ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Pittsford native Jon Lillis is heading to his first Olympic Games for aerial skiing, and he's competing for his brother, Mikey, who died in October.

A month ago, he was named to the US Olympic team. Over the last seven years, he's had 15 top-three finishes, or podiums, at World Cup events. His younger brother Chris is also an accomplished aerialist; winning a World Cup when he was 17, the youngest to do so. Both of these skiers came out of the Bristol Mountain program.

"It’s all about the love of the sport and the camaraderie amongst all the athletes that we had in that program that made it so successful," Jon said. "That was really important to all of us and it made us work just a little bit harder and do that extra training, stay later on the weekend, try to get the extra sessions in, in the middle of the week after school, that made us work just that much harder for sure."

Last march, Jon won the World Championship with a difficult trick called "The Daddy" — a double-twist at the end makes this a tough trick that almost guarantees a podium finish, if he can land it cleanly, that is.

"The more training you get, the more time you can spend getting ready to do the big tricks at the big events; that’s what gets you ready for the big landings and the big podium finishes is having that big performance ready to rock and roll whenever you need it,” Jon said

Jon will be competing after losing his youngest brother, 17-year-old Mikey, who died in his sleep in October.

"Each one reacted differently. Jon, really, it became a mission to do it for his brother," said their father, Bernie. "Chris spent a lot of time just wondering, what's going on and why that happened?"

"I think the worst thing that we could have done to honor him would have been to spend more time at home," Jon said. "I think he would have really wanted us to be back on the hill and training and trying as hard as we could to be accomplishing not only my personal dream, my brother’s personal dream, but Mikey’s dream as well. To not only go to the Olympics, but to watch his brothers in the Olympics, so, I think that became a very big emotional tool for us.”

Two months later, Chris tore his ACL while warming up for an event in China, leaving Jon to be the only Lillis competing in Pyeongchang. Jon responded strong, almost nailing a perfect score in Deer Valley last month.

"With these last few qualifiers and the way I’ve been jumping the last few weeks, it really has been pushing in that general direction, of moving towards having the best result at the Olympic Games," Jon said. "It would be the thing that kind of pulls you up after a tough year like we’ve had, would be that performance and that Olympic experience and wearing the flag, kind of culminating that dream is something at would mean a lot to the family, to kind of raise spirits and do it the way we’ve always planned.”

During the Olympics, Jon will wear a custom-made pendant with his brother's ashes.