Simon "Siem" Heiden (12 March 1905 – 3 August 1993) was a Dutch

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

who competed in the

1928 Winter Olympics The 1928 Winter Olympics, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games (french: IIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; german: II. Olympische Winterspiele; it, II Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, II Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. M ...

. He was born in IJsselmonde and died in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

. In

, he finished eleventh in the 5000 metres event, 18th in the 1500 metres competition and 27th in the 500 metres event. When he broke the 5000 meters world record in 1933, he was a member of athletic and football club

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

. The chairman of the club, Leen van Zandvliet, congratulated him for his performance. Simon was engaged into an incident during the

2nd World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, when defending

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

. He was asked to shoot a paratrooper that was wounded, however, Simon carried him to safety as he was a fellow olimpian.

World record

Tournament summary

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

References

1905 births 1993 deaths Dutch male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters for the Netherlands Speed skaters at the 1928 Winter Olympics World record setters in speed skating Sportspeople from Rotterdam Speed skaters from South Holland {{Netherlands-speed-skating-bio-stub