Heather Bergsma

Bergsma is a native of North Carolina. She represented the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where she finished 6th in 500 metres, 9th in the 1000 metres, and 16th in the 1500 metres.^[1] At the 2011 World Single Distance Championships in Inzell, Germany, she won a bronze medal in the 1000 metres.^[2] She also placed 8th in the 500 metres,^[3] and was part of the team pursuit team that finished in 8th place.^[4]

On January 26–27, 2013, Bergsma won the gold medal at the 2013 World Sprint Championships in Salt Lake City, United States.^[5] She has since won several world championship medals,^[6] and earned numerous podium placings in the World Cup.^[7] At the 2018 Winter Olympics, she won the bronze medal in the team pursuit.

Bergsma held the American record on the 500 metres distance from 2011 to 2021.^[8] She is the current world record holder in the 2 x 500 meters,^[9] and held the 1500 metres world record from 2015 to 2019,^[10] and also briefly held the 1000 metres world record in November 2015,^[11] and the sprint combination world record from 2013 to 2017.^[12]

She announced her retirement from skating in February 2020.^[13]

Bergsma married Dutch speed skater and marathon skater Jorrit Bergsma in May 2015, and competed as Heather Richardson-Bergsma the following season.^[14]

Season	World Sprint	World SD	World Cup	Olympic Games
2007–08	25th	Did not participate	53rd 500 m NC 1000 m	Not held
2008–09	20th	16th 2x500 m 15th 1000 m	NC 100 m 28th 500 m 22nd 1000 m NC 1500 m
2009–10	Did not participate	Not held	9th 500 m 9th 1000 m	6th 2x500 m 9th 1000 m 16th 1500 m
2010–11	4th	6th 2x500 m 1000 m 8th team pursuit	4th 500 m 1000 m 14th 1500 m	Not held
2011–12	6th	4th 2x500 m 4th 1000 m 8th team pursuit	9th 500 m 1000 m 21st 1500 m
2012–13		8th 2x500 m 6th 1000 m	5th 500 m 1000 m 33rd 1500 m
2013–14		Not held	500 m 1000 m 17th 1500 m 1st GWC	8th 2x500 m 7th 1000 m 7th 1500 m 6th team pursuit
2014–15		2x500 m 1000 m 1500 m	500 m 5th 1000 m 1500 m 30th 3k/5k 18th mass start 1st GWC	Not held
2015–16		5th 2x500 m 1000 m 1500 m 13th mass start	500 m 1000 m 1500 m 6th mass start

Note: NC = No classification.

^[6][7]

• Heather Bergsma at the International Skating Union
• Heather Richardson at the International Skating Union at the Wayback Machine (archived July 20, 2011)
• Heather Bergsma at Team USA (archived October 19, 2021)
• Heather Richardson at Team USA (archived August 26, 2016)
• Heather Richardson at Olympics.com
• Heather Richardson-Bergsma at Olympedia

Records
Preceded by Yu Jing	Women's sprint combination speed skating world record January 20, 2013 – February 26, 2017	Succeeded by Nao Kodaira
Preceded by Jenny Wolf	Women's 2 x 500 m speed skating world record December 28, 2013 – present	Succeeded by Current holder
Preceded by Brittany Bowe	Women's 1000 m speed skating world record November 14, 2015 – November 22, 2015	Succeeded by Brittany Bowe
Preceded by Brittany Bowe	Women's 1500 m speed skating world record November 21, 2015 – March 10, 2019	Succeeded by Miho Takagi