Derek Parra (born March 15, 1970) is an American inline skater and speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School (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.[1] 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.[1][2]
Derek 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.
He had me in tears.