Kevin Littlefield is in it for the rush.

As far back as he can recall, the 17-year-old Auburn resident and Kent School District online student has craved speed, danger and pushing himself to the limit.

“I’ve always been into the more extreme sports, like skateboarding and biking, so it was pretty natural for me to get on a mountain bike,” he said.

Despite having taken up the sport of downhill mountain biking just three years ago, Littlefield already finds himself at the pinnacle of the sport internationally.

In July he rode his way to a fifth-place finish at the USA Cycling National Championships in Beech Mountain, N.C., earning a spot on Team USA and a berth at the 2012 Union Cycliste Internationale Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships, which begin Aug. 29 in Leogang, Austria.

“I’m super honored, it’s been one of my dreams to go to the World Championships,” he said.

Littlefield got his start on a mountain bike at age 11.

“I always rode dirt bikes, and when I was about 11 I got into mountain bikes and at 14 started racing,” he said. “A friend of mine had a mountain bike and I hung out with him and started riding. Then I got one of for Christmas.”

It wasn’t long before he discovered he had a knack for speeding down rocky trails on two wheels, in excess of 40 miles per hour.

“It’s pretty much exactly like downhill skiing,” Littlefield said. “You start in a box, and once you break the barrier the time starts. And there is a laser at the end of the course. When you cross it, the time stops. It’s straight against the clock, you’re by yourself and it’s all downhill.”

After his sophomore year at Auburn High School, he enrolled in the Kent School District’s online school to free up time to concentrate on his biking career.

The move paid off immediately, he said.

“I moved up to the junior category and I started doing better, started training and taking it serious,” he said. “Now I work out twice a week in Issaquah and ride every day. That’s pretty much my training regimen. I ride anywherethere are trails, and it’s downhill.”

Soon his skill on the bike caught the attention of Seattle bike builders Evil Bikes and Big Tree Bikes. Today they sponsor Littlefield, helping defray the cost of everything from his bike and components to his riding gear.

“If you were to go out there and build my bike with everything at retail, it would be about $7,000,” Littlefield said. “It definitely isn’t cheap.”

Although he hasn’t had to pay for the hardware he needs to race for a couple years, Littlefield admits that he’s had to pay in injuries, all part of the sport.

“I’ve had three concussions, broken my leg twice, blown out shoulders and had many cuts,” Littlefield said. “One time I came in and my front wheel hit a rock and washed out. I hit my head and got a concussion and then flipped over, and as I was rolling over, planted my foot. It over-rotated and popped the end off the fibula. That was the worst one.”

But, he insists, it’s all part of the sport.

“It’s inevitable you’re going to crash,” he said. “You just look past it and keep looking forward.”

And looking forward, Littlefield said, he hopes his moment on the big stage at the World Championships garners him some attention, and hopefully some more sponsors.

“I’d love to be a world champ, that would be awesome,” he said. “I just want to raise the bar and just go faster. I’m still doing yard work (to raise money for racing), so hopefully next year I’ll be able to get funded to go to more World Cups and have a whole season. Maybe the National team next year and more racing in Europe.”

Regardless of how he does competing, Littlefield said it’s really just about enjoying the rush and feeding his need for speed.

“I just love racing and love riding,” he said. “Just getting better and progressing is what I like. Going out to a new trail that you’ve ridden a lot and finding new lines is kind of what gets me. I’m going to take this as far as I can, and if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be. I don’t want to fail because I didn’t try hard enough or didn’t train hard enough or put enough into it. I want it to be that I couldn’t have done any better.”