 1956 Winter Olympics, Mrs. Heiss was suffering from terminal cancer. She died in October that year, after Carol had promised to keep competing until she won a gold medal.
Heiss was chosen to take the Olympic oath on behalf of all the athletes in the 1960 Winter Games. After winning her gold, she had a brief professional career. In 1961, she married another champion figure skater, Hayes Alan Jenkins.