(Sports Network) - With just five months until the Vancouver Games, U.S. snowboarder Louie Vito is transitioning from tricks in the halfpipe to moves on the dance floor.

The 21-year-old Vito, a prospective Olympian from Bellefontaine, Ohio, will partner with Chelsie Hightower to appear on the network television show Dancing With The Stars.

Vito admitted he's actually never seen a full episode of Dancing With The Stars, but said he uses You Tube to watch clips of his favorite past performers such as Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Master P.

"Those guys I have a new respect for. I knew dancing was hard, but there's a lot of little things you don't think about," said Vito. "Lifting your head up to look tall is way harder than I thought that would ever be."

The show starts September 21 and runs until mid-November. If Vito somehow advances to the finals, he said the schedule won't conflict with his snowboard training.

"There's not really a halfpipe before the middle of November anyway," he said. "If I need to I can go back and forth (in training). I have to make it past the first week before I look down the line too far."

Vito grew up near Mad River Mountain, a ski and snowboard resort in Ohio. When he was 13, Vito said he enhanced his snowboarding by going to a school for the sport in Stratton, Vermont. That was for the winter only, but Vito switched to full-time there from ninth grade until graduating high school. Stratton Mountain School also produced Olympic snowboarders Lindsey Jacobellis and Ross Powers.

"It's pretty rare to hear about a snowboarder coming from Ohio because I learned on a 300-foot vertical hill, trash completely turned into hills," said Vito. "It's kind of cool, but it keeps you grounded and really thankful that you're doing a sport you didn't think you'd normally be able to do coming from Ohio."

Vito isn't even a lock to make the Olympic team, but he's already going to be a household name long before February when the Vancouver Games start. And despite his hair looking out of place for television, Vito said he won't change his look for the dancing show.

"I've got to stay true to myself," said Vito. "I'm not going to cut my hair because it's going to make my ballroom (presence) look better. I'm a snowboarder. I'm supposed to be a snowboarder. This is who I am and this is what I'm going to portray on TV."

Just over two years ago, Olympic short track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and his partner, Julianne Hough, won Dancing With The Stars.

"Who would have thought that Dancing With The Stars and a show about ballroom dancing and big-time celebrities, that they've had on would want a snowboarder," said Vito. "I think it's cool to see snowboarding is actually heading into the mainstream and getting the recognition I think it should be because it's such a fast growing sport."



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