Pierre Lueders has learned to shrug off expectations, he pays no heed to predictions and he insists he's not about medals.

After what he and his brakeman have been through to be able to race at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, when he says he's just happy to be there, he means it.

"You talk about chances and that's a word that for me and especially for Lascelles Brown, my brakeman, we've been given a chance to compete together," Lueders said Thursday during a conference call from St. Moritz, Switzerland. "Just the fact that he's going to be on the starting line with me, considering what we had to do to get him there in the first place, a person can't ask for a whole lot more."

Lueders, a native of Edmonton, and Brown have had huge success together on this season's World Cup circuit. But Brown's Olympic eligibility was a question mark until two weeks ago, when the Jamaican-born bobsledder finally received his Canadian citizenship.

"We can only be winners, we can only have success," said Lueders, who will compete at his fourth Olympics. "The fact we're there competing together is success in itself."

Lueders, 35, will nonetheless carry lofty expectations into Turin, coming on the heels of World Cup season titles in both the two-man and the points race.

Sports Illustrated picked Canada to win four gold medals in Turin, with Lueders claiming one of them.

"At the beginning of the year, I don't think anybody was predicting we would do anything. And I have to say I get a chuckle at how often people jump on and off our bandwagon," Lueders scoffed. "The saddles have got to be getting worn out with people jumping on and off, but I don't worry too much about predictions.

"That's why you do the races, to find out really who's the best."

Lueders has won a whopping 69 World Cup medals and an Olympic gold in 1998 with Dave McEachern.

At the other end of the spectrum, Helen Upperton's goal when the season began was to simply qualify for Turin. When she found herself in first place after the opening run at a World Cup in St. Moritz last month, she said she was so nervous she almost threw up in her helmet.

The 26-year-old Calgary bobsledder went on to win the race, capturing Canada's first World Cup gold in women's bobsled. After four podium finishes this World Cup season, Upperton has emerged as a medal contender for Turin, and so finds herself deflecting her own share of expectations.

"I didn't come into the season expecting medals, I came into the season to try to become a better driver and I'm going to head into the Olympics trying to do the same thing, just improve my ability to drive, improve my ability to focus, and put together four consistent runs and hopefully they're fast," Upperton said from Igls, Austria.

"The women's field gets more and more competitive every year and there's probably eight different sleds who could win the gold medal. My goal at the beginning of the year was just to qualify."

Asked if she still suffers attacks of nerves, Upperton laughed.

"I think every time I'm sitting in a really high position going into the second heat, I'm a little surprised still," she said. "But I think being nervous is just because you care a lot about the result, I think I'd be more worried if I wasn't nervous."

Lueders knows a little about nerves. He went to the 1994 Lillehammer Games as a 23-year-old Olympic rookie with lofty expectations after early success on the World Cup circuit, but wound up seventh.

"It's a different beast, it only happens every four years," said Lueders. "The athletes are under a great amount of stress and a great amount of scrutiny which a lot of times youngsters are completely unprepared for. You're suddenly thrust into the limelight.

"The thing I found over my career is the Olympics stir up emotions in an athlete that have never been stirred up before, and that's something you really have to be careful of."

The two drivers are in final preparations for Turin. Lueders and his teammates headed to St. Moritz to get used to the altitude they'll experience at the Olympic track at Cesana, Italy, about 2,000 metres above sea level.

"We're experiencing a lot of problems, most of the guys are having a lot of problems sleeping because of the high altitude," said Lueders.

St. Moritz is also at about 2,000 metres.

Upperton is in Igls to race in this weekend's world junior championships with brakeman Kaillie Simundson of Calgary.

Upperton hasn't decided who she will race with in Turin - such is the depth of the Canadian squad - but it will likely be Heather Moyse of Summerside, P.E.I., who's been her regular brakeman this season. Suzanne Gavine-Hlady of Barrie, Ont., will drive the Canada II sled, while Jamie Cruickshank of Saskatoon and Suzanne Gavine-Hlady of Barrie, Ont., round up the team.

Lueders will team up with Brown, Calgary's Morgan Alexander and Ken Kotyk of Rama, Sask., in the four-man event. Serge Depres of Cocagne, N.B., will pilot the Canada II sled, and will be joined by Edmonton's David Bissett in the two-man event. Florian Linder of Morrin, Alta., Vancouver's Steve Larsen and Calgary's Nathan Cunningham round out the men's squad.