Lucas Kozeniesky: USA Shooting
My High School, Robinson Secondary School, had a rifle team. It was a varsity sport out there which was a unique situation because most of the country doesn't have a scholastic program. My actual High School had its own team, and I started that my freshman year of high school.
After high school, I got an opportunity to shoot for North Carolina State University. When I got to the program, I was able to grow and accelerate and eventually make it to the Olympic Trials. I didn't exactly plan to be here, I just kind of went with the flow, but on the other side of it, it wasn't surprising that I ended up here.
A pivotal moment in my career came at the Pan American Games. I won the Pan American Games while dealing with a kidney infection. I was in the hospital two days before my event. After I got out of the hospital the next morning, I was late showing up to the pre-event training because our bus had an issue. I then found out a lot of my equipment had been stolen and so I had to borrow equipment from other people.
I was having a hard time eating and keeping in fluid, so I had to just focus on what was important in the moment.That’s my mantra. My grandfather really instilled that upon me. It’s hard to quantify the impact he had on so many people’s lives.
“W.I.N. Stay here, focus on What’s Important Now. I am with you. Love, Grumpy. That’s the text I got from him hundreds of times throughout my career. The example he set and the impact he had through a simple idea, W.I.N, set me on a path for being a leader in my community and a competitive athlete. He will be missed by many, though the spirit will be carried to Tokyo and beyond.
Winning the Pan American Games was such a pivotal moment for me because I overcame all these things, but I was accepting of the situation I was in. The mind is a powerful thing. Learning to allow my mind to triumph over my body has been an important lesson throughout my career.
In 2019 I went out and I had the opportunity to go train with Matt Edmonds. He won three Olympic medals and dozens of World Cup medals. This dude beat cancer. His career was full of triumph, but he also had a lot of obstacles in his way. I went out there and I learned so many things about what I needed to do. He taught me how I needed to hold the gun and to really connect with my self image. He changed how I perceive things.
My goals as an athlete are of course to be successful at the Olympics, but that success at the Olympics is also really geared towards all the kids that work with, and helping them get to where they need to be. I want to be a good role model for them and to show them that anything is possible.
I run a business called Team winning Solutions. One of my teammates saw me working locally with a lot of kids on the weekends and said, ‘Hey you should make an LP. You could really do some cool stuff for these kids”. She really inspired me to start it.
I’ve discovered that I love connecting with these teenagers and helping them to figure out things and work on problem solving and just kind of help them to think differently about the sport. In the last three years, I've had 16 collegiate athletes. Most of them are going to tier schools, I've got three at NC State right now and three at Murray State.
I train significantly less than my competition because I spend a lot of my time consulting and working with the youth. My core values aren’t just focused around my own goals. They encompass helping other athletes accomplish their goals as well.
This year, my goal is to lead by example. I have the goal of winning an Olympic gold medal, but I also want to lead by example and hold myself accountable so that these kids who are following in my footsteps see what they need to do. I’m excited for the Olympics and I want to lead from the front. I want to go out there and represent the United States, the same way I did back in 2016.
