49: Chad Hedrick - World's Top Speed Skater, "Winning Olympic Gold Just Felt Empty"

May 27th, 2021  |  29 mins 50 secs

brian robinson, chad hedrick, gold to sold, inline skating, olympic speed skating, real faith stories, speed skating

Chad Hedrick is the winner of 5 Olympic medals in speed skating from 2006 to 2010 and a total of 52 World Champion inline skating titles from 1994 to 2002.

However, it was in the 2006 Olympics Chad experienced a moment that deeply affected him. Standing at the podium in Torino, Italy to receive his gold medal, there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment, but there was also this intense feeling of emptiness inside. It was shortly thereafter he realized his life lacked purpose outside of the arena. He defined himself by how fast he could skate around a track. Skating was literally all that mattered. In 2009, Chad was compelled to search for more meaning in his life and in this episode he shares his very personal experience about what happened in that search.