Reluctance has turned into Olympic-sized dreams.

Maryknoll senior Ryan Dolan hopes his success at kayaking will one day lead him to the Olympics. That is still years of hard work and training away, but that work ethic has already developed for someone who turned out for the sport last year just for fun.

After finishing in the top five in Interscholastic League of Honolulu races last year and after some urging from others, Dolan seriously trained during the offseason. He returned this season blowing away the competition and creating hope that one day, both him and older brother Patrick, 19, will kayak together in the Olympics.

Patrick, a Maryknoll graduate, is currently at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in California.

"He's developed physically and mentally, and focused on specific goals," said neighbor Stuart Gassner, who urged Ryan to kayak and someone that Ryan considers a mentor. "His technique is really good already and he's only 17. The last time I (kayaked) with him, there was not much I could say except pull harder. Normally people have a hard time with their shoulder or strokes."

There's a visit to the training center for Ryan later this month and time trials in April to qualify for the U.S. junior national team that will compete at the junior world championships. But before all that is Saturday's ILH championships, scheduled for 9 a.m. at Ke'ehi Lagoon.

"This year I put in a lot more time," said Ryan, who competes for Pac-Five in kayaking. "I didn't take it as seriously because I was so into one-man. I was closed to the idea of kayaking. My balance wasn't good. My technique isn't as good as it is this year, which still needs improvement."

While raw in the kayak, Pac-Five coach Butch Ukishima said Ryan's strength made a difference last season. This year, he's won all four league races he's competed in by considerable margins and is the only kayaker to clock in sub 9-minute times in the 2,000-meter events.

"His technique was rough but he had strength," Ukishima said. "That's the thing that put him to where he was close to the guys in the front."

A lot of his strength and knowledge of the water comes from time in it. His grandfather, Will Rich, introduced his brothers and sister to outrigger canoe paddling. Ryan, who wasn't interested in one-man paddling at first, eventually became hooked on it as Patrick started to excel at it.

Patrick, then a Maryknoll junior, teamed with Kai Bartlett to win the Starbucks Kaiwi Channel Relay World Championship in 2005, a 40.2-mile race from Moloka'i to O'ahu. They were second in 2006, 20 seconds behind the winners.

Ryan won April's O'ahu Championship in the eight-mile short course.

At the advice of Patrick, who was home from the training center after last year's ILH kayaking season, Ryan's views shifted on the sport.

"He was telling me one-man paddling would only get you so far," Ryan said. "It's not big enough yet. If you want to go somewhere and get competition, it's in Europe and it's so much bigger.

"You can always be big in the one-man, but you can always come back to it."

At the same time, Gassner, active in ocean sports and a longtime kayaker, urged him to get on the kayak more. Gassner said Ryan was reluctant at first.

"He kind of let me use one of his older skis and it was something new and fun," Ryan said. "He said to me, 'you can win it if you want.' "

Hours before school starts, Ryan is in the Ala Wai training with the Hawai'i Canoe and Kayak team, which has helped with balance and technique. In the afternoons, it's anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours of training, preferably in the ocean.

Ryan's mother, Ann, feels blessed.

"I can't put it into words," said Ann, who thinks Ryan wanted to follow a different path from Patrick at first. "To have the second one do the same route and do so well. I just feel like we were incredibly blessed."

This month's visit to the Olympic Training Center will offer a glimpse into the possible future.

"(Patrick's) told me it's hard, he works a lot and he really likes it," Ryan said. "He has nothing to say but good things about it.

"It's hard but it's also competitive because you're living with the athletes you're competing with. It's kind of an inspiring place to be because it's all Olympic athletes."

Once reluctant to try new things, perhaps to avoid following his brother's light, Ryan now wants something for them both.

"I hope that I can improve enough and get good enough to live up there (Olympic Training Center) with him and hopefully in the future Olympics do the K2 team with him and win the gold."

Reach Stanley Lee at sktlee@honoluluadvertiser.com.