Poelman was born and raised in Leek and trained at an athletics club in Roden. Her first major international tournament were the 1991 European Junior Championships in Thessaloniki, where she did not reach the final on the 100 nor the 200 m. Only a year later at the World Junior Championships she won the silver medal on the 100 m, finishing second, while she became fourth on the 200 m. In the same year she was part of the Dutch 4 × 100 m relay team during the Olympics in Barcelona, which was eliminated in the series.