Clara Hughes found herself thinking along the lines of "there but for the grace of sport go I."

During one of her many training trips to Vancouver over the past two years, Canada's all-time best Olympian was "driving my little car and took a wrong turn on the downtown eastside."

If you've ever been along the drug-ravaged human wasteland that is East Hastings Street, the most blighted urban area in this entire country, you'll know exactly what she encountered.

"I will never forget seeing people suffer so much and I couldn't believe that I was in Canada," Hughes recalled, one day after she completed the greatest Olympic career in Canadian history with a speedskating bronze medal in the 5,000 metres.

"That that situation existed in our country and that people were just shells of themselves. They were surreal. I felt like I was in a movie set. I said to my husband that day, 'I cannot leave town without feeling that maybe I can do something to help this.' "

She can now leave Vancouver the way she left her six-medal Olympic career. With her head held incredibly high.

Among Hughes's symphony of extraordinary traits is her commitment to a pledge, to putting her money where her heart is.

Yesterday, without even knowing how much it was worth, she announced she was donating her bronze-medal bonus to Take a Hike Foundation, a Vancouver inner-city project that tries to rescue children at risk by taking them backpacking, kayaking, cross-country skiing and camping.

That bonus turns out to be $10,000 rings with symmetrical symbolism. After her 2006 gold in the 5,000, she donated $10,000 from her own savings -- "there were no medal bonuses then" -- to the international humanitarian group, Right to Play.

Take a Hike, Hughes says, "takes the kids outside of the trouble they're in and the reality of their lives. The drug addictions, the things that as a young person I struggled with a lot. It parallels what sport has done for me."

In a poignant article by Torstar colleague Randy Starkman last month, Hughes revealed that growing up in Winnipeg she hung out with a tough crowd, regularly drinking and doing soft drugs, and heading down a blind alley. But, at 16, she was turned onto speedskating by Gaetan Boucher's 1988 Olympic finale.

She immediately took up speedskating but soon discovered road cycling and began training under legendary coach and task master Mirek Mazur, who was based in Hamilton. So, in 1991, she headed for the Dundas Valley.

"I left home at 18 to pursue my dreams on the bike and it got me to Hamilton," she said. "I had spent too many four-hour rides in Winnipeg on the turbo train in winter and I wanted a better climate and I wanted to keep Merik as my coach. So I came to Dundas and Hamilton and that beautiful area was my home for seven years.

"It has some of the best cycling you can find ... anywhere. The escarpment? I know Sydenham Hill very well.

"Too well."

Hughes is the only athlete in history to win multiple medals in both the Summer and Winter Games and she was living and training in Dundas when she won her first two: road cycling bronzes at Atlanta in 1996.

She left for Quebec's eastern townships in 1998, competed at the 2000 Summer Games and then refocused on speedskating, winning a bronze in the 5,000 metres in the 2002 Games, gold in the 5,000 and silver in the pursuit in 2006.

And, after being the flag-bearer in the Opening Ceremonies, she bid farewell to her Olympic career with, incredibly, a bronze medal.At 37 years of age.

It was part of Wednesday's four-medal Canadian haul, all by women. Two-thirds of Canada's medals in Torino were won by women and, heading into last night, the percentage here was up to 80 per cent.

Why Canadian women fare so well compared to the men, and how sport can and must be more readily accessed by women around the world are topics worthy of much deeper discussion and analysis in this corner, but Hughes fairly and honestly touched on some of the main points yesterday.

"Realistically, there is a lot more depth in men's sport and it takes a lot more resources and time to develop," she said. "In sports like cycling, cross-country skiing and speedskating if you're in the top 10 men of the world, it's really something. But I'm not saying that it's easier to win as a woman than it is as a man. It's incredibly difficult to win at this level.

"I've travelled to many countries which won't even let women participate in sport, let alone help contribute to their development.

"I've never been in country that supports females in sport like Canada does. It's unconditional. An athlete is an athlete here. I felt really lucky."

Before the Games, Hughes took part in a "brushing off" ceremony performed by friends in one of the Founding First Nations of the Vancouver area. She said that allowed her to "open her heart and be present rather than wishing I was present" during the 5,000. Rather than shutting out the pressure and urging of the 6,000 screaming partisans, she embraced their roar and used it to skate without inhibition.

"I will remember that six minutes and 55 seconds," she smiled, "for the rest of my life."

smilton@thespec.com

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