Duff Gibson has raced to burning buildings and slid headfirst down an icy track.

But one night he had to ask himself: "Am I as tough as a 15-year-old girl?"

It seemed a perfectly relevant question at the time. There was Gibson, in front of his television, an experienced firefighter and, at 39, the oldest gold medalist in the history of the Winter Olympics. And there she was, an on-screen waif of a teen whose daily existence depended on a two-hour walk to a neighbouring well where she would fill up a large plastic container of water, then carry it back to her home on her head.

Every day produced the same ritual. Walk, fill and carry, all of it under a punishing African sun.

So after watching the girl's plight played out on a TV infomercial, Gibson, the 2006 Olympic skeleton champion, wondered, "Could I do that?"

And that's how it began, Duff Gibson's Dare to Remember, one man sloshing along the streets and pathways of Calgary with a 20-litre container of water on his head.

Mind you, Gibson is planning on having some company Oct. 22 when he walks a watered-down 12.5 kilometres, from Canada Olympic Park to his son's elementary school, Alexander Ferguson, in Northwest Calgary, all for charity.

Gibson is out to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and its fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. It's a cause near and dear to Gibson's heart.

He and his wife, Gen, unable to have kids of their own, adopted two boys from Ethiopia last year.

"I mentioned it to my crew at the airport," Gibson said of his venture. "Two of the guys are going to do it, and two friends of mine. Some people will do the walk and carry a small symbolic amount of water. The kids will do that. Anyone can come with us."

Gedion Gibson, 5, and his 2 1/2-year-old brother, Taye, had been living in a foster home after their parents decided they could no longer care for them in the mud hut that housed six people and a cow.

While dealing with the Canadian Advocates for the Adoption of Children, Gibson and his wife were asked if they were interested in adopting brothers.

That struck a chord within Gibson, whose family story was played out to Canadians when he won his gold medal at the Turin Olympics.

Gibson's father Andy, a national judo champion, had been selected to Canada's 1968 Olympic team, only to see the sport dropped from the summer program.

In December of 2005, as he lay dying of cancer, Andy spoke to his son about the value of athletics, about winning and losing and what mattered most.

After capturing the gold medal, Duff Gibson explained how he'd honoured his father with a pledge: "If I won the race today, I would try to be as gracious a winner as I could be. And if I wasn't to win today, I would try to be as gracious a loser as I could be. And that's what I dedicate to my dad."

The idea of having his own family and passing on his dad's teachings was pivotal to Gibson, who was also influenced by an aunt and an uncle who adopted a son from Russia.

Gibson and his wife contacted the Canadian Advocates for the Adoption of Children and settled on Africa "because we knew the children had been with a family and were given up out of love," Gen Gibson said.

That began a two-year process filled with criminal checks, financial checks, home assessments and interviews. When the Gibsons were asked if they were interested in adopting brothers, they agreed and flew to Africa in April of 2008 to see their sons.

"We met the mom and it was such a heartbreaking scenario," Gibson said.

"She did what was best for the boys but it was hard. Gedion was 3 1/2 when we met him. He does remember being back in Ethiopia. Taye, when he hears his brother talking about it, says he remembers being in the Safeway in Ethiopia. Their parents are still alive. We send photos and pictures to the orphanage and that's sent on to the parents."

To make a connection with Ethiopia and its people, Duff and Gen staged a personal fundraising and collected $15,000 from family and friends.

Before they left for home, the Gibsons spent all they had on food, clothing, medical and school supplies. "We felt it was important to make some connection," Gen said.

Knowing what his sons had been through, and driven to make a meaningful statement through his Dare, Gibson put it all together: He'd do something for his sons' homeland by mimicking the girl he'd seen on TV with a walk beginning at Canada Olympic Park, the place where his Olympic career originated.

"I wanted an Olympic tie-in," said Gibson, who will make the roughly three-hour walk in his quest for $7,500. "The Olympics have been a big part of my life."

They still are. For this season, the ever-active Gibson will serve as a head coach working closely with the Continental Cup team. That means he'll be spending time on the North American circuit leading up to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler. He'll do that while juggling shifts at Calgary's No.27 firehall, helping raise his two sons and training for his coming challenge by walking around his neighbourhood with a container of water on his head.

"The idea is you're supposed to come up with your own Dare," Gibson explained.

"In the fire department, we have a combat challenge, where you drag a dummy [as if dragging a body from a fire or accident site].

"When I saw that young girl in Africa carrying water on her head, I wondered if I could do that, so we thought, let's see if us being big, strong firefighter-types could do what this tiny 15-year-old girl was doing."

So how does it feel shouldering all that neck-crunching weight?

"I've done a six-kilometre test walk to convince myself I could do it," said Gibson, who uses a belt looped around his body and the container to ensure he doesn't lose his grip.

"It's extremely uncomfortable but it's a chance to walk in someone else's shoes."

For family and others and, most important, for those unfortunate souls in Africa, where being tough is enough to make an Olympic champion wince.