If Nicola Minichiello can succeed in adding an Olympic gold medal to her world championship crown when the two-woman bobsleigh competition is played out here in the early hours of Thursday morning, it will a triumph for sport"s ability to conquer adversity.
For the 31-year-old"s motivation runs far deeper than a competitor"s desire to be the best.
What drives Minichiello is the bitter memory of the racist bullying she suffered as a schoolgirl and her continuing grief over the death of her brother from a heroin overdose.
Going for gold: Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke will compete in the bobsleigh in Whistler
Minichiello grew up in Dronfield, Derbyshire, six miles from Sheffield, which she now calls home.
She never knew her father but was brought up, along with tragic brother Andrew and younger sister Amanda, by her mother Evonne Gautier, whose own parents were from Jamaica.
"As a kid from a mixed race, single-parent family growing up in an affluent white community, I had a tough time," said Minichiello last week.
"We didn"t fit in. We were brought up on benefits and it wasn"t the norm around there. Kids can be cruel and I was bullied physically as well as mentally.
"Life was difficult for us. Mum struggled. She didn"t have much money, but no matter what I needed she was always there. She has been my inspiration."
Sport offered Minichiello a haven from the misery she experienced at the hands of the bullies, who had given her such low self-esteem that she admits she could easily have followed her brother into a life of drugs.
"Sport saved me," she said. "Through sport, I had an avenue to build my confidence. It was the making of me. If it wasn"t for sport who knows what would have happened in my life?
"I found my voice in sport. That"s why I love the work I do now withthe Youth Sports" Trust as an athlete"s mentor, allowing me to reachout to youngsters.
"I wasn"t the most naturally talented ofathletes but I was determined and very focused. I was going to prove tothe bullies that I was a worthwhile person. Just because I fittedvarious stereotypes, that didn"t sum up who I was. For me, it was aboutproving points. I honestly discovered myself through sport."
Sadly, her brother"s life took a different path, one that led to his death nine years ago.
"Unfortunately, there are people who just don"t find somewhere to fit in life," said Minichiello.
Perfect pair: Cooke and Minichiello at last year"s World Championships
"Andrew fell in with the wrong crowd and he was involved with drugs from a young age."
Two weeks after her brother"s funeral, Minichiello, an aspiring heptathlete who had represented Britain at the World Student Games, was asked to audition for the British bobsleigh team. It was a call that changed her life and eventually led to the partnership with brakeman Gill Cooke that brought them the world championship at Lake Placid last year.
"I had nothing to lose by trying out for the bob team," said Minichiello. "I thought that maybe I was being offered an opportunity for a reason. Andrew"s death, after such a tragic time for him and for all the family, was one of the catalysts for me getting involved in bobsleigh. I never stop thinking of Andrew. We were very close. He"s part of my inspiration."
It has been a troubled season for Minichiello. She needed laser surgery six days before Christmas and then again just 16 days before the Games to repair 80 per cent blindness in her left eye and she has not won a race all winter.
But, as reigning world champion, she will have the utmost respect. "I"ve been building up to this all my life and will put my heart and soul into winning," she said.
Her mother, now suffering from arthritis, has been unable to travel to the Olympics, but Minichiello said: "She"ll watch on TV and call and that"s good enough."
Her sister Amanda was in Lake Placid to see Minichiello"s triumph but her work as a maternity nurse means she also cannot be in Canada.
When Minichiello competed at the Olympics in Turin four years ago, her marriage to Toni Minichiello, coach to Britain"s heptathlon world champion Jessica Ennis, was unravelling and she came a disappointing ninth.
But she found her bobsleigh partner, Cooke, who had competed for Scotland in the pole vault and long jump, when she posted a message on Facebook detailing her vacancy for a brakeman.
Five months later they became world champions. Next month Minichiello celebrates her 32nd birthday, so she is unlikely to have another chance to win an Olympic medal. "I"m in a happy place," she said. But surely no competitor will have had to follow a more heartbreaking road to get there.
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