Donna Spencer, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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CALGARY - There are many moments of truth for Kyle Shewfelt these days.

Like the kid playing street hockey thinking "Game 7, Stanley Cup final, this goal wins it," Shewfelt often imagines himself in Beijing on the mat for the men's Olympic gymnastics floor final. "In training, I have to simulate the competition, so I call my coach over and say to myself 'this is the one. It counts. It matters,"' he said.

"I can remember being a little boy in training on the double mini-trampoline and I would say 'this one I have to stick because it's the Olympics.' When you do that and succeed, you learn to trust yourself that in the real situation, that you'll be able to do it."

The reigning Olympic gold medallist in the floor routine, and Canada's first Olympic medallist in the sport, will rely a lot on this mental simulation in Beijing.

When gymnastics starts Aug. 9, he won't have competed internationally for well over a year.

The 26-year-old from Calgary broke both knees and suffered additional ligament damage Aug. 27 while preparing for the 2007 world championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

He mistimed a difficult tumbling pass and hyper-extended his knees.

Shewfelt had surgery in early September to insert a plate and screws and re-attach the ligament in his left knee, and also to insert a screw in his right knee.

That he will be able to perform his full routines at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium is remarkable.

But Shewfelt has come too far to doubt himself now after endless rehabilitation, pain and, once he was healthy enough to train, exhaustion so deep he'd lie down for a nap in front of the fridge.

Shewfelt is the picture of conviction when he says "In Beijing, I plan on being a contender."

He doesn't sound like a man trying to convince himself.

"I'm investing so much of myself into this right now," Shewfelt continued. "I approach each day that I have to have a great day every day and if it's not going to be a great day, I have to make it the best day I can be because I missed out on a lot of training time, a lot of competition time and a lot of time to be in a great mental state.

"I have a lot of belief in myself and my team, so I hope over the next period of time leading up to Beijing, I can just continue to add fuel to that."

Even though Shewfelt was back training, he skipped the Canadian championship in June in his hometown because he felt he wasn't quite ready to compete.

If that decision looks like a gamble, Shewfelt isn't a wide-eyed Olympic rookie.

This will be his third Olympics. He had to contend with a bone bruise in his ankle heading into the 2004 Games.

"Maybe I haven't competed as much as my competitors, but maybe that's going to make me more hungry, or maybe I won't be as tired or burnt out at the Olympics," Shewfelt said.

"I'm getting this inner fire that I don't think a lot of other people are getting because they didn't have two broken legs and they didn't have to sit on their ass for five months. They didn't have to go through what I went through."

He manages his injuries with an anti-inflammatory, ice, acupuncture, massage therapy three times a week and a couple of sessions a week with physiotherapist Susan Massitti.

"I like to joke I'm in rehab more than Amy Winehouse," Shewfelt said.

The Canadian men's gymnastics team finished a best-ever sixth at the 2006 world championship and hung on to qualify for Beijing by finishing 11th without injured Shewfelt in Stuttgart.

Since Shewfelt's gold in Athens, teammates Brandon O'Neill and Nathan Gafuik have won World Cup medals in floor and vault.

Shewfelt's importance in the team event in Beijing is two-fold. He can elevate Canada's total score and his presence injects swagger into the Canadian squad.

"It's huge," O'Neill said. "He can post big scores on his events.

"If we want to make team finals and do well in team finals we need him at his best. If he is, we're in great shape to do what we are going there to do."

Added Gymnastics Canada president Jean Paul Caron: "Even if he's at 80 per cent, he's still Kyle Shewfelt.

"He's our leader so it's important to have him there for the team. Plus, if he's back 100 per cent there's a chance at a medal, so he's key."

Shewfelt was named The Canadian Press male athlete of the year in 2004.

It's common for gymnasts to say they got into the sport because they were hyper kids who launched themselves off the living room furniture.

Shewfelt was one of them, but says he was also a shy child who wanted his mother Nola to take him by the hand and lead him to each apparatus as a youngster.

"It surprises me because I'll talk to anybody now," he said. "I'll go up to random people and talk to them at the grocery store."

Shewfelt isn't ready to say 2008 will be his last Olympic Games, but he's put thought into the classic job-interview question "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

"I want to get married and have some babies and be a dad," he said. "I really want to be a dad. It would be the funnest job on the world."