Polona Peunik

Slovenia's team of one.

No matter who we are, or where we come from, we are all afraid of something. Fear is part of the human experience. There is fear of spiders, fear of airplanes, fear of darkness, even fear of small spaces, and… the fear of being average. For Slovenian short-track skater, Polona Peunik, the concept of "average" is quite scary, and is ultimately quite unacceptable.

You may recognize Polona as the woman with the bright red hair, or, the only skater whose uniform bears the letters "SLO" for her country. Weather you know her or not, rest assured… Polona Peunik is definitely NOT your average human being.

What does any national-level short track skater need to succeed? At least the basics, right? A coach, maybe a therapist or a nutritionist, and fellow team-mates for encouragement, and as a way to gage how one is performing comparatively. But, Polona has none of these. Technically she does have a coach. The only problem is, his background is in figure skating. He coached her as a figure skater for nearly seven years. He isn't an official short track coach. "The coach is there more for the other skaters [at the practice sessions.]" says Polona, "I measure my practices by how tired I get. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or right."

The budget for short track is Slovenia is small. That is why Polona always travels alone to the competitions. Even her "coach" does not come with her. She has no doctor, no therapist, no nutritionist, and no team-mates. She is the only person from Slovenia skating short track on the national level.

What makes her story even more amazing is that she has only been practicing short track for three years.

"I was a figure skater until I was 18. Then I dislocated my knee. I needed an operation. I was out of skating for a season. When I was just starting another season in figure skating, the [ISU] organized the first short track camp in my town. My coach told me 'Come on! Just come for a week so it doesn't look like we don't have anybody who's interested!' So he was kinda sweet-talking me into short track and he succeeded!"

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