This week I had the opportunity to meet Olympic speed skating star Derek Parra. We had the opportunity to meet him because our instructor is connected to USA speed skating.
During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he earned a gold and silver medal in long track speed skating. He now coaches both short and long track speed skaters and is also a motivational speaker.
It was really neat to hear his story of how he became involved in skating as a roller skater, and then transitioned to inline skating and later to ice skating in pursuit of an Olympic dream. He was very down to earth, nice and approachable.
