Jeff Pain, a world champion skeleton competitor and a landscape architect, will represent Canada in the men?EUR??,,????'???s skeleton competition this Friday (Feb. 17) at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Pain, who recently placed first in that sport?EUR??,,????'???s world cup, is among the favorites to win the gold medal. In fact, the Canadians are expected to do well in both the men?EUR??,,????'???s and women?EUR??,,????'???s competitions.

?EUR??,,????'??I don’t know if Canada winning both the men’s and the women’s titles makes a statement going into the Olympics, other than that we’re still around,” Pain said in comments to the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper. “We’ve had a strong team with this crew of people for a while now. Hopefully, it means we have the momentum going in.”

Pain is the holder of 15 World Cup podium finishes since he began competing on the international circuit in 1995-96. Pain was also the only skeleton athlete to finish in the top five during each of the seven World Cup events in 2004-05. In addition, Pain’s five World Cup medals last year were the most won by an athlete on the World Cup circuit and represented a single-season career high for the slider.

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 century. 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 him, 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. Pain?EUR??,,????'???s lanky frame is not ideal for the skeleton either, but he makes it work.

Regarded as the most successful male athlete in the history of the Canadian skeleton program, Pain has compiled a lengthy list of accomplishments throughout his 11-year amateur career. Among his most notable achievements, Pain is a three-time World Championship medalist who became just the second Canadian to win gold at the event during his second trip to the podium in 2003.

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 Pain began working with a major landscaping company in Calgary for Peter Holmes, and in 2002, he started his own company, Designscapes.