A Western Pennsylvania native is close to making his Olympic debut at the winter games.

Daniel Barefoot picked up skeleton as a hobby in his mid-20s, after graduating from Penn State.

Ones to Watch: Daniel Barefoot

Now he’ll be competing with the very best on the biggest stage and his entire family will be in Italy to watch him compete.

Barefoot will go headfirst down the track in skeleton at the Milan Winter Games.

He will travel at about 85-miles-per hour.

His dad was okay with it, but mom - not so much.

“The speed is something you have to learn to like. Becky wasn’t so good with it; probably took her the better part of a year to fully understand it. But they’ve been tubing, runners, sledding since they were kids. Like she said, the more ramps, the more turns, the better I thought they were having fun at,” Barry Barefoot said.

Yes, the Barefoot family was “that” family in the Johnstown area.

They had the whole tubing track in their backyard, thanks to their dad, every time it snowed.

That’s in part how it all started.

“It’s been a long trip, a long endeavor for him; he’s persevered over a 10-year period,” Barry said.

But that’s not the whole story.

“He will tell you, the whole reason he got into this is because he was bored,” Barry said. “He will not sit still. I mean, even when he was a kid, he stayed busy, came up from school, and by 10 o’clock, he’s in bed.

His little sister, Erin, saw it all growing up and was by her big brother’s side the entire way.

“It’s wild. I can’t even explain it. It’s even when he told us he was doing something like this, I didn’t really imagine it would go this far. I thought it was just like a hobby. But truly, Daniel, when he does something, he goes all in, like his woods, like craftsmanship. He does it all. It doesn’t just make a dock. He makes a table. He makes, you know, he makes everything,” Erin said.

It doesn’t matter if it’s wood or snow, Dan will make something out of it.

“It can’t just be a normal snowman or whatever. That’s why they were out there and it can’t be normal. So we went all in, and we built a giant bear,” said Scptt McBride. “I mean, this thing was realistic, led by Dan, of course, but it was absolutely stunning.”

The whole family, including the youngest brother David, are in Italy right now.

For Erin and Scott, it’s where they had their recent honeymoon, but for the rest of the family, a first-time trip.

“There’s definitely a lot of pride there. There really is, I look at it though he’s still my kid, you know, I mean, I can still yell at him and, you know, just, you know, it’s, he’s an Olympian, but I look at him and it’s still, it’s still a son,” his mother Becky said. “I’m very proud. We’re very proud.”

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