As a worldwide contingent of athletes, coaches and support staff descend on Vancouver to compete at the 2010 Olympic Games, the task of getting all their sports equipment to Vancouver is a challenge.

Canada's Jason Myslicki has travel horror stories to tell. 

"Air Canada is an Olympic sponsor, and this year they've been looking after excess baggage fees, which is great," said Myslicki.

Great, as long as the bags shows up. On his way to Europe for the World Cup events slated for 2010, Myslicki checked his equipment as normal, but his gear failed to make a connecting flight and Myslicki was forced to borrow skis. When the luggage finally did arrive, the skis were damaged. Myslicki was forced to borrow gear for four out of five World Cup events.

"I was flying on an Air Canada partner, and the flight was booked by a friend, so it wasn't on my credit card," said Myslicki. "I didn't have the same coverage as I would if I had booked the ticket on my card."

Myslicki was told by airline staff to rent skis.

"It's not like you can just rent ski jump skis," said Myslicki. "I'm a World Cup athlete, I can't just rent."

Myslicki, Canada's lone entry in the sport of nordic combined, is on his own when it comes to traveling with equipment.

"I travel with two pairs of (ski jump) skis, three pairs of boots, helmets, poles, eight pairs of cross country skis," said Myslicki." I reserve my own rental cars. Ski jump skis are 260 cm long, so they don't fit everywhere."

Myslicki packs his gear into three different bags and carries it everywhere himself.

Myslicki has made sure to book his own flight home and is certain his equipment will make it.

"You know it will all show up because I won't need them right away," laughed Myslicki.

For Canadian skeleton slider Jeff Pain, shipping equipment by air is something to be avoided whenever possible. A skeleton sled is a multi-thousand dollar, 43-kilogram (about 95 lbs) metal frame with a seat attached. In an attempt to protect it through transit, Pain had a special bag made.

It doesn't always work.

"Putting it on a plane is probably the riskiest thing I do to my sled. I don't beat it up nearly as bad driving on the track as the airline workers, generally," he said. "It's a heavy, awkward thing to move around and I've seen more than one baggage handler chuck it without much luggage care."

So far, the Olympic silver medalist from Calgary has been fortunate in his 14 years in the sport. His sled has always arrived at competitions more or less intact.

"I've had a couple things that have cracked but nothing that we couldn't repair within a few hours," he said.

Unwilling to push his luck, however, Pain was more than happy to ship his gear to the Whistler Sliding Centre in the back of a truck. Ahead of one of the biggest competitions of his life, the sled is just safer that way.

Members of Canada's alpine ski team have the luxury of relying on staff to help move their equipment. 

"Between the two World Cup teams, men's and women's, we carry about five tonnes of gear,"said Paul Kristofic, Alpine Canada's men's team manager, in an interview with CTVOlympics.ca. "We split them up because both teams travel independently."

For each batch of equipment, Alpine Canada prepares a carnet: essentially a passport for objects that lists every item in exact detail to be presented at border crossings as equipment is being taken out of one country and brought into the next. Two carnets are prepared, one for the men's equipment and one for the women's. 

"We use a cargo handler called Panalpina that runs our gear around the world," said Kristofic. "We ship it starting in Calgary, and it moves about three or four weeks ahead of where we go, to New Zealand, Chile, Europe, and then back to Canada in November."

After the Lake Louise and Beaver Creek World Cup events, the equipment is again packed up and shipped to Europe where it typically stays for the remainder of the season before being shipped home to Canada in the spring. 

"Once it's in Europe, it moves as checked luggage on the airlines and it moves around in trucks. We have about 15 vehicles on the men's side to move the gear around Europe as well," said Kristofic.

It isn't a case of transporting just a couple pairs of skis. Athletes Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Robbie Dixon and Louis-Pierre Hélie share a pool of 75 pairs of skis, all of that equipment needing to be lugged onto checked baggage counters. 

"We just flew with 175 pieces of luggage to Canada as we've finished up our tour in Europe," said Kristofic. "We can't use a cargo carrier because we don't have enough time.

"We pay for it. The airlines are happy enough to take our money."

- With a report from Jennifer Lukas