If there is one thing the people entrusted with Canada's Olympic success want to be able to say, it's that they've left nothing to chance in the 2010 Games.

Considering that the margin between a medal and fourth place is often measured in the tiniest shards of time, there is a strong impetus for coming up with new technological doodads to provide an extra edge.

And so, the past five years have spawned a bewildering array of breakthroughs that will be put to the athletes' best use.

In a bid to provide every edge to Canada's winter athletes on their home turf, Canadian sporting officials hatched an $8-million sporting Manhattan Project - theatrically dubbed "Top Secret" - and reached out to researchers from 17 universities around the country.

They looked into the fluid and heat dynamics of curling, the physiology of muscle recovery, and the hand positioning of downhill skiers.

They studied snowflakes, waxes and steel-to-ice interactions, Dartfish video technology showed figure skater Patrick Chan in minute detail what he does right when he lands the perfect quad.

Snowboarders and skiers experimented with water-shedding, friction-reducing bases on their skis and boards. Speed skaters trained using a slingshot device specially conceived to launch them through corners.

Roger Jackson, CEO of the Own The Podium, explained the Top Secret program considered 80 projects and ultimately funded 55.

"Thirty will have an affect on the [2010] Games," he said. "Probably half of our activity has not been publicly announced."

Canada has been an especially aggressive participant in the arms race of sorts in sporting gadgetry, thanks mostly to the five-year, $117-million Own The Podium program.

It has made investments in things like neuro- and bio-feedback equipment to bolster the athletes' psychological preparation.

The technology - which consists in placing electrodes to the athletes' to measure things like brain activity, reaction times, and heart rate as they perform various tasks - is not new, but the application to athletic performance is a relatively recent phenomenon (and Own The Podium funded customized versions of the gear, some of which was developed at the University of Ottawa.) The freestyle skiing and short-track speed skating teams are particularly devoted adherents.

Like most other Canadian athletes, the short-trackers have had unfettered access to sports psychologists, dieticians, biomechanical experts, exercise physiologists, and sundry athletic and massage therapists.

They've also benefited from cutting-edge technology like a state-of-the art padding system at their training centre (developed by a University of Calgary engineering professor), their new slash- and score-proof racing suits (made from a proprietary fabric) and a machine that can quickly reproduce the exact camber and rocker of each competitor's skate blade - a handy thing in a sport where blades break all the time.

And while all that is well and good, the biggest benefit may be peace of mind.

"Having that feeling of safety and knowing that I only need to concentrate on skating makes it a lot easier to train," short-track skater Olivier Jean said.

It's all part of the carefully orchestrated, all-encompassing five-year plan to create a bubble around the athletes.

And it goes well beyond the technical aspects of sport.

"The COC has done a really good job of building an actual team outside of just our sports. They've brought us together for a number of years now, we've had mentoring, the shared experiences of past great Canadian champions and all that really adds up," said freestyle skier Jenn Heil, the defending Olympic gold medalist in women's moguls. "There's probably almost no one that I don't know, or haven't met, or haven't seen now, whereas that wasn't the case in the previous Olympics. I think we're all extremely proud to go there as a team."

Beyond the technological developments, things like confidence, familiarity and national pride may be just as important if Canada is to enjoy the success the COC expects and in some ways demands.

Matt Price, Alpine Canada's, sports science director, pointed out that every country is testing in wind tunnels as well as using video and computer software as part of their arsenal aimed at giving their athletes an edge.

But at some point, all the innovation and preparation takes a back seat.

"Every nation has something up their sleeve ... but on race day, the athlete who's psychologically ready to race and ready to execute, they have the upper hand," he said, adding "Ultimately all the technology in the world will not win a ski race."

As former Crazy Canuck skier Ken Read, a key architect of Own The Podium, is fond of saying, "they've bought them everything but excuses."

Indeed, the hoopla and warm fuzzies associated with Canadian athletes competing at home before adoring crowds tend to obscure another, somewhat flintier reality: these are very much the no-excuses Games for the country's amateur sporting elite.

"I don't think athletes are big on excuses anyway, but yeah, I'm going into this knowing that there's absolutely nothing more that I could have done to prepare, everything has been analyzed and considered and planned," said Mr. Jean.

With files from Dawn Walton, James Christie, and Hayley Mick