We might have a future Olympic star right here in Knoxville.
16-year-old Cole Kozlowski has spent the last two years training as a freestyle aerial skier at the US Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York. He hopes to make the 2022 Winter Olympic team in Beijing.
We sat down with his family, who say the time apart is hard, but it's worth it for the chance to represent team USA.
"He was actually a gymnast here in Knoxville," says Cole's mother, Jami Kozlowski.
She said US national team coaches seek out gymnasts as potential freestyle skiers.
"My cousin Alec did aerials, and he won nationals one year," Cole said. "A recruiter found my mom and asked if I wanted to try skiing."
Ski coaches flew Cole and his brother, Chase, to Park City, Utah, and taught the brothers to ski.
"The first day they had them on the bunny hill," Jami recalled.
"I was terrible," Cole said. "I couldn't even, like, walk up a flat hill."
"Day 2 they had him on green slopes," Jami said. "Day 3 they had him on what? The blue?"
"Blue then day 4, double black," Chase added.
Based on his ability as a skier, Cole was invited to try out for the Elite Aerial Development Program.
"I picked that up fairly fast," Cole said. "It was a lot of fun. It was something I was not used to at all."
Cole trains in Lake Placid year-round. During his first season, the Kozlowskis say they only saw him twice.
Now, Cole trains three weeks a month during the summer, but the family hardly see him during competition season.
They're going up to see him compete this weekend, and are ready for the reunion.
"Are you ready to see me?" Jami asked Cole during a video chat Wednesday afternoon.
"Yeah, I'm ready to see all of you," Cole replied.
"You know, the time apart, it's so bittersweet," Jami said. "But it's for the country, it's for the United Sates, it's for him as an athlete and everyone else."
Jami said she's proud to see her son represent team USA.
"It's just, you can't put it into words. You really can't," she said.