One of my favorite parts about interviewing athletes is learning about their lives beyond their chosen sport. Over a decade, I've met a rower who's a trained chef, a cyclist who plays the trombone, and a skier who likes to take apart tractors.

But few - except the rower/chef - can make a living from pursuing their pastimes. Unless they are as talented as Lowell Bailey. The 27-year-old biathlete from Lake Placid, New York, plays mandolin and guitar professionally when he's at home, and he takes his guitar with him wherever he travels.

Lowell grew up in a musical household. His father, George Bailey, worked as a professional musician at one point in his life. Now a school teacher, George heads up The George Bailey Trio.

"Growing up in the Bailey household, it didn't come as a big surprise that I eventually picked up one of the multiple instruments lying around and learned how to play," Lowell writes on his website.

He has been playing guitar since he was 7 and mandolin since he was 10, and he's a member of his dad's band, The George Bailey Trio. The band released an album in 2003, "Gravity Dance," under its own label and with original songs written by all three members, including Lowell.

On his MySpace page, Lowell says he's influenced by musicians such as Bela Fleck, Doc Watson, Steely Dan, and Bonnie Raitt, among others.

This past summer, Lowell played with a couple of local acoustic bands including a bluegrass band, Stacked Deck, at the Otis Mountain Music Festival in Elizabethtown, New York, in mid-August. The festival is a benefit event that attracts highly acclaimed musicians and bands, like The Green Cards, who toured with Lyle Lovett and Bob Dylan.

So is Lowell destined to become a full-time musician when he retires from biathlon? "Music is definitely a big part of my life, and I know it will continue to be in some capacity," he says. "But I can't tell you whether I'm going to be a musician or a this or a that. I don't really know right now."

To listen to some of Lowell's music, go to his MySpace page or his page on Reverb Nation.

Peggy Shinn is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This blog was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.