Danielle Poleschuk's upbringing in Winnipeg and Calgary included frequent trips to the ski town of Fernie, B.C., where her parents had a condo. Commonly called Danny, she joined the Fernie Alpine Ski Team and made the national team. After one season, she lost her berth on the team but through appeal, she got her place on the team back conditional on paying her own expenses and meeting certain performance standards. After falling short in alpine, she met her match in ski-cross. She spent this off-season rehabbing from a dislocated shoulder, and is trying to qualify for Vancouver 2010 Games.
I want to make sure of pronouncing your name correctly. Pole-es-CHUK?
Poleschuk: Pole-ES-chuk.
So how long did the disappointment of the injury last?
Just a couple hours. I knew the process; it's not my first injury. In the exercise, I make sure I do things way more properly than I already do. You know I put that little bit more time in, just make myself more disciplined so that when I am healthy, I am that much better at what I do.
Are you still friendly with the alpine team?
Oh, I love the alpine girls! They were a big help to me. They were good mentors. I love them.
Do you feel that you've maximized your talent now, that you've gotten everything out of it?
No, I put too much pressure on myself with the alpine team. I didn't know how to handle it. There was a lot of things I would have changed if I knew then what I know now.
Such as?
Just go and have fun. I'm always the person, if a coach puts pressure on me, I would put ten times the pressure on myself. So you know everything happens for a reason. I firmly believe that, I've always believed that. And I think what I learned from my alpine career, the good times and the bad times helped me be more balanced and believe in myself.
But you're still in a highly competitive sport where you could put a lot of pressure on yourself.
I still do. I'm going to have to find how not to make those big mistakes.
And is that in solitude or do you have people to help you with that?
I have people to help. I don't do it the normal way. I love golfing, it's fun. But at that same time, to me it's another tool to use for ski cross, by re-focusing. You know, taking that shot ... getting angry ... okay, I've got to refocus. I've got to bring myself back because I know if I don't, I'm going to try too hard. I'm going to be stiff, rigid, it's not going to work.
There was controversy about the suits last year - baggy or tight? What's your personal opinion? What do you think you should be wearing next year?
Not downhill suits! You don't come from racing straight to free skiing and not look like an idiot on the hill. So I think a lot of them want to get back to the baggy pants.
And that's the culture, right?
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Because this is an X-Games sport, it's loose, baggy ... Yeah, they wanted to take it back more that direction. I'm totally cool with that. I'm over my spandex phase.