18-year-old Kennedy-Leverett will join fellow National Junior Champion Taylor McCarthy-Smith as Australia's two selected rowers at the third edition of the YOG to be held in the Argentinian capital in two months-time.

Already the holder of the Junior Men's Double Scull gold medal which he won with Fergus Hamilton as the youngest crew in the final of the 2017 Junior World Championships, Kennedy-Leverett now has his sights set on the Junior World Single Scull crown which will be contended in the Czech Republic in August.

Interestingly, rowing wasn't the first choice for the recent Southport School graduate, who originally followed in the cycling foot-steps of his parents. 

Kennedy-Leverett said he was always bound to be involved in some type of elite sport, as it ran in his family but happened to fall into rowing when he was at high school.

"I've always wanted to pursue high-level sport due to both my parents having sports backgrounds," he said.

"They were both road cyclists, so it just made sense for me to get in and give every sport I could a crack.

"As for high-level rowing, I actually fell into that in grade seven when I started rowing at my school as cross training for cycling and from there things just continued".

Waking up at 4.30 am for the last five years, battling through "blood, sweat and blisters" and selling his ute to fund his dreams have all come part and parcel for the determined young athlete.

Kennedy-Leverett credits his mum, former athlete Ellie Kennedy, as being his inspiration and is determined to take home gold in her honour.

Ellie was a competitive triathlete, state runner and an elite cyclist who competed on Australian cycling teams for many years but had a serious cycling crash in 1998 which ruled her out of Sydney 2000 contention.