The Sochi Winter Olympics is fast approaching. New 12 Long Island caught up with two Long Islanders heading to the games.

John Daly, of Smithtown, is a skeleton racer, a competition in which he is in a sled that can go up to 90 mph. Daly first signed up for luge, but when he went to Lake Placid he says he made the decision to switch to skeleton. He says that the hardest part of being a skeleton racer was to get his mom to sign off on it.

Dr. Marc Taczanowski is the Olympic sports chiropractor for the bobsled-luge team. He started the process in 2005, and he has been going to the world championships with the team for the last two years.

The position is unpaid, and it means missing a couple of months of work on Long Island, but Taczanowski says he is honored and humbled to be helping the USA. Taczanowski says that some of the injuries that he deals with include spinal trauma and concussions.

Both Daly and Taczanowski will board a flight out of Kennedy Airport on Dec. 28. Their first stop will be Germany before they make their way to Russia.

For extended interview with Dr. Marc Taczanowski, watch the clip to the left or click News 12 Extra on Optimum TV channel 612.