KC Boutiette (born April 11, 1970) is an American

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marath ...

from

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, and a four-time Olympian. He was first of the wave of

inline speed skaters Inline or In Line may refer to: * Inline citation (here meaning "within a line of text") * Inline or Straight engine * Inline hockey * Inline skating * ''In Line'' (album), a 1983 album by Bill Frisell * ''In Line'' (film), a 2017 Nigerian drama ...

, and made the transition from inline to ice, in order to have a shot at going to the Olympics.

Biography

In 1993, he showed up at the

Pettit National Ice Center The Pettit National Ice Center is an indoor ice skating facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, featuring two international-size ice rinks and a 400-meter speed skating oval. Located adjacent to Wisconsin State Fair Park, the center opened on January 1 ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, Wisconsin, looking to improve his technique on inline skates. However, he ended up earning a spot on the team that would be sent to the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munici ...

, 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 Apolo Anton Ohno (; born May 22, 1982) is an American retired short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics. Ohno was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fa ...

Derek Parra Derek Parra (born March 15, 1970) is an American inline skater and speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California, in 1988. Parra won two medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in ...

Jennifer Rodriguez Jennifer Rodriguez (born June 8, 1976) is a Cuban-American speed skater. She started her career as an artistic roller skater, winning multiple national championships and placing second and third at world championships. Later she switched to in ...

(Boutiette's ex-wife), and

Joey Cheek William Joseph Cheek (born June 22, 1979) is an American former speed skater and inline speed skater. He specialized in the short and middle distances and won Olympic gold in 2006. he is the Executive Vice President of Entrepreneurship for the ...

, who won seven medals at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, Utah. After 2002 he went out and hand-picked another former inline skater,

Chad Hedrick Chad Hedrick (born April 17, 1977) is an American inline speed skater and ice speed skater. He was born in Spring, Texas. Hedrick revolutionized the inline speed skating world with his unique technique, called the double push, or DP. During hi ...

, who went on to win three medals at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy, after switching to ice skating in 2003. Now almost half of the Olympic team were inline skaters for whom he paved the way. Boutiette skated in the team pursuit in the 2006 Olympics. In the Netherlands, Boutiette participated as a

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

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 Cédric Michaud (born 26 February 1976, in Machecoul) is a French marathon speed skater. He was the first non-Dutchman after Oleg Bozhev to win the Essent Cup in 2002–03, while he won the cup another time in 2005–06. In that year he also ...

. In total he won 23 speed skating marathons on

artificial track Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotati ...

s. He also was the leader in the

Essent Cup Essent N.V. is a Dutch energy company based in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. It is a subsidiary of E.ON. It is a public limited liability corporation. Essent is the largest energy company in the country. Belgium is their second home market. Ess ...

for two days, wearing the orange suit.Oranje leiderstrui
schaatspeloton.nl

Children

K.C. Has three children, one by the name of Braam, one by the name of Brooke, and one by the name of Boone.

Records

World records

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

Personal records

References

US Speedskating profile

External links

*
KC Boutiette at SpeedSkatingStats.com
*

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boutiette, Kc 1970 births Living people American male speed skaters Speed skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1998 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic speed skaters for the United States World record setters in speed skating Sportspeople from Tacoma, Washington 21st-century American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen