Alpine skiing - Lindsey Vonn of the United States, headed for a third consecutive overall World Cup title, should be the marquee alpine skier with more than one alpine medal at Whistler. Canada's so-called speed queens have lost medal contender Kelly VanderBeek to injury, but medal hopes ride high with Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., who concentrated on speed events in what is expected to be her last season and has two downhill World Cup podiums to show for it. Britt Janyk, who will be racing on the mountain where she grew up. Both have podium potential in downhill or GS. Among the men, injuries, including Canada's downhill world champ John Kucera and French slalomist Jean-Baptiste Grange, have elevated medal hopes of Manuel Osborne-Paradis, a two-time World Cup winner this season, veteran Erik Guay, fourth in Super-G at Turin in 2006, longshot Olympic rookie Robbie Dixon and home-hill slalomist Michael Janyk. Alpine Canada's aim was three medals but two would be an achievement, considering injuries.

Biathlon - In a sport dominated by Europeans, Canada's Zina Kocher and Jean-Philippe Le Guellec demonstrated great potential amid erratic results in the three World Cups before Christmas. Le Guellec opened the season with 10th- and 12th-place finishes, among the best of his young career, and in December Kocher notched a fourth-place, a strong rebound after being waylaid by illness in recent years and close to her career-best, a third in 2006. The brightest spotlight will be on veteran Ole Einar Bjorndalen of Norway, who vaults towards the Michael Phelps realm of Olympic heroes if he adds a haul of medals to his current collection of nine (five of them gold).

Bobsleigh - Kaillie Humphries and brakeman Heather Moyse have shattered track start records all across North America and Europe this year and have reached the podium, including a World Cup in Altenberg. Helen Upperton had an up-and-down year before Christmas, before settling on Shelley-Ann Brown as her brakeman. Lyndon Rush has supplanted Pierre Lueders as Canada 1 driver in both two and four-man bobsleigh but he has yet to hit the speeds he expected in his new two-man sled. He finished on the podium twice in the first three four-man races of the season. Lueders' season has been a mystery from the start - moreso after Jesse Lumsden joined the team - but Whistler could be his last race so he won't leave anything in the tank. Two medals in three Olympic races are a possibility.

Cross-country skiing - Chandra Crawford, a 2006 gold medalist in Italy, pairs with Sara Renner in the team sprint event and should be in the thick of the medal chase. Crawford took a year off for injury. Renner, her problem foot healed and wearing new boots, is on a Whistler Olympic course that suits her glider's style. In 2006, a gracious Norwegian replaced Renner's broken ski pole and enabled her to drive to a tandem silver with Beckie Scott. The men's side has a contending relay and pursuit team of Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, George Grey and Ivan Babikov. Russian-born Babikov was fourth in the Tour de Ski 10-kilometre pursuit. A single cross-country medal would be good.

Curling - Kevin Martin's rink was impressive in winning the Canadian curling trials in December but his international record is less than golden, with one title in his first seven tries. He has 2002 Olympic silver, losing to Scotland's David Murdoch, who will represent Great Britain in Vancouver. Martin, Murdoch and Norway's Thomas Ulsrud are the medal favourites. In the women's tournament, Cheryl Bernard is in tough against an experienced field that includes Olympic champion Anette Norberg of Sweden and Switzerland's Mirjam Ott, a two-time silver medalist. Bernard lost a quarter-final game to Scotland's Eve Muirhead in the Bernese Cup bonspiel in Bern, Switzerland, one of her final tune-ups before Vancouver. Both Canadians should be medalists.

Figure skating - Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have the greatest potential to win gold, with the highest score in the world this year, and exquisite routines. In women's and men's singles, world silver medalists Joannie Rochette and Patrick Chan raised questions marks after Rochette fumbled her way through the Grand Prix Final in December, and Chan tried to overcome his first serious injury. However, Rochette won the long program at Canadians in stunning fashion, and Chan is showing no signs of a hiccup after coach Don Laws resigned. Chan has two strong coaches in his corner who are both quite familiar to him.

Freestyle skiing - Freestyle skiing holds some of Canada's greatest medal hopes - but also a major logjam of talent. In moguls, defending gold medalist Jenn Heil leads the World Cup standings and Kristi Richards is solidly second. Alexandre Bilodeau chases Canadian-born Dale Begg-Smith, who won Olympic gold and has returned to dominance since suffering a knee injury last season. Vincent Marquis has been on the podium for Canada this season. Canada's deep pool of ski cross racers are led by Ashleigh McIvor, Julia Murray and Chris Del Bosco, but Stanley Hayer and Kelsey Serwa each have the potential to win medals an unpredictable sport. In aerials, Steve Omischl looks strong - despite a recent mild concussion. He needs to keep talented Chinese and Belarusian aerialists at bay.

Hockey (men) - Canada's 2010 men's Olympic hockey team received a significant makeover in the aftermath of a disappointing seventh-place finish in Turin, but the last line of defence remains the same - goaltender Martin Brodeur, who is in the midst of one of his best seasons ever and is on pace to become the first goaltender in history to win 50 regular-season games. Coach Mike Babcock has a wealth of offensive weapons at his disposal, including the league's leading goal getters (Patrick Marleau, Sidney Crosby) and most productive set-up man. Defending champion Sweden always poses a major threat, but Russia is the two-time world champion, with an explosive attack, featuring Alexander Ovechkin, and the United States traditionally does well in a North American Olympics, earning medals in 2002, 1980 and 1960, two of them gold.

Hockey (women) - Women's hockey is dominated by Canada and the United States - and it will be the biggest upset of the Games if one of those nations doesn't climb atop the podium. They routinely meet in world championship finals and expect them to renew the rivalry in the Feb. 25 gold-medal game at GM Place. Sweden upset the U.S. in the 2002 semi-finals four years ago. Canada has won the last two Olympic golds. The U.S. won the inaugural gold at the 1998 Games in Nagano, and the last two world championships. The Finns upset the U.S. at the Hockey Canada Cup in September.

Luge - Coach Wolfgang Staudinger set modest team goals, positioning Canada to take advantage of any slip by powerhouses like Germany. Alex Gough's string of top-10 finishes in the women's World Cup makes her the most likely medal candidate, although Sam Edney has the physical strength and has come painfully close to individual times of veterans such as Armin Zöggeler . Jeff Christie and Ian Cockerline will also compete in the men's race, while Regan Lauscher and Meaghan Simister round out the women's team. The doubles teams of Mike and Chris Moffat and juniors Tristan Walker and Justin Snith have not threatened any of the top pairs this season.

Nordic Combined - World Cup leaders Jason Lamy Chappuis of France and Felix Gottwald of Austria are expected to dominate at Whistler Olympic Park in the combined cross-country race and ski jumps that Canadians all but ignore. There are no medal expectations for Canada in an event we skipped for three Winter Olympics. Jason Myslicki of Thunder Bay, Ont., 41st at Turin, came out of retirement and finished 23rd at a World Cup in Chaux-Neuve, France hast Feb. 1, and 33rd in the individual sprint at the world championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy on Feb. 28.

Short track - The national men's team has rebounded from a disappointing 2008-09 World Cup season and is striving to outshine powerful South Korea. Brightest medal hopes rest with Charles Hamelin, the reigning 500-metre world champion. Francois-Louis Tremblay and Olivier Jean are also individual medal contenders, and the men's relay should finish on the podium if it can resist a strong challenge from the Koreans and United States. On the women's side, medal hopeful Kalyna Roberge headlines a young team that includes 500-metre world bronze medalist Jessica Gregg and former world junior sprint champion Marianne St-Gelais. The biggest challenge the women will face comes from Chinese skater Wang Meng, and from the United States.

Skeleton - Mellisa Hollingsworth has emerged as the most consistent women's slider in the world and her World Cup performance this year must surely make her Canada's leading medal hopeful at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Michelle Kelly, who has run in and out of favour with Canadian officials due to equipment, and Amy Gough round out the women's team. In three races, Jon Montgomery has failed to build on a first-place finish in Cesana, Italy and he and Jeff Pain are just back of the powerhouse Germans and Latvians.

Ski jumping - Canada is a non-entity: Not one jumper has a single World Cup point this season. However, the host country will field a couple athletes in the individual competitions, led by Stefan Read, nephew of skiing great Ken Read, and also likely enter a four-man squad in the team event. The sport - the target of controversy and legal actions because it is a rare male-only Olympic event - starts the Olympics on Feb. 12 and stars the "Austrian Eagles," a group of four who dominated the World Cup circuit's top five. Gregor Schlierenzauer, just turned 20, is the boy wonder, ranked No. 1.

Snowboarding - The face of the games will be halfpipe star Shaun White, who with his trademark curly red hair and dialed-in double-cork tricks, leads the American charge into the Games. Canada's powerhouse snowboard team also is charging into February with strong medal chances. Veteran Jasey-Jay Anderson leads the season's World Cup rankings in parallel giant slalom. He's joined by Michael Lambert and Matthew Morison, who won the season opener but was sidelined with a broken elbow. In boarder cross, Maëlle Ricker of Squamish, B.C., and Dominique Maltais are ranked 1-3 in the World Cup with American rival Lindsey Jacobellis between them. Men's snowboard cross as a well of talent, with Robert Fagan second in the World Cup and Mike Robertson ninth. They'll be challenged by U.S. veterans Nate Holland and Seth Wescott and Pierre Vaultier of France. China's Liu Jiayu could upset the women's halfpipe establishment - Australian Torah Bright and Americans Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler - who have dominated the scene since 2006.

Speed skating - Long track skating should be the Christine and Kristina show. Dominant World Cupper Christine Nesbitt, 24, ranked first at 1,000 and second at 1,500, will challenge for multiple gold medals. The heaviest workload belongs to Ottawa's Kristina Groves, with five events on deck. Groves, 33, top-ranked at 1,500, won double silvers in Turin while competing in five disciplines. Winnipeg's Cindy Klassen, a five-medal dynamo in 2006, attempts a return from double-knee surgery. Distance specialist Clara Hughes won gold in the Turin 5,000 and is the only Canadian with both Summer and Winter Olympic medals. She's pursuing a sixth trip to the Olympic podium. On the men's side, Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C. is a gold-medal contender in Vancouver, particularly in the 1,500-metres. Red Deer, Alta.'s Jeremy Wotherspoon, history's most dominant World Cup sprinter, fought to recover from a shattered arm and has been impressive in the homestretch. In his fourth Olympics, he needs to erase his notorious stumble and sprawl in 2002.

Contributions from Hayley Mick, Eric Duhatschek, David Ebner, Beverley Smith, James Christie, Matt Sekeres, Sean Gordon, Grant Robertson, Jeff Blair, Bob Weeks, Allan Maki.