For Parra, the Games changed everything

KEARNS — The Salt Lake Olympics of 2002 had an impact on and changed the lives of many people, but none any more than Derek Parra.

He came, he conquered, he stayed around, he conquered some more.

At 41, he's retired from competitive speedskating, but Parra is busier these days than that guy whose house he used to live in.

Well, maybe not busier than Mitt Romney — but just as busy.

If he's not wearing his hat as outreach youth programs director for the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, he's wearing his hat as speedskating coordinator and supervisor at the Olympic Oval in Kearns. And if he's not wearing either of those hats, he's helping steer athletes toward the next level as the local director for the Community Olympic Development Program.

All this because of a couple of weeks in 2002 when he became the unlikely face of the Salt Lake Games — a 5-foot-4, 140-pound Mexican-American speedskater from San Bernardino, Calif., who had spent the first half of his life never setting a foot on ice.

Diversity was the name of those Games. Speedskater Jennifer Rodriguez was the first Cuban-American ever to medal in a Winter Olympics. Bobsledder Vonetta Flowers was the first African-American to win a gold medal. Bobsledders Randy Jones and Garrett Hines, who collected silver, were the first African-American men to medal and figure skater Naomi Lang was the first Native American to compete in a Winter Olympics.

And then there was Parra, who got the diversity theme going on the first full day of competition, Feb. 9, 2002, when he shaved a full 15 seconds off his personal best at 5,000 meters to set a world record that lasted all of about 18 minutes before Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands lowered the world record yet again and changed the color of Parra's medal to silver.

Ten days later, just the opposite happened. In the 1,500-meter final on Feb. 19, Uytdehaage skated first in world record time only to have Parra come along moments later, set a world record of his own, knock the Dutchman from gold to silver, and become history's first Mexican-American gold medalist.

The transition to fame was fast and furious. Just weeks before, Parra had been paying the bills by working at Home Depot as part of that company's program to help aspiring Olympians.