Ashleigh McIvor tries to take stock of her competition when she moves into the starting gate, sizing up who will give her the most trouble while screaming down a mountain in what could best be described as NASCAR on skis.

Usually it's another Canadian _ or two or three.

The reigning skicross world champion is one of the favorites to win gold in her backyard of Whistler, British Columbia, when the sport makes its Olympic debut in February. To do that, she may find herself trying to beat the rest of her Canadian teammates in a white-knuckle race where she admits that "it's inevitable you're going to crash."

"It's definitely a lot more spectator-friendly than regular Alpine skiing," McIvor said during a recent trip to Manhattan. "I think it's the future of the ski industry, especially ski racing, because it's the pure, raw format of skiing. It's what everybody did growing up."

It's certainly what McIvor did in the Canadian Rockies, where she could step out her door and into some of the best backcountry skiing in the world.

The 26-year-old McIvor switched from Alpine to the hybrid style of racing about a decade ago, when flying down a hill at 60 mph no longer provided enough of a rush for a self-described adrenaline junkie. The sport was in its infancy then, but grew in popularity during the X Games and eventually made the World Cup circuit and the Olympics.

The premise is simple. Participants qualify by racing alone against the clock down a steep, twisting hill, flying over jumps at breakneck speeds. The times are used to seed skiers in heats of four, with two eliminated each round until the final four race for medals.

The Canadian women have been winning plenty of them, too.

McIvor broke the stranglehold of French superstar Ophelie David at the world championships in March, where 20-year-old teammate Kelsey Serwa was the fastest qualifier and finished fifth.

At an Olympic test event in February on Vancouver's Cypress Mountain, McIvor finished second behind 39-year-old teammate and former speed skier Aleisha Cline.

"Someone said recently, at our victory party after Cypress, even people who didn't do well were on fire," McIvor said. "They were so stoked for the team as a whole."

That includes Danielle Poleschuk and Julia Murray, world-class skiers who give the Canadian team the opportunity to run full heats in training. By comparison, the United States has only two women _ Langley McNeal and Caitlin Ciccone _ who are competitive on the world stage.