For Heather Richardson speedskating runs in the family. Both of her parents competed on traditional ‘quad-style’ roller skates so life on skates began early for Heather.

She was racing on inline roller skates by the time she was nine and went on to win eleven medals at World Championship competitions during her career.

Like all of the past roller-skater-turned-ice-skater champions who preceded her, the likes of Olympic Gold Medalists Derek Parra, Chad Hedrick and her fellow North Carolina native Joey Cheek, all of whom grew up on wheels, Heather too yearned to fulfill her own Olympic dream.

In 2007 she began to pursue that dream and four months after first stepping on to the ice she made her first U.S. Speedskating World Cup Team. She was on her way.

Heather had a break-through performance at the 2010 Olympic Games, where she competed in three different events, finishing 6th in the 500 meters and clearly marking herself as a key face of the future of U.S. Speedskating.

Since then Heather has climbed her way up, and reached the top. During the 2012-2013 skating season Heather has left no doubt that she is heading to Sochi for Olympic hardware.

In the fall of 2012 she dominated the U.S. Single Distance Championships, winning all five events.

She has since gone on to do the same against the world’s best skaters, winning ten World Cup medals, three World Championship medals and in January of 2013, capturing the World Sprint Champion title and doing so with a new World Record.

She is now one of only four athletes in history to be World Champion on both roller skates and ice skates.

Heather is determined to add her own name to the list of roller-to-ice Olympic Champions at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games where she is anticipated to compete in four different events.

Between now and Sochi expect Heather to make quite a few additions to her World Cup medal collection which now stands at twenty-six.

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