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K. C. Boutiette

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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 gain a berth 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. Three of those who did, Derek Parra, Jennifer Rodriguez (now Boutiette's wife), and Joey Cheek, won five medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Another former inline skater, Chad Hedrick won two medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino after switching to ice skating in 2003. Boutiette skated in the team pursuit after Shani Davis declined to participate in the event, but he fell behind the rest of the team in the race and the United States finished sixth. He also skated in the 500 metre race at the 2006 Games, finishing in 19th place.

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