There are six days to go until the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and there is one American athlete for whom the number six is very special this year. Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick is hoping he will be healthy enough to become the first U.S. athlete to compete in six Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Lodwick won the Olympic Trials Dec. 28 but he dislocated his left shoulder after a crash in France in January.

Lodwick is expected to compete in the 4x5-kilometer team event on Feb. 20 but was unsure if he would compete in the individual events Feb. 12 and Feb. 18. The 37-year-old father of two will do everything in his power to be ready for competition in these, his sixth Olympic Winter Games. 

“To say I am going to my sixth Olympic Games is daunting and humbling,” Lodwick told TeamUSA.org after he was nominated to the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team at the Olympic Trials held in Park City, Utah. “I haven’t been this nervous at a race in a long time, and it’s probably what’s been missing on the world cup tour.”

Amy Rosewater is a freelance writer and editor for TeamUSA.org. A former sports reporter for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, she has covered two Olympic Games and two Olympic Winter Games. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today.