Olympic dreams

PARK CITY — Tavon Lee carefully inched to the edge of the freestyle aerial ramp at the Utah Olympic Park. She has never liked heights, but it wouldn't be the first time she had been out of her comfort zone that week.

Her first jump hurt. And one time she even fell going down the ramp. But this one would be one of her best. One . . . two . . . three . . . and push off. Halfway down her arms came up, and at the end up the ramp she hit air, landing with a backward twist into the water — her most difficult jump yet.

It may not have been Olympic-worthy, but it was a place to start — something Troy Billington, a skeleton racer who has represented the Virgin Islands in the World Cup and other international competitions, is giving about 80 students from both the Virgin Islands and Utah.

Tavon, along with five other Utah students, were the first Americans to participate in Billington's Building Bridges and Olympic development program.

This summer Building Bridges, along with Reach Schools, an outreach program for disadvantaged and minority students, partnered to introduce the Utah students from Davis and Salt Lake counties to Olympic sports.

The program originally started in the Virgin Islands after Billington decided he wanted to share his experiences with the youths in his country.

"I wanted to bring some of the kids from my island to the places I've been and show them the places I've seen," Billington said. "I've been to 46 countries . . . no point of keeping this all to myself." Also a boxer and rodeo competitor, Billington started out on the Virgin Islands bobsled team and later switched to luge and skeleton after the team disbanded.

He said that in the Virgin Islands there is a lot of athletic talent that often goes uncelebrated or undeveloped.

"Kids can't afford to go to college or didn't get a scholarship and for whatever reason that beautiful sports talent is gone and wasted — I am trying to give them a different path, an Olympic path," Billington said.

"I take these athletes with great potential and try and help them along the way," he said.

Some of the teens in the program are getting close. Billington has two students already qualified for World Cup competition while a handful of others are preparing for the Europa Cup.

But for the Utah students, it's still up in the air which, if any, event they may want to pursue. Recently Billington and the Utah teens spent a week at the Olympic Oval and the Olympic Park getting a taste of winter sports.

They had the help of other professionals in hockey, speedskating, bobsled, skeleton, ski jump and free-style ski jump.

Demetrius Lee, 14, who is Tavon's little brother, was most interested in the freestyle jumps and the ski jump.