WASHINGTON — Gold medalist speedskater Derek Parra stepped back with other Olympians to let President Bush pass Tuesday as he walked out of the White House to greet them on the South Lawn. Then Bush gave him a surprise.
"He looked at me and said, 'Hey, Derek. How're you doing?' " said Parra, who doesn't see such celebrity attention at the West Valley Home Depot where he has worked while training at the nearby Olympic Oval in Kearns. "It's so nice he remembered my name. I mean, the president actually knows my name."
Bush told athletes (and Utahns, too) that all of America remembers them and thanks them for their showing in Salt Lake City. And athletes, led by Utahn skeleton gold medalist Tristan Gale, thanked him in return for his support.
Gale, a Brighton High School alumna chosen to speak for the 350 Olympic and Paralympic athletes gathered, thanked Bush for attending the Olympic opening ceremonies and for spending time with them.
"It really gave us the extra oomph we needed to bring home as many medals as we did," Gale said, as she and Paralympic sled hockey goalie Manuel Guerra Jr. gave Bush a team jacket.
Bush, remembering what happened when he sat with athletes in Salt Lake City, joked, "Before I get started, I was wondering if anybody had their cell phone so I could speak to their mother" — which he had done for 17-year-old figure skater Sasha Cohen in Utah.
"In February, you showed the entire world the best of the American spirit. You competed with honor, you won with humility and you made America proud. On behalf of all Americans, I congratulate you and thank you for inspiring our country," Bush said.
Pointing to Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney, Bush added, "Mitt, you did a fabulous job." He also noted that athletes owed much of their success to the "30,000 volunteers who helped make the Salt Lake Games possible."
Bush said the athletes also lifted America and the world when it was needed during the aftermath of Sept. 11. "It was an important time for America, and you didn't let us down."
Bush also challenged athletes to be role models now. "You're now more than athletes, you're role models — role models to children who dream of winning a gold medal . . . to young people who need someone to look up to, someone to set a positive example for how they should live their lives."
Several athletes vowed to live up to that charge after the ceremony.
Figure skating gold medalist Sarah Hughes, 16, said, "The thing I would like to share is for people, teenagers, to never forget how important they are because I never thought I would be in this position right now. I was really the only person who believed I could get here."
Short-track speedskating gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno said he wants to teach others lessons that his father taught him: "To push myself. And whatever I do in my life, I do 110 percent. I'm pretty much taking the same message to schools. I give 110 percent and walk away happy. Life is short."
Athletes also said the White House visit allowed them to truly soak in, maybe for the first time, what happened in Salt Lake City.
Hughes said, "We got to relive a lot of the highlights of the Olympics. It was nice because for so many of us, life has quickened its pace and moved so quickly it was nice to reflect on all the great moments and what a great time we had."
Parra said, "To come here as an Olympic champion and with the Olympic team, after what happened in Salt Lake in February, it just adds to the dreamlike life I've been living the last few months."
Romney, watching and enjoying the scene, said, "Who would have guessed that hosting an Olympic Games, which are after all but a sporting event, could have such a wonderful healing effect on the nation?"
Romney added — as lines of Olympians asked to have their pictures taken with him — "I have heard nothing but the most positive and glowing reports from the athletes about Salt Lake's hosting of the Games, from the facilities to the volunteers."
As Bush told the athletes, "You've all proven that you're up to the challenge. I want to thank you for representing the highest ideals of our nation and for making America so proud."
E-mail: lee@desnews.com