CALGARY — Olympic medallists Jeff Pain and Mellisa Hollingsworth headline a strong Canadian skeleton team for the upcoming World Cup circuit after a gruelling national team selection process.

Joining Pain on the men’s team will be Calgary’s Paul Boehm, and Jon Montgomery, of Russell, Man., while Michelle Kelly of Fort St. John, B.C., and Calgary’s Sarah Reid round out the women’s team.

“Canada’s skeleton athletes make up one of the strongest amateur sport teams in the world,” said Don Wilson, CEO of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. “This an extremely powerful group of men and women who push each other every training session and race, and are capable of sliding to gold on every track around the world.”

Canada’s skeleton team has captured 94 World Cup medals since 2002.

Pain, from Calgary, and Hollingsworth, from Eckville, led through each of the three stages of qualifying that simulated Olympic, World Cup and world championship competition.

The opening race took place at Whistler Sliding Centre, with four runs held over two days to replicate the 2010 Olympic event. The athletes then headed to Calgary for a two-run race at Canada Olympic Park, and the team’s final two-run selection race was staged at the site of the 2009 world championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.

“Our national team selection trials for skeleton are often the most difficult and competitive race these athletes will compete in all year,” said Wilson.

The World Cup season opens Monday in Winterberg, Germany.

Pain, 37, is arguably the most accomplished athlete in the Canadian skeleton team’s history, a silver medallist at the 2006 Turin Olympics, and two-time World champion.

Boehm was fourth at the 2006 Olympics, and captured his first World Cup victory last year in Calgary.

Montgomery also captured his first World Cup victory last season and won a silver medal at the world championships en route to a second-place finish overall on the World Cup.

Hollingsworth, who won bronze at the 2006 Olympics, finished third overall on the World Cup last year.

Hollingsworth’s longtime teammate Kelly is the only woman in the world to win both the overall World Cup title and world championship title in the same year, and captured five World Cup medals last season, including three gold. Kelly finished second overall on the World Cup standings.

Reid, a rookie on the World Cup team, won gold at the 2008 world junior championships.

The team’s lone World Cup stop in Canada is Feb. 2-7, in Whistler, B.C.