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CALGARY – Ottawa’s Mimi Rahneva routinely logs 13-hour workdays at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park.

In the morning, she propels herself headfirst down the skeleton track. Then she lifts weights.

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Physiotherapy usually takes an hour or so to deal with the inevitable tweaks and muscle pulls that come with ripping down a canyon of ice at speeds that would net drivers a ticket on the Trans-Canada Highway.

“I don’t really think humans are meant to go 120 km/hour with their face so close to the ground,” says Rahneva, 28. “It’s a little bit of an unnatural experience.”

From there, she showers and punches in for her job with the Winsport catering department – setting up tables, pouring coffee and tending to the logistics of weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate holiday parties.

Long after the sun dips below the Rocky Mountains, she heads home for some much-needed sleep before waking up the next morning and doing it all over again.