Chicago gymnast Kai Uemura pursuing Olympic dreams; 'his big dreams are realistic'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 16-year-old Chicago gymnast is trying to make his first world championship team, and that's far from his only goal.
CBS 2's Jackie Kostek caught up with the reigning junior national champion where he trains in Mount Prospect. For Kai Uemura, the Olympic dream is within reach.
"It's crazy. I never thought I would get this close," Uemura said.
Uemura acknowledged it's still a long road ahead, and yet, as the reigning junior national champion, he is undoubtedly on his way, chipping away one elite-level goal at a time.
"Currently, my goal is to make the junior World team. If I get selected, I really want to get top three as a country and top three as an all arounder," he said.
His long-term goal of making the Olympic team is not so far off either, with Paris 2024 on the horizon.
"There's no way that you can do serious sport if your long-term goal is not Olympics," said his coach, Arkadiy Andryushchenko. "You have to dream big. And his big dreams are realistic."
And while Uemura's longtime coach might not have predicted Uemura would be a realistic Olympic hopeful at 5 years old, it was obvious he was different.
"You can see it right away. You see in the eyes. The kid is listening. The kid wants to do it. You cannot fake it. It's a natural thing," Andryushchenko said.
Natural or not, chasing big dreams doesn't come without sacrifice. A junior at Francis W. Parker, Uemura trains about four hours a day, six days a week at Lakeshore Academy in Mount Prospect – a reflection not only of his love for the sport, but of his family's support of him.
"My parents, they're always really supportive. And my mom, especially, helps me drive back and forth from the gym and home. It's about an hour drive, usually, and she does it every day," Uemura said.
If and when Uemura does have that long-sought-after Olympic moment, it is his parents who he will be looking for in the crowd.
"They're the ones that I want to see there. I really want them to be able to see me at the top, and I really want to repay them for all the kindness that they've shown me, and all the sacrifices that they've made so that I can achieve my goals," he said.
Such joy though won't come without a dash of bittersweet.
"Unfortunately for me, this is this year and next year, and he goes to college," Andrushchenko said.
So it would be Uemura's college coaches taking him to the Olympics, not Andrushchenko.
"When you see someone on TV, seeing his dreams coming true, you about to cry. But when you know kid since five years old, and he has realistic chance to be at the top of sport on the planet, I mean, what you can feel? It's hard to describe. It's the most exciting emotions a human can have."
The Junior World Championships are scheduled to be held in Antalya, Turkey, in late March. No word on if the devastating earthquakes in that country could affect plans. Antalya is about 350 miles west of the epicenter.