Alpine Skiing

The first family of Canadian skiing knows how difficult it can be to find success.

Michael Janyk has joked that he was born 21 months after sister and teammate Britt Janyk, and he's been trying to catch her ever since.

But when Michael hurt his back in 2007, the setback was no joking matter, even if Britt had come back from her own troubles that very year.

Brother and sister have both fought their way through adversity and now look forward to the 2010 Olympic Games.

Britt and Michael both started their ski racing careers by focusing on the technical events, slalom and giant slalom. While Michael enjoyed increasing success on the world stage, Britt struggled to get beyond a top 30 ranking, with her greatest success coming in 2003 - 29th in slalom and 17th in giant slalom. Dropping back down the rankings in the year that followed, Britt was given an option for the 2006-07 World Cup season. Either quit the team or pay her own way.

Facing a lack of confidence from her team, and the five-figure price tag to stay involved, many observers would have understood if Britt had quietly walked away from the sport. Instead, she came up with the cash and switched from technical events to speed events.

"I owe an awful lot to my family," said Britt on her website, www.brittjanyk.com. "For their positive attitude, for their energy, for everything."

The investment paid off and Britt catapulted up the standings, finishing the 2007 World Cup season ranked 26th in downhill and seventh in super-G. In the 2008 season, Britt earned her first World Cup win in the downhill event in Aspen, Colo., just a week after earning her first podium with a third place finish at the Lake Louise, Alta., World Cup downhill.

"It was wet, windy and totally nasty," said Britt of the Aspen event. "I just went out there and skied like I was in Whistler."

The result would cement Britt as one of the leaders in the women's downhill, at the end of the season finishing third in the downhill standings.

While Britt was enjoying the best season of her career, her brother Michael was well down the order and facing problems of his own.

A bulging disc suffered during the summer of 2007 meant that Michael had to restrict his competition in the 2008 World Cup season down to just ten events. In the 2007 season, Michael had earned seven top ten results, including a second place in the slalom at Beaver Creek, Colo. In 2008, Michael had to settle with a high of 15th in the slalom at the World Cup in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

The reduced season and poor results dropped Michael to 40th in the slalom standings, and 101st in the overall standings.

Working to regain his health and confidence, Michael entered the 2009 World Cup season with the aim of improving his standings and most importantly, his corresponding start position.

"I remember telling myself I want to be in the Olympics," he said in an interview with the Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt. "I want to be in the World Cup. That was definitely a drive that I had right from the beginning."

The resolve saw Michael take great strides in the 2009 season, highlighted with a bronze medal at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Val D'Isere, France - the first medal won by a Canadian in slalom during a world championship.

"When you have that confidence back, you're not looking to do anything extra special," Janyk said to Brunt. "You're just looking to ski how you know how to ski - and that's when the results come."

The two calmly look forward to the 2010 Olympic Games. Living in Whistler, the pair will get to race in front of friends family and fans, a priviledge they both fully appreciate.

"There's going to be pressure for sure," Michael said in a phone interview after winning bronze at the Worlds. "You can't pretend it's not going to be there. You just have to embrace it instead of being scared of it, instead of saying I don't want it in my home town because I want to be able to focus completely. Who else gets that in their career, to compete in the Olympics right in their own home town?"

Britt and Michael both know what it is to be at the bottom, and when they return to their hometown of Whistler, to compete for family, friends and country, they aim to be on top.