Here's your chance to get inside the heads of high-performance athletes, coaches and officials. Submit a question to a Canadian athlete, coach or official in any of the 15 Winter Olympic sports. We'll post some of your questions along with the answers from a wide array of high-calibre competitors and experts.

Ask a Ski Jumping Coach/Official

Don't we have a women's ski jumping team? I thought I read that a Canadian girl won a gold medal this year?
- Chris Boyd

Ron Read, high performance director of Ski Jumping Canada: Actually two Canadian girls have won gold medals at the highest level of female jumping this past year. Katie Willis and Atsuko Tanaka are members of the Canadian national team program. Canada is one of the few nations that includes females within their national team. Women's jumping has made very large steps over the past three years and the International Ski Federation (FIS) now has a formally recognized circuit for females thanks to the efforts of Canada, Norway and Germany.

Female jumpers face a difficult and challenging road in establishing their sport. Many of the traditional ski jumping nations are not in favour of having the ladies jumping, they do not believe they are competitive enough! It is also difficult to convince the organizers of major games like the FIS World Ski Championships and the Olympic Winter Games that the Ladies deserve the same access to competition as men. Ski Jumping Canada is trying to convince the organizers of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games that it should contribute to the cause of gender equality and join Ski Jumping Canada in petitioning FIS and the International Olympic Committee to add female events in 2010.

Ski Jumping Canada is hoping that Sport Canada will recognize the achievements of our female athletes and allow their results when they evaluate the sport of ski jumping.

Ron Read is the high performance director of Ski Jumping Canada. He is also the father of Olympic ski jumper Stefan Read.

Ask a Cross-Country Skier

What kind of food is good to eat before a race?
- Jamie

Olympic cross-country skier Sara Renner: Before a race I try to eat less than I would on a training day because the combination of nerves and a full belly is not optimal for top speed. When I have access to a kitchen, I stick to oatmeal but on the road the options can be limited and I will buy museli and have it with yogurt.

Usually, I try to have protein with all my meals but I find that it is too much on race day and eat simple carbs.

Sara Renner is one of the world's best cross-country skiers. She pulled off a Canadian first last year by winning a bronze medal at the world championships. The achievement made her the first and only Canadian cross-country skier ever to win a world championship medal. Renner, who is married to alpine skier Thomas Grandi, is competing in her third Olympics.

Ask an Ice Hockey Player

I am 15 years old and play for a Midget AA team in Stratford, Ontario. I have played defence most of my career and have changed to forward just this year. What's the most important part of my game I should work on as a new forward?
- Jenna D.

Olympic ice hokey player Cassie Campbell: Hi Jenna. It is much easier for a defenceman to go to forward than the other way around. It is great to see that your coach believes in you and that he/she thinks you are versatile enough to make the switch. Understanding your defensive positioning would be something to work on, and also making sure you work on getting the puck on the boards in your own end, and either making a good pass to your centre or chipping the puck out. I am sure you will do well, but best of luck.

Cassie Campbell is one of the most successful and recognizable players in women's ice hockey history. The captain of the Canadian national team since 2001-02, Cassie is a six-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist.

Ask a Snowboarder

How much does training for the Canadian Olympic team take away from the time for photo shoots and video parts with your sponsors, which are the staples for advancing your career in the snowboard industry? Is it just World Cup tournaments and training year round or do you actually get a chance to get out and ride for the fun of it anymore?
-Karl Frantz

Olympic snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb: Hey Karl. Well, training does take a lot of time. But usually there is a way to combine filming and the training together. Most sponsors are understanding about the Olympics and the film crews want that pipe footage if it is the Olympic year. And I sure do make time to freeride and go enjoy the snow! I have a few days of heli-riding planned for the end of Jan before heading to Turin. And we have finally got the snow in Whistler to do some freeriding in the morning and then go kill it in the pipe for the rest of the day. Thanks for your question.

Crispin Lipscomb of Whistler, B.C., is Canada's national halfpipe champion. He enjoys sharing his snowboard knowledge and has even coached the New Zealand junior high-performance team. Lipscomb will make his Olympic debut in Turin. He won a World Cup silver medal in South Korea last season.

Ask a Snowboarder

How do you decide what halfpipe sequence to do?

Olympic snowboarder Mercedes Nicoll: Sometimes we just play it by ear and how the pipe condition is. The tricks you choose to do usually depend on where you're more comfortable. And sometimes riders just make it up as they go. Some people have a stock run. That's a run a person does the same, over and over, and that they know they can do without falling. Comfort and confidence is everything.

Mercedes Nicoll is a freestyle snowboarder on the Canadian Olympic team and a coach at the High Cascade Snowboard Camp near Mt. Hood, Ore.

Ask an Ice Hockey Player

What is the biggest difference between playing against a men's team and playing against other women's teams?

Olympic ice hockey player Jennifer Botterill: The biggest difference between playing men's teams and playing women's teams is that the men's teams are just naturally a bit bigger and stronger than us. When we play the men's teams, we have to play smart and make decisions quickly. Since they are taller, they have long reaches with their sticks, so we need to think ahead about what play we are going to make.

Jennifer Botterill has been a member of the Canadian women's ice hockey team since 1997-98. The Torino Games will be her third Olympics.

Ask a Bobsleigh Coach

How does the bobsleigh team transport its sleds from event to event? What's the backup plan if they don't arrive?

Canadian men's bobsleigh coach Gerd Grimme: For air travel, we put them into containers. So each sled and all the gear fits in so we ship it from Calgary to Lake Placid, N.Y., and from Lake Placid to Europe - sometimes organized by the FIBT (International Bobsleigh Federation). Then it's up to us to get it from Frankfurt, Germany, (Bobsleigh Canada's home base) where it arrives to the venue.

Once we're in Europe, we have small trucks for each team. Each team has its own trucks, so in the case of Pierre's (Lueders) sleds, he carries a two-man and a four-man sled. The (sleds) fit into one truck, side to side and there's also space for other equipment like racing gear, helmets, training equipment and weights to do some training at the garage. So that's the way we travel, always two guys with the truck and the other teammates follow with a van.

This year we have a backup sleigh sitting in Frankfurt. And we can go get it because the distances in Europe are not that long, so we can go overnight to Frankfurt and pick up the sled and get it to the venue.

Gerd Grimme, a former bobsleigh pilot for East Germany, is the high-performance director and head coach of the Canadian men's bobsleigh team. He has also held previous coaching jobs with the German, Dutch and Norweigan national programs.