As you would expect, such a schedule leaves him with little downtime.
While his peers unwind after school, Kai is in perpetual motion, either training, studying or travelling to yet another tunnel overseas. Each tunnel feels different in size and airflow, so training abroad helps him adapt quickly to the conditions he will face in competitions.
Often, he whips out his laptop in the pockets of spare time he has between training sessions to finish school assignments.
He added candidly: “A lot of times, when people hear that I’m homeschooled, they say, ‘Oh, it must be so nice, you don’t have to take so many exams’ … but, like, I have less free time than you!”
When we met, he was fresh off a 14-hour flight, having been at a training camp in Italy, and though he spoke with an easy cheer, he looked bleary-eyed at times from jet lag.
“I’m a teenager and that itself is quite challenging. Juggling school and training is definitely not one of the easiest things. There’s always a lot of stress and angst,” he admitted.
“And sometimes, you’re not sure if you want to continue or just be a normal kid.”
For Kai, that might mean having more time for the things he enjoys outside the wind tunnel, including taekwondo, wushu or music. The pull of flying, though, has always outweighed the rest.
When it comes to competitions, he felt the heat most keenly in the cool climate of northern Slovakia two years ago while vying for gold in the junior category of the 2023 World Cup, where he ultimately placed second, behind his Hungarian counterpart Mate Feith.
“I lost out and I was really upset. I was considering what I should do next,” he said.
It was the kind of moment that makes or breaks an athlete. For Kai, however, the loss eventually became fuel and he plunged himself back into training with the support of his family and teammates.
A year later, he would stand on the podium as champion at the 2024 World Cup of Indoor Skydiving.
