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CNN Live Today
Talk With Olympic Gold Medalist Derek Parra
Aired June 20, 2002 - 10:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Summer time is just around the corner, and in fact, summer time starts tomorrow. For those of you who are planning on sitting around being a couch potato, that's not a good idea. Get out there and get in shape.
We're paging our Dr.Gupta this morning on health and fitness today and he is talking about that at the White House.
Good morning, Sanjay.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Yes, absolutely. We're on the South Lawn. I'll tell you, the South Lawn like you've never seen before, batting cages, pitching cages, people playing football, soccer, rock climbing. I'm here with Derek Parra, a very recognizable face, very recognizable name, Olympic athlete.
Congratulations.
DEREK PARRA, OLYMPIC SPEEDSKATER: Thank you.
GUPTA: And also congratulations for being a new member of the President's Council on Fitness and Sports.
PARRA: It's a great honor.
GUPTA: What are some of the plans of the council? The messages are old, eat right and exercise, we all know that. What are some of the plans for the council?
PARRA: To try and get the -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) initiatives out there, and get to the people. For me, it's Hispanic Americans, trying to get to my culture and to know how important exercise is, and maybe changing their lifestyle, and it's always talked about eating right, having exercise in your daily life. But the lifestyle more important, I think, with Hispanic Americans, Latino-Americans,
GUPTA: And I should point out, you're actually the first Hispanic American to ever win a medal at the Olympics, so you're a real role model for a lot of the communities around America.
PARRA: I think so. I'm honored to be that. You know, I think it's a great responsibility, and I'm willing to take it on. I've seen a lot of things that go on with our society. If I can get Latinos out there and have them exercise more and pay more attention to their health and live longer lives and be productive.
GUPTA: Derek, it's interesting, you know, 60 percent of the country is overweight. We keep hearing 30 percent almost obese. Where is the disconnect? We know what to do. We know to exercise. We know to eat right. We've been hearing about that since grade school. Where is the disconnect? Why isn't it happening?
PARRA: I'm not really sure. We are going to find that out. I think lifestyle is a big point we have to really look at. Most people get together for a dinner, and most family have dinner night. What if it's an exercise night? You know, everybody get on a bike and goes on a ride, everybody gets there shoes on and goes on a run. That would be a little bit more productive, I think, as far as keeping a healthy lifestyle. I mean, that's one of our initiatives, to try to get out there and reach people. So I hope we can do that and change things.
GUPTA: Speaking lifestyle, you've had a busy lifestyle since the Olympics. Tell us about that, and tell us how you keep fit doing that.
PARRA: Ever since the Games, I've been on a plane speaking to kids, speaking to companies, doing whatever I can, working with different causes, cancer, children's diabetes, children's arthritis. But being in a hotel room, it's hard to keep in shape. So whenever I can, I go on run before my day starts. At night, I do some sit-ups, do some dry skating, some one-legged squats on a hotel coffee table, whatever I can do to stay in shape, because for me, it's so much a part of my life.
When I get up in the morning and get active, I feel so much better in the day, it gets me motivated. I feel so much more productive in my day. Otherwise, I feel kind of lethargic and a little lazy.
GUPTA: You're an inspiration, you really are, because talking to you, you started ice skating when you were 26 years old. You are 32 now. So six years later, you won a gold and a silver medal. Tell us about the message it sends to people thinking about exercising, thinking about getting in shape.
PARRA: I think it's just belief in yourself. I believed that I could do it. I really had a passion for skating. I loved what I did. I enjoyed exercising. I think if people find exercising enjoying, they will keep doing it more and more. For me, it was skating. And I believe I didn't set any limits on myself, and I set a program. People said set steps to try to be better a person and be in better health, they can do that. Get a calendar, write down what you want to do, exercises you want to do during the week, plan it between your schedule, and things can happen. I did that for skating, and this is what happened.
GUPTA: Right, another thing that sort of strikes me. You're an Olympic athlete. You're a world record holder. You're certainly at one extreme. And there's this whole emphasis in this country on body image and things like that. The other extreme thing is what we're seeing in America now, 60 percent of the country being overweight. Why aren't people more in the middle here? You've got extreme here, extreme there. Why aren't people sort of just healthy?
PARRA: I think you said the right word, healthy. I think that's the biggest concern. Being on a cover page of a magazine doesn't mean you're healthy. Obese doesn't mean your healthy. I think you have to be in the middle there. Enjoy your life, enjoy who you are and be healthy, and that comes with exercise, and eating right and nutrition.
GUPTA: Speaking of being -- Let's see that gold medal there for a second. Speaking of being healthy, Leon, all you need to do is curl a few of these. This thing is heavy. I tell you what...
That's right, do squats with it.
Derek Parra here at the White House. The focus was definitely health and fitness today.
HARRIS: All right, make sure you give that medal back, Sanjay.
GUPTA: I already did. He grabbed it back from me.
HARRIS: Make sure you give him congratulations. He's a role model not only in the Hispanic community. You can tell him that from me, all right.
GUPTA: Thanks.
HARRIS: Thanks much. We'll get back to you later on.
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