Freestyle Skiing

The airspace over Canadian snow will be the scene of a traffic jam in the lead up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

But buried in the lists of World Cup and development teams for aerials and moguls skiing which were unveiled this week by the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association there the demotion of an Olympic medal-winner.

Deidra Dionne, 27, of Red Deer, Alta., won a bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City as a teenager and bronze at the 2001 and 2004 world championships. That was before a 2005 training accident in Australia caused a near-catastrophic neck injury. Following surgery in which a bone graft from her hip and a titanium plate were used to fuse two neck vertebrae, Dionne rehabilitated and was able to participate in the Turin Olympics. She didn't reach the final, but getting back the Olympic forum was a measure of success in itself.

Realistically, however, Dionne seldom has been a medal threat after the 2005 accident, and that doesn't fit with the Canadian Olympic Committee's target of finishing first in the medal standings at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

She is on the upswing, having won a silver medal at the last World Cup event of 2007-08 season in Moscow and plans a summer of training on a water ramp to get ready for early-season World Cups in China.

Demotion - and the reduced financial support that does with it - "sucks" Dionne told a reporter, but she can deal with it as long as there's still a legitimate chance to get to the Olympic hill at Cypress Mountain.

The door is open a crack. Fifteen freestyle places remain available for Vancouver after three freestyle athletes - Jenn Heil in moguls, Ashleigh McIvor in ski cross, and Steve Omischl in aerials - gained early selection to the squad. The rest, based on an athlete's top four World Cup finishes from the 2008-9 and 2009-10 seasons, will be announced January 25, only 19 days before Olympic competition starts.

Canadian freestylers are allowed to use two results from the past season and there are 13 more freestyle World Cups on the schedule before the Olympic selection deadline. World Cup team athletes have dedicated spots at those 13 events. Development team athletes must earn any remaining Canadian ‘taxi' spots to World Cup events.