Olympic hopeful opens training facility in hometown

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — About eight years ago, Kyle Brown was sitting in a classroom at Springfield College and pondering how to approach his latest assignment: design your own training facility.

That project turned into a passion for the Concord High graduate.

"That's really where it started," said Brown, who recently brought the assignment to life by opening Kyle Brown Performance on Manchester Street in Concord.

Brown, 29, who represented the United States in the men's skeleton World Cup last winter and hopes to make the Olympic team for the 2022 Beijing Games, nearly walked away from the sport last year. He eventually decided to keep pursuing his dream to become an Olympic athlete, but returning to competition wasn't the only plan he hatched.

"I started putting this concept into motion back then. I was constantly looking for spaces and trying to figure out financially how that was going to happen," Brown said. "I wouldn't have done that if I didn't take a step away from skeleton for a second and reassess where I'm at. Once I went back to skeleton, I had a lot of time to plan this even further."

Brown found a "silent investor" to catapult his vision of KB Performance into a reality.

While seeking a facility, the longtime site of the Parable Bible Bookstore became available and with a little imagination, the space was a perfect fit.

"Full circle to Springfield, I got to design this," Brown said. "I got to take the blueprints of this space and design with my methodology and my philosophy for training and how I can incorporate that into this space. I'm so pumped. I'm so proud of the way it came out."

Of course, he couldn't do it alone.

The investor

Brown is an elite athlete who has dedicated countless hours to the sport of skeleton over the years. However, his effort...