Manuel Osborne-Paradis has been a mainstay of Canada's downhill and super-G teams since way back in 2005.

For an alpine skier, that's an eternity.

So it's kind of amazing to see how hungry Manuel still is, 14 years later.

Having a no-compromise drive to win at 35 years old is even more rare when we also consider that Manuel is also a full year into recovery from an injury that almost cost him his left leg.

A blunt assessment would be: he's old and he's banged up. But you still won't find anyone betting against a podium for the irrepressible Osborne-Paradis on any given day.

There's a silver lining in all that rehab too, which is that instead of a year in competition, with all the nagging bumps, scrapes, tweaks and wear-and-tear on a skier's body, Osborne-Paradis has actually had twelve long months of rest and recovery. Athletes hate to admit it, but there's nothing quite like rest on the road to hitting new performance highs.

Player's Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis discusses the resounding rebound of Manuel Osborne-Paradis.

Like the CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice essay series, POV podcast lets athletes speak to Canadians about issues from a personal perspective. To listen to Osborne-Paradis and earlier guests this season, subscribe for free on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune In or wherever you get your other podcasts.