She started snowboarding when she was four years old.
“We bought her a snowboard for Christmas,” Jennifer Adams, Kaitlyn’s mom, said. “We just took her out in the front yard and started to see what she did. And she wanted to keep going.”
Kaitlyn is known by the nickname “Koko” on the slopes. She tries to practice at least twice a week at Mad River Mountain in Logan County, she said. She also trains with CrossFit workouts and weight-lifting.
“It’s really fun,” Kaitlyn said.
She won the 2015 national championship title in the slope style and rail jam competitions. She has also earned three national championships in wakeboarding.
But she dreams of accomplishing more.
“I wanna be a gold medalist in the Olympics when I get older,” she said.
The first chance she would have to compete in the Olympics would be in 2022 when she’s 16 years old.
“We travel every weekend to try to, you know, keep her going,” Jennifer Adams said.
But the travel across the country is worth it, she said.
“She loves it. She’ll go out from morning to night and not even want to stop to eat,” she said. “You can tell that she’s happy and she’s at home on the mountain.”
It’s hard to be like other children with a training schedule like Kaitlyn’s.
“A lot of my friends ask me to come over, and I’m like ‘I can’t, I have stuff to do,’ ” Kaitlyn said.
But she’s made bonds with other children who can relate.
“She meets a lot of friends across the country to be able to keep in contact with them and compete,” Jennifer Adams said.
The family has considered moving to a different state to follow Kaitlyn’s Olympic dreams.
“We’ve discussed it,” Jennifer said. “We’re actually looking for work out in the Colorado, Utah area.”
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