Derek Parra
Speed Skater, Olympic athlete
1970 –
Who is Derek Parra?
Derek Parra is an American of Mexican Native American decent. inline skater and speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California, in 1988. Parra won two medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Parra's most successful season was from 2001 to 2002. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, he took the gold in the 1500 meters, an event in which he had been expected to do well but faced a deep pool of competition. Before that, he won the silver in the 5000 meters being bested by Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands. He has worked part-time in Home Depot's gardening department in West Valley, Utah. In his book, Reflections in the Ice, Parra recounts pursuing his dream of becoming an inline skater at 17, working at McDonald's in Tampa, Florida, and being so poor he had to eat out of the trash.
Parra was selected to take over as U.S. speed skating national all-around coach for the 2010 Olympics.
He appears in a Restore Our Future television ad endorsing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 U.S. presidential election and spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention.
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- Born
- Mar 15, 1970
San Bernardino - Also known as
- Парра, Дерек
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Education
- Eisenhower High School
- Lived in
- San Bernardino
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Derek Parra." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/derek_parra>.
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