CALGARY - Olympic silver medallist Jeff Pain wedged a swine flu vaccination into his hectic life Friday out of concern for his wife and sons.

The skeleton slider from Calgary wants to avoid contracting H1N1 in these final weeks before the 2010 Olympics, but more important was the health of his family while he's away for almost two months of training and international races.

Sons Thomas, 6, and Kyle, 8, have asthma, which puts them in a high-risk category for contracting swine flu. Pain says his wife Alyson would be stretched to the limit should one of their children become ill during his absence.

"The harsh reality of our situation is Aly doesn't have time in the winter to deal with a kid who is in the hospital or sick for two or three days because I'm not around,'' he said. "It puts an incredible amount of strain on her, so we do everything we can to make sure we can stay healthy.''

If Canada's Olympic athletes want the H1N1 vaccine, they'll stand in line for hours with everybody else, even though the Canadian Olympic Committee's chief medical officer says they are a high-risk group and should be at the front of the queue for swine flu vaccine.

"I know of a very small number of athletes who have gotten it,'' Bob McCormack said Friday from Toronto. "People basically have to put aside half a day.''

"Let's just say we haven't achieved our goals of getting the team immunized. We still are working to make sure they don't miss the vaccination opportunity altogether because they leave Canada for competitions in Europe and Asia and are gone for a few months.''

Pain's wife Alyson headed for a southwest Calgary clinic Friday at 7 a.m. to save a spot in line for the family. Pain and their sons arrived two hours later and the family was vaccinated around 11 a.m.

Pain departs Tuesday for Ottawa, where the skeleton team will undergo wind-tunnel testing at the National Research Council, before heading to Europe for the start of the World Cup season.

"Do I have four hours to spend in line right now? I don't,'' Pain said. "I'm in a massive time crunch because I leave Tuesday and I'm back at Christmas.

"I have to have everything set up for my family that I would normally do, the accounting, changing the car tires and all that life stuff. I've got to get that done, all my equipment ready and get myself ready. I don't have time to do it, but time becomes irrelevant when you're dealing with kids.''

Many of Canada's athletes have either left or are leaving this month to begin their seasons. They'll travel extensively over the next few weeks. They are in the age range susceptible to contracting strong cases of swine flu, McCormack says, and because they train to exhaustion, their immune systems are suppressed.

He'd hoped to procure about 200 vaccines for Canadian athletes. McCormack hasn't been able to because supply hasn't kept up with demand in the country.

"We're working through the same system as the rest of Canadians,'' McCormack said. "Athletes are going to visit a mass clinic or use a delivery mechanism in that province the same as others. I just hope we can get the athletes protected before they leave the country.''

Pain says athletes are most in danger of contracting swine flu in airplanes and airports.

"If we want to try and stop the spread of this around the world, anyone who travels should be at the front of the line,'' he said.

McCormack is confident most athletes would get the vaccine if it was more readily available because about 76 per cent of the Canadian team took the seasonal flu vaccine prior to the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

"This is a bigger issue, so I'm optimistic we'll exceed those numbers,'' he said.

Mellisa Hollingsworth, Pain's skeleton teammate, wants the vaccine. The Eckville, Alta., slider regularly got a flu shot in the past, discontinued it for a couple of years and became ill last season, which forced her to pull out of a World Cup race in Altenberg, Germany.

"I definitely don't want to take that chance,'' the Olympic bronze medallist said.

Vancouver region health officials have urged all athletes attending the Olympics to get the H1N1 vaccine. Participating countries have been given a list of recommended immunizations by Vancouver Coastal Health, a provincial agency that is working closely with Olympic organizers to provide health services during the Games.

Athletes are encouraged to get both the H1N1 and seasonal influenza vaccine at least 14 days before their arrival at the Olympics. If they can't get it at home, public health nurses can vaccinate them in the athletes' villages in both Whistler and Vancouver.

The Italian Olympic Committee announced plans Friday to vaccinate 350 athletes and officials against swine flu before the Games open.

"The urgent and absolute priority for CONI is the vaccination of the Italian delegation for Vancouver 2010,'' Petrucci told ANSA news agency.