Racers crouch in the starting gates.

Kerr is ranked 31st in the world in the FIS standings, and proved his chops at Sugar Bowl with a fifth-place finish on February 2 and taking the top spot on the podium on February 3 in the two FIS Nor-Am Cup races. The 23 year old, whose father was Jamaican, is the one and only athlete on the Jamaican Ski Team.

“What [going to Vancouver] means to me is a chance to be part of something so much bigger than yourself,” Kerr says. “The World Cup, the X Games, that’s all about me, what can I do. The Olympics is so much bigger.”