13 Facts About Carol Heiss

Carol Elizabeth Heiss was born January 20,1940 in New York City, and grew up in Ozone Park, Queens.

Carol Heiss's father Edward was a baker and her mother Marie was a homemaker.

Carol Heiss competed with a slashed Achilles' tendon at the 1954 US Championships.

Carol Heiss was named in the US team to the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Carol Heiss won the silver medal, while Albright took the gold.

However, at the following World Championships, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, Carol Heiss defeated Albright for the title; it was the first of her five consecutive world titles.

Between 1957 and 1960, Carol Heiss dominated women's figure skating like nobody since Sonja Henie.

Carol Heiss was the World and US Champion each year, and at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, Heiss captured the gold medal, being ranked first by all nine judges.

Carol Heiss took the Olympic Oath as representative of the organizing country to open the 1960 games.

In 1953, Carol Heiss became the first female skater to land a double Axel jump.

Carol Heiss normally rotated her jumps clockwise and spins counterclockwise; it is much more common for skaters to do both in the same direction.

Carol Heiss was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Carol Heiss played the female lead in the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges.