KC Boutiette

KC Boutiette (born April 11, 1970) is an American speed skater from Tacoma, Washington and four-time Olympian.

He was first of the wave of inline speed skaters who made the transition from inline to ice in order to have a shot at going to the Olympics.

Among American speed skaters, Boutiette's story is half legendary. In 1993, he showed up at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, looking to improve his technique on inline skates but ended up earning a spot on the team that would be sent to the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Although he had been a champion inline speed skater for years, Boutiette at that time had no ice speed skating experience at all. Nevertheless, within a few months he made the team.

Although Boutiette has never won an Olympic medal, he demonstrated to other American inline speed skaters that the opportunity was there if they would give it a shot. Following in his footsteps were, Apolo Ohno, Derek Parra, Jennifer Rodriguez (now Boutiette's wife), and Joey Cheek, won seven medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. After 2002 he went out and hand picked another former inline skater, Chad Hedrick who went on to win three medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy after switching to ice skating in 2003. Now almost half of the Olympic Team were inline skaters of which he paved the way for. Boutiette skated in the team pursuit in the 2006 Olympics. For the years leading up to the Olympics he has been known as the captain of the pursuit team with race tactics and strategy. With confusion towards the end of the race, he fell behind the rest of the team where the United States finished sixth. In one interview KC mentions that he wasn't disappointed about not getting a medal but disappointed in the team not working together because of some selfish skaters only looking out for themselves. He also skated in the 5000 meter race at the 2006 Games, finishing in 19th place. In the Netherlands he participated as a marathon speed skater for several years and in this period he won the Six Days of the Greenery twice in 2003 and 2004. He wore the brussels sprout suit for ten days in between 2003 and 2005, the second in ranking after Cédric Michaud. [ [http://www.schaatspeloton.nl/statistiek/spruitjespak.html Spruitjespak] , schaatspeloton.nl] In total he won 23 speed skating marathons on artificial tracks. [ [http://www.schaatspeloton.nl/statistiek/overwinningen.html Overwinningen] , schaatspeloton.nl] He also was the leader in the Essent Cup for two days, wearing the orange suit. [ [http://www.schaatspeloton.nl/statistiek/oranje.html Oranje leiderstrui] , schaatspeloton.nl]

External links

* [http://www.usolympicteam.com/26_43313.htm K.C. Boutiette's U.S. Olympic Team bio]
* [http://www.fotos.desg.de/athletes.php?showAthletes=all&id=268 Photos of KC Boutiette]
* [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13849807.htm Unhappy day for speed skater KC Boutiette] San Jose Mercury News, February 11, 2006.

References

* [http://www.usspeedskating.org/ussathletes/Boutiette.html US Speedskating profile]