Penfield native Kevin Penev is gearing up to represent his family’s home country of Bulgaria in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“Although I live and train here in America at my parents’ club facility, my roots and my heart have always been connected with Bulgaria,” Penev said.

As the only member of his family born in America, Penev grew up training at his family’s gym, Rochester Gymnastics Academy in East Rochester.

“From a young age, I was always on the trampoline and I was always flipping around, so I’ve developed like an air awareness — so I feel like my strengths come a lot from floor and vault, where it requires a lot of flipping and tumbling,” Penev said.

Traveling back and forth to compete at competitions in Bulgaria his whole life, Kevin says his ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics was punched at a tournament last year.

After being released by the U.S. to join Team Bulgaria, Kevin was free to compete for a spot on the team.

“I secured my Olympic quota at the world championship in Belgium. And this was a pivotal moment in my gymnastics career,” Penev said.

Penev’s mother, Youlia Coss, says this is what her son has been working for his whole life.

“This is huge. This is the biggest event in the world. So this is really, really big. We are so proud of him. This doesn’t happen everyday,” Coss said.

At his Olympic sendoff ceremony, Kevin’s friend and fellow gymnast Henry Zimmer says he knows he will make Bulgaria — and Rochester — proud.

“It’s a pretty big deal. Not everyday you get to meet an Olympian, and now it’s someone you have been practicing with so it’s pretty great,” Zimmer said.

And when asked what it would mean to win Olympic gold, Kevin says it would be a dream come true. But right now, it’s all about the competition.

“I’m going to go out there and give it my best performance and to inspire others. But if I were to get a medal. I can’t even explain what that would mean to me,” Penev said.

Kevin graduated from Penfield High School and has a brother Eddie who has been competitive in the sport — but Kevin is the first to qualify for the Olympic Games.

He leaves for Paris on July 11, and his first day of competing is July 27.

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