Team USA named its opening ceremonies flag bearer today, and it’s a lifetime achievement award of sorts: nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick, making his sixth winter Olympic appearance, gets the nod. Lodwick, 37, is the first American to compete at six winter Olympics. As USA Today’s Kelly Whiteside points out, two members of the U.S. ski team — jumper Sarah Hendrickson and alpine racer Mikaela Shiffrin — weren’t born when Lodwick raced in his first Olympics, the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Before the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Lodwick gave TIME some insight into how he trains to ski jump (Nordic combined does indeed combine two events; jumping and cross-country skiing). The video, below, is worth checking out. Though regrettably, we forgot to ask him the question on everyone’s minds: did he hang out with Tonya and/or Nancy in Norway?