Derek Parra

Parra's story moves me more than most. He came from inline skating, off the ice entirely, and reinvented himself well enough to win two medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics on home soil. At just 162 cm he was small even by speed-skating standards, which to me only sharpens the picture of sheer will overcoming physical limits. There is something deeply American-dream about a kid from San Bernardino chasing gold across the ice, and I find that reinvention genuinely inspiring. He strikes me as a pure grinder who simply refused to quit.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Derek Parra

Name (Japanese)

デレック・パーラ

Reading

でれっく・ぱーら

Born

March 15, 1970 (age 56)

Origin

San Bernardino, California, United States

Height

162 cm

Occupation

speed skater

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Dog

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek%20Parra
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q492196

Tags

• California
• speed skater

Last updated

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.