Landscape Architect a Winter Sport World Champion

CALGARY, Alberta - Jeff Pain, a Calgary-based landscape architect, has added another title to his resume: world champion.

Pain, 34, recently reclaimed his title of world skeleton champion at a competition at his home track in Calgary.

Pain broke the track record twice during the final day of competition, and in winning the event, he became the top medal-winning skeleton racer in history, with two gold medals and a silver.

For those not familiar with this sport, imagine navigating a bobsled course at high speed while riding headfirst on a low, steel-frame sled.

Originally called tobogganing, skeleton was invented in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in the late 19th cent. It was an event in the Winter Olympic Games in 1928 and 1948 and again in 2002 at the Salt Lake City games.

The allure of competing in the Olympics was the motivation Pain needed to begin his career in skeleton.

Pain, who stands 6-foot-3, originally tried high jumping in an effort to compete in the decathlon. Unfortunately for Pain, high jumping was not his forte. Next, he tried bobsledding, but he was neither a fast enough nor explosive runner to be a championship level bobsledder. His lanky frame is not ideal for the skeleton either, but he makes it work.

?EUR??,,????'??There are only two reactions that people have when they try skeleton for the first time,?EUR??,,????'?? he told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper. ?EUR??,,????'??There's 'When can I do it again?' and there's 'Don't ever make me do that again.' There's no middle ground.?EUR??,,????'??

Pain competed in the Salt Lake City Olympic games, placing sixth, and his recent world championships victory sets him up as a favorite for the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Pain graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1994 with a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture degree. He worked in Vancouver for the summer of 1994 as a partner in a landscape design and build company before moving to Calgary.

In the summer of 1995 Jeff began working for a major Landscaping Company in Calgary for Peter Holmes, and in 2002, Pain started his own company, Designscapes.

Pain enjoys doing 'small scale design' and, he has personally designed more than 100 gardens in Calgary and had input throughout the design and drawing process on more than 800 gardens in Calgary.