put himself on the line?

put himself on the line?
I say luckily only because the competition was such a difficult thing to go through for both of us and for him especially because it had never been questioned for him——he had never had to put himself on the line

我用“幸运”这个词只是因为让我们两经受竞赛的考验是一件非常困难的事情,尤其是他,竞赛对于他而言太遥远了,他还从来没有参加过呢.