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It's a love story on ice, a romance on runners.

Canadian bobsledders Kaillie and Dan Humphries have competed together at the Winter Olympics before, but not as husband and wife, and not under the same banner. That is set to change this February, however, when she is expected to pilot Canada 2 down the treacherous course at the Whistler Sliding Centre, while he pushes the four-man sled driven by Lyndon Rush.

"It's pretty special," says Dan, a Briton turned Canadian who has recently been cleared to compete for the home team in 2010. "There are very few people who get to do that."

Kaillie always wanted to marry a man with an accent, and after they met, it was only a matter of time before saying "goodbye" and returning to England became too difficult and the distance between them had to be overcome. He was already considering a citizenship change, given the amount of time he spent training in Calgary, and given that his father and stepmother immigrated to Dawson Creek, B.C., earlier this decade and became Canadian citizens.

But after the 2006 Turin Olympics, when they were still just dating, the future was clear.

"Once we realized that we needed to be together, we knew what that meant. It was me moving here and 100-per-cent, wholeheartedly, committing to our relationship and committing to Canada," 30-year-old Dan says. "My life has been based in Canada for the last five or six years. It was a chance to be with my family, and with my wife, as well as being able to compete at a home Olympics."

British sliders often train in Calgary, and after the two were introduced by a jolly old pilot in late-2002, they went on the traditional first date of a movie, and fell in love while traversing the globe on the World Cup tour. They were married in April of 2007.

After jumping through bureaucratic hoops in two countries for nearly two years, Dan became a Canadian citizen on Oct. 20.

But his defection hasn't gone over well across the pond, where ex-teammates now call him "Judas," according to Rush, and remain sore about losing a crewman who competed under the Union Jack and finished 15th at the 2006 Olympics. Dan's plan also wasn't well received by the Royal Air Force, his eight-year employer, which wasn't too fussy about releasing an avionics engineer who helped fix radio equipment on DC-10s at the RAF Brize Norton base near Oxford.

"They tried to keep me in because of my level of qualification within my job, but I was able to justify my case by saying: 'Listen, my life is in Canada,' " he says. "They [British sledders] don't like me very much right now, but it's all in good fun. "

The Humphries are part of the same Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton training group in Calgary, but coaches and teammates say you would never know they were married. They rarely speak while on the job, and they never talk about bobsleigh around the house, believing in the separation of business and personal matters.

"It definitely gets challenging, as any married couple that works together has figured out, but I've got my No. 1 supporter on tour," Kaillie says.

As you might expect, he gets more nervous for her races and she for his.

In February, she has the luxury of racing before him, which means she'll be able to watch her husband trackside, after the pressure has been relieved.

He doesn't intend on attending her race, however, because it conflicts with his final preparations, meaning he'll "feel her emotions" through the television.

Because of the 140-kilometre-an-hour speeds reached in bobsleigh, world-class pilots such as Kaillie feel the course as much as they see it.

That second sense came in handy around Christmas of 2006, when the couple knew they would eventually be consummating their relationship with wedding bands. He awoke before her one morning and fixed breakfast, presenting a ring along with the meal.

"I knew it was coming," she says. "He never makes me breakfast in bed."