Turin, Italy 2006 Winter Olympic Games

Highlights
Hedrick was the 2004 World All-Around Champion and the 2005 World Single Distance – 5000m World Champion … During the 2004-05 season, Hedrick set the 3000 meters World Record … In less than a one-week duration in November 2005, at two different World Cups, Hedrick set a world record in the 5000 meters and 1500 meters. On the last day of 2005, Hedrick added another World Record to his resume in the 10,000. In addition, he owns the long samalog world record (146.501) … Hedrick was second overall at the 2005 World Allround Championships, 2003-2004 U.S. Speedskating Athlete of the Year, was ranked third in the world in the 5000m/10000m overall in 2004 … Prior to making the transition to ice, Hedrick was a 50-time World Champion gold medalist in inline skating and a nine-time Allround World Inline Speedskating Champion (1994-2003).

Start-up
Hedrick credits former inline skating teammate and Olympic medalist, Derek Parra, as the person who introduced him to the sport of speedskating. According to Hedrick, he was in Las Vegas and saw his former teammate winning a gold medal in Salt Lake City that made him determined to make the transition from inline to ice speedskating. In less than two years, he became a world champion.

Personal
The Texan is quite superstitious and admitted to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show in January that when at a Chinese restaurant, he must be the last person to take a fortune cookie and is picky with his hotel room numbers. The numbers, according to Hedrick, must add up to a number with a‘1’ in it … Hedrick has his own website www.chadhedrick.com.