Carol Heiss: Olympic Queen

By Robert B. Parker

Carol Heiss is a two-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion in figure skating. She won the 1960 Olympics in women’s figure skating and she also won the silver medal at the 1956 Olympics. When she won the 1960 Olympic Gold Medal, all nine judges awarded her first place. Carol Heiss won the world championship every year from 1956 through 1960.

This biography on the famous American former figure skater and actress, written by the well-known private detective novelist Robert Parker, was first published in 1961.

Richly illustrated throughout with photographs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Release date: Dec 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789127249

Robert B. Parker

Robert Brown Parker (1932-2010) was an American writer of fiction, primarily of the mystery/detective genre. He also wrote several other non-fiction books, including Sports Illustrated Training with Weights (with John R. Marsh, 1974) and A Year At The Races (with Joan H. Parker, 1990). He was most famous for his 40 novels written about the private detective Spenser, which ABC television network developed in the mid-1980s into the television series Spenser: For Hire, based on the character, starring Robert Urich. Parker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1932. He earned a B.A. degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine 1954, served in the U.S. Army Infantry in Korea, and then returned to receive a master’s degree in English literature from Boston University in 1957. He then worked in advertising and technical writing until 1962. He received a Ph.D. in English literature from Boston University in 1971 and wrote his first novel that same year, while teaching at Northeastern University. He also taught at Lowell State College and Bridgewater State College. He became a full professor in 1976, before turning to full-time writing in 1979 with five Spenser novels to his credit. In addition to his Spenser novels, Parker was also the author of the Jesse Stone series, which was made into a series of television movies for CBS, and the Sunny Randall series. His novel Appaloosa (2005) was made into a 2008 movie directed by and starring Ed Harris. Parker received numerous awards for his work, including an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1977 for The Promised Land, Grand Master Edgar Award for his collective oeuvre in 2002, and the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died of a heart attack on January 18, 2010 at the age of 77.

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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

© Papamoa Press 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

CAROL HEISS

OLYMPIC QUEEN

By

Robert Parker

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

1 — A dream come true 6

2 — The beginning 13

3 — The heart of a champion 19

4 — Figure skating 24

5 — Coach Pierre Brunet 30

6 — Time to get up 35

7 — Education is your life... 41

8 — The accident 46

9 — Tragedy and triumph 54

10 — More glory 66

11 — The great test 72

12 — Carol today 79

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 84

1 — A dream come true

The music began to play. A hush fell over the great skating rink at Squaw Valley.

Here she comes! someone whispered.

A slim blonde girl in a short skater’s costume glided out onto the ice. For a second she paused, then she whirled away, leaping and spinning.

An excited hum ran through the watching crowd. The girl’s speed increased. The blades of her figure skates flashed across the ice. Through a great window at one end of the ice rink the flags of more than thirty nations could be seen in the afternoon sun, but the people on either side of the rink saw only the small figure, wonderful and alone, skating across the ice.

Her name was Carol Heiss, and this was the high point of her career—the 1960 Winter Olympic Games. Thousands of eyes followed her quick, doll-like figure around the ice. She leaped and spun. People held their breath.

Wonderful! Wonderful! someone whispered.

Surely, she moved through the difficult patterns. It was like a dance. She flashed past television cameras working to keep up with her. In millions of homes all over the country people were watching her.

At the side of the great rink nine men and women sat quietly. They were the judges, and they never took their eyes off her. Each move she made they checked. They must judge her fairly.

Far across the country, in Queens, New York, another man sat silent and still in front of his television set. He was Edward Heiss, Carol’s father. His hands closed hard on the arms of his chair. He leaned forward, watching. Great excitement rose up in him. He could not help his daughter now. He could only watch. But with each spin she made, each glide and quick turn, his prayers went out to her.

God be with you, he said quietly.

Four brief minutes! That was all the time she was allowed, and in those few minutes fifteen years of work and sacrifice, of hopes and triumphs and disappointments would reach their greatest test. As Carol’s father watched, he could not think of a more beautiful, happy ending for the story of those years.

The music swelled. Carol spun into a final wonderful series of flashing figures. Her small body arched. For one last second she stood still, arms upstretched, and then it was over.

Perfect. Perfect.

Cheers broke from the crowd. People were clapping, shouting. And then everyone was quiet. The judges were walking out onto the ice, their faces telling nothing. Had Carol won? People waited eagerly.

One by one, the judges held their score cards high. At the edge of the rink, Carol’s coach, Pierre Brunet, added the numbers to Carol’s score. But the audience did not wait to hear. Carol had done it! People stood and cheered her, making wave after wave of sound. In the flood of cheering, Carol’s tiny figure disappeared from the rink.

At home her father bowed his head. Carol, you have won, he said out loud. You are the first American to win a gold medal at the 1960 Games. Great pride filled his heart, yet sadness came to him, too. Carol’s mother was not alive to share in this moment of triumph, and he remembered how she had believed it must happen, how she had longed to see it.

Back at the ice rink, Carol was being led to the winner’s platform. Four years ago, it had seemed as tall as a mountain to her, but now she climbed the steps and stood, slim and straight, while the excitement increased around her. She lifted her head, and tears filled her eyes. She seemed to be looking far, far off into the distance, and in her heart she whispered: It is for you, Mother. I promised.