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Sidney Crosby

Hockey

Past Olympics: None

Sid The Kid's omission from the Turin team turned out to be a grievous error. Despite the presence of the rest of Canada's hockey glitterati, they could not find the spark needed to get itself on track in a short, whirlwind tournament. That won't be an issue this time — Crosby is the NHL's reigning MVP and scoring champion, an enthralling, emerging presence in the game, with an all-around skill set and most importantly, the temperament to handle the pressure-cooker environment of a home-town Olympics. Almost Gretzky-like in other words.

Roberto Luongo

Hockey

Past Olympics: 2006 team

Though born in Montreal, Vancouverites claim Luongo — goaltender for the hometown Canucks — as one of their own, and the presence of Bobby Lou between the pipes will carry on a long-standing tradition of goaltending excellence from La Belle Province. Luongo at 29, is entering a goaltender's prime years. A perennial MVP candidate, Luongo will make the critical difference in the quest for gold.

Gillian Apps

Hockey

Past Olympics: Member of gold medal team in 2006

Apps, 24, is the new emerging prototype in the world of women's hockey — a big powerful hard-to-move player, who uses her size to great advantage in a sport that permits incidental contact, but no body-checking. Apps is a third generation star from one of Canada's first families of hockey — her granddad, Syl Apps Sr. is in the Hockey Hall Of Fame and her father Syl Apps Jr. forged a successful 10-year NHL career — but neither won Olympic gold. As the old guard changes on a team that has been the gold standard, Apps's role will be greatly enhanced.

Jennifer Heil

Free-style moguls

Past Olympics: 4th in 2002; Gold in 2006

Chronic pain in her left knee forced the Olympic freestyle moguls champion to write off the World Cup circuit this season.

Heil, 24, from Spruce Grove, Alta., has done this before. Heil skipped 2002-03 to get over shin problems and came back with four World Cup crowns and an Olympic gold in Turin. Last season, her fourth consecutive World Cup title came with an unprecedented six golds and two silvers in nine World Cup races, plus gold and silver medals in the 2007 World Championships.

Steve Omischl

Free-style aerials

Past Olympics: 11th in 2002; 20th in 2006

Omischl had three wins and a third in four events before running out of gas last week at Deer Valley, Utah, but still leads the World Cup.

He owns a tee-shirt that proclaims "Fear is an illusion" and can walk that talk — or maybe walk on air. Omischl has been 2004 and 2007 World Cup aerials champion for the season-long circuit; world champion in 2005; world championship bronze medalist in 2003 and 2007.

Jeremy Wotherspoon

Speed skating

Past Olympics: Silver 500 metres, 6th 1000 metres 1998; DNF 500 metres, 13th 1,000 metres 2002; 9th 500 metres, 11th 1,000 metres 2006

Wotherspoon is right on track to win an Olympic medal. He's heard that before. In 2002, at arguably the top of his game, he stumbled at the start of the 500 metres and never recovered. Four years later, he was 9th in the 500 and 11th in the 1,000.

But since the disappointment of the Turin Olympics, Wotherspoon has re-established his dominance by winning World Cups and by lowering the world record in the 500 to 34.03 seconds.

Christine Nesbitt

Speed skating

Past Olympics: Silver in team pursuit 2006

The Australian-born Nesbitt, 22, has donned the mantle of Olympic hero Cindy Klassen, to take the No. 1 world ranking at 1,500 metres and the No. 3 spot at 1,000 metres. In six World Cup races at the longer distance, Nesbitt has two wins, a second and two thirds.

Originally the top-ranked short-track junior in Ontario, Nesbitt switched to long track in Calgary in 2003 and made the national team in 2005.

Clara Hughes

Speed skating

Past Olympics: Bronze in 5,000 metres in 2002; Gold in 5,000 metres, Silver in team pursuit in 2006

The Winnipegger holds the distinction of being a medal winner at both Winter Olympics in speed skating and Summer Olympics in track and road cycling.

A three time world championship medalist — gold in 2004 — this year Hughes, 35, ranks third on the World Cup circuit at 3,000 and 5,000 metres.

Kevin Martin

Curling

Past Olympics: Silver medal in 2002

Not long after the 2005 Canadian Curling Trials ended, Edmonton's Kevin Martin did something many thought very unusual. He disbanded one of Canada's most successful teams. Martin formed a new squad with John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert, and set a goal of the top podium in Vancouver. "I think about [the Olympics] every day," Martin said. "I don't think about winning medals, just getting to the trials and to the Olympics."

Jennifer Jones

Curling

Past Olympics: None

In the past few years, the Winnipeg lawyer and 2005 Canadian champion has made controversial decisions concerning player personnel, but her lineup of Dawn Askin, Jill Officer and Cathy Overton-Clapham has produced extremely strong results on the ice. The team is second in the Canadian Team Ranking System and secured a spot in the pre-qualifying event that will determine Canada's rink.

Pierre Lueders

Bobsleigh

Past Olympics: 7th (brakeman) 1994; Gold (pilot) 1998; 5th (pilot) 2002; Silver (pilot) 2006

The Edmonton native has seemingly done it all — won an Olympic gold and silver medal, won both a World Cup two-man and four-man event on the same weekend and more World Cup medals than Europe has bobsleigh runs — a stunning 85.

With brakeman Lascelles Brown, who pushed Lueders, 37, to silver at the Turin Olympics, the Canada 1 combo won a bronze medal in late January and another bronze earlier this month.

Helen Upperton

Bobsleigh

Past Olympics: 4th in 2006

Upperton's crew is about consistency and versatility. The Kuwait-born former triple jumper from the University of Texas has developed into one of the very best in bobsleigh. In the 2005-2006 season, she became the first Canadian woman to win a World Cup medal. At her first Olympics, in Turin, she finished fourth, missing out on the podium by 0.05 of a second.

Through seven races this season, Upperton has won two gold medals, two silver, one bronze and finished fourth twice.

Mellisa Hollingsworth

Skeleton

Past Olympics: Bronze in 2006

This season, Hollingsworth's Olympic accomplishment has earned her new status and more confidence. She's been a consistent top-10 finisher after winning the opening World Cup race on her home track in Calgary. Hollingsworth, a two-time Canadian champ, zipped in a third-pace finish last month in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Michelle Kelly

Skeleton

Past Olympics: 10th in 2002

At one time, Kelly wanted to be a bobsledder. She tried skeleton on a dare, loved the rush and made it her passion. She is the first Canadian woman to have won a world championship and an overall World Cup title, and the only competitor to have won both in the same year, 2002-2003. She was 10th at the Salt Lake Olympics but didn't qualify for the 2006 Turin Olympics.

Kelly won three World Cup races this season and was second in World Cup standings.

Jon Montgomery

Skeleton

Past Olympics: None

Raised in Russell, Man., Montgomery has been on a serious run since last November. He won a silver and bronze medal in his first three races then won his first World Cup race in Cesana, Italy.

Kalyna Roberge

Short track speed skating

Past Olympics: Silver medal relay, 2006

The firecracker from St-Etienne de Lauzon, Que., is tiny, quick and race savvy. Opponents from China and South Korea cross-check her and crowd her to stop her. "Kalyna is very small but the other skaters are afraid of her," teammate Tania Vicent said.

Roberge, 21, is the reigning 500-metre women's world champion and was ranked third in the world last year. She sparked the team to an aggressive drive to get Olympic silver in Turin.

Charles Hamelin

Short track speed skating

Past Olympics: Silver in relay, fourth in 1,500 metres, 2006

Hamelin, of Ste-Jolie, Que., is the 500-metre world champion and ranked No. 2 on the planet in short-track. Son of national short-track program director Yves Hamelin, Charles got his first individual gold medal with an aggressive chase at the world championships in Milan, Italy last year. Determined and confident, he's also the world silver medalist at 1,000 metres.

Francois-Louis Tremblay

Short track speed skating

Past Olympics: Gold in relay 2002; Silver 500 metres, Silver in relay 2006

The native of Boucherville, Que., is ranked first in the world at 500 metres, sixth at 1,000 metres and ranked second overall going into the final weekend of the season. Tremblay, 27, has three Olympic medals and nine world championship medals, including back-to-back 500 metre titles in 2005 at Beijing and 2006 at Minneapolis.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir

Figure skating, ice dance

Past Olympics: None

Canada's best shot at a figure-skating medal — possibly gold. Virtue, 20, of London, Ont., and Moir, 21, of Ilderton, Ont., have soared, taking the Junior Grand Prix Final in 2005, and the world junior championships in 2006. Last year, as first-time senior competitors at a world championship, they finished sixth. They won the 2008 Canadian championship by more than 33 points.

Britt Janyk

Alpine skiing

Past Olympics: None

Since competing on the World Cup circuit last season on a pay-as-you-go invitee, the speed event skier from Whistler, B.C., has evolved into a team leader. Janyk, 26, has made her mark with nine top-10 placings in 14 World Cup starts in 2007-08 and ranks third in World Cup downhill.

Emily Brydon

Alpine skiing

Past Olympics: 27th in slalom, 38th in GS, 2002; 9th in super-G, 13th in combined, 20th in downhill, 2006

It has been a breakthrough season for the Fernie, B.C., veteran, who ranks second in super-G and seventh in downhill on the World Cup circuit. She'd had seven career visits to the World Cup podium, three of them this year, including her maiden victory in the super-G at St. Moritz, Switzerland. The lack of a win had made her think about walking away from the sport, so victory was a monkey off her back.

John Kucera

Alpine skiing

Past Olympics: 17th combined, 22nd in super-G, 27th in downhill in 2006

The Calgarian made good on his long-cited potential when he scored his first World Cup win in November 2006 in the Lake Louise super-G. The son of Czech immigrants, Kucera, 24, became the first Canadian man to win at home since Rob Boyd at Whistler in 1989. This season, he's the top-rated Canadian in men's overall World Cup standing at 15th, ninth in super-G and 10th in giant slalom.

Jan Hudec

Alpine skiing

Past Olympics: None

He's recuperating from his fourth knee surgery, but Jan Hudec's track record demands respect. The native of Sumperk, Czech Republic, came back from three surgeries to win a downhill silver in the world championships last year, then opened this season with an intrepid downhill victory at Lake Louise, Alta., and had a third at Bormio, Italy a month later. In between, Hudec, 26, had three top-10 super-G placings.

Chandra Crawford

Cross-country skiing

Past Olympics: Gold 1.1-km sprint in 2006

Just 24, Crawford is one of the best sprinters in cross-country. In February 2006, she won a bronze medal at World Cup race then followed that with a gold medal performance at the Turin Olympics. This season, Crawford won last month's World Cup 1.1-kilometre sprint in her hometown of Canmore, Alta.

Drew Neilson

Snowboard cross

Past Olympics: Fastest time trial, finished 17th snowboard cross 2006ƒo

Drew Neilson has already been called the world's best snowboard cross rider. It just hasn't happened at an Olympic Games. The native of Vernon, B.C., won the Crystal Globe as the FIS world overall snowboard cross champion in 2006-07, which he accomplished on the strength of three World Cup wins.

Athlete profiles compiled by James Christie, Allan Maki, Beverley Smith, Eric Duhatschek, Matthew Sekeres and Bob Weeks