He enjoyed the finest moments of his illustrious speedskating career at the Utah Olympic Oval, winning gold and silver medals at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics to highlight an historic journey to athletic excellence.

Now, Derek Parra is hoping to rejuvenate U.S. Speedskating another way.

The 39-year-old Parra has been named the organization's head allround coach, replacing Bart Veldkamp -- the four-time Olympian from the Netherlands who unexpectedly resigned for undisclosed reasons earlier this month, forcing the federation to seek yet another new coach with just 10 months until the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

"I'm just excited about starting this," Parra said, "and hope I can get someone to the place where I was once, on top of the podium."

The two-time Olympian takes over a program stunted by turbulence since the 2006 Turin Olympics, becoming its fourth allround coach since then and facing the sense in some quarters that it hasn't been working well enough for some of its athletes. Its top two medal contenders for the Vancouver Games -- world champions Shani Davis and young Trevor Marsicano -- do most of their training on their own, away from the national-team program in Utah.

"Maybe you're not doing the right thing if people are going away from the program and getting better," Parra acknowledged, though he also said he understands that the national-team coach is not always the best coach for every skater.

The relatively quick hiring of Parra, who had been named interim coach when Veldkamp resigned, at least will avoid forcing the athletes to spend most of the offseason waiting for a new coach to be hired, something that has happened twice since the Turin Olympics and left skaters adrift at a time when they should be focused on preparing for the next season.

"It's imperative we have a program in place yesterday," Parra said. "We can't wait. ... This is where you make your season. You race in the winter, but you make your season in the summer."

Parra had tried to get the job before Veldkamp landed it not quite two years ago, but wound up instead running the new "Wheels on Ice" program designed to help former inline skaters like himself transition into speedskating. That program has begun to yield some promising prospects, and Parra will stay involved in it, even though he plans to hire a new director with whom he will work closely.

"With his Olympic successes and his inline background, we are very confident that Derek will lead the allround program to the highest level," said Guy Thibault, the federation's high-performance director. "He has proven to be an excellent coach with the 'WhIP' program and will get the opportunity to continue his work with a team that counts many inliners in its rank."

Indeed, Parra is excited about his new challenge, and hopes his good relationships with the skaters -- he competed alongside some of the veterans, such as Chad Hedrick and Catherine Raney -- will help build confidence and raise morale.

"I know I'm going to be under a microscope, because success is the only measure of success," he said. "But it's a good feeling. A few years ago, I believed I had what it took to bring people to a higher level."