U.S. skeleton athlete Katie Uhlaender claims she has been robbed of a likelihood to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Uhlaender, 41, hoped to be the primary woman to compete within the Winter Games six times for the U.S., but fell just wanting qualifying for the Olympic team.
She said a choice by Canadian coaches to tug 4 of their sliders out of a North American Cup (NAC) race held earlier this month was unfair, because it lowered the overall standings points available in that event. Uhlaender won that race but only received 90 points as an alternative of the standard 120, leaving her 18 points away from qualifying for the U.S. team.
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) — the governing body for the game — investigated Canada’s decision and motivation for its move. They acknowledged that “the late withdrawal of athletes intuitively gives rise to concern that the motion can have constituted impermissible manipulation,” but found no rules were broken.
Here’s every thing it’s worthwhile to find out about Uhlaender’s claims and appeals on the choice.
What Uhlaender is saying
Uhlaender won the North American Cup race in Lake Placid, N.Y., on Jan.11, which had 19 sliders. She received 25 per cent fewer rating points than she would have in a full field. That time difference left her behind the U.S.’ Mystique Ro in the ultimate standings.
The NAC series is a tier below World Cup level and tends to be a spot for developmental athletes to compete. Uhlaender competed in seven races this season on the NAC and Asian Cup circuits — one other lower-tier series — in an effort to gather enough points to make the Olympic team after failing to make this season’s U.S. World Cup roster.
Uhlaender didn’t qualify for the U.S. World Cup team entering this season and decided to appeal the choice by international officials.
She asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a wild-card berth into the Olympic women’s skeleton field, which currently has a maximum of 25 sliders, including two from the U.S.
Uhlaender said she made the ask with the assistance of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which said it had requested she receive a discretionary spot on the sphere.
“Had this race not been manipulated, I could be preparing to represent the USA of America and make history as the primary woman to compete in six Olympic Winter Games for our country,” Uhlaender said in an announcement on Jan. 24. “As an alternative, I’m now focused on legally difficult what I imagine to be a fundamentally flawed investigation and decision by the IBSF in a final try to earn my place at what could be my sixth and last Olympic Games.”
Uhlaender said that she’s in search of the IOC to be “fair.”
“Doing so would protect the integrity of competition and forestall further harm,” she said. “Such motion would send a robust message to young athletes in every single place: that standing up for ethics and integrity could also be difficult, however it matters.”
In a video published on Jan. 24, Uhlaender claimed the Canadian team “pulled their athletes to scale back the points” within the NAC race.
“By Canada pulling their athletes, it hurt all of us,” she said. “If the points were awarded, I’d be going to the Olympics.”
Uhlaender said she was “hoping to qualify” for the Olympics.
“I’m a five-time Olympian. I like my country and I like sport,” she added.
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After seeing the Canadian sliders get pulled out of the race, Uhlaender reflected on what she would have done as a younger competitor.
“After I’ve experienced things that were improper, I might look to the administration or the adults within the room to say something,” she recalled. “You get a sense that this doesn’t feel right and any person’s exploiting the foundations and bad faith and this shouldn’t have happened. It doesn’t seem right. Why can’t I race?”
Uhlaender said she thought it was her “duty as an American Olympian and someone that believes in doing the appropriate thing to say something.”
In a follow-up post, Uhlaender said her appeal is “concerning the integrity of sport and code of ethics that upholds sportsmanship, fair play, integrity, respect and community.”
“This isn’t about me, we now have 11 Nations who support this and counting. Even some Canadian athletes. I hope which you can find it in your heart to see beyond hate and truly see how my sport as a community is coming together on this,” she wrote in response to an X user.
The pinnacle of Denmark’s skeleton team told The Atlantic they might help Uhlaender “bring all details to this matter to sunlight.” Uhlaender has also received support from the federations of Israel, Malta, the Virgin Islands, South Korea and Belgium.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton withdrew athletes ‘after careful evaluation’
Canada’s decision to maintain 4 of its six NAC sliders out of the race earlier this month has been criticized by Uhlaender.
If the North American Cup race in query had at the least 21 sliders, which might have been the case before Canada decided to carry some racers out, Uhlaender claims that she might need earned a spot on the Olympic team.
Canadian coaches, athletes and sports officials have denied any wrongdoing.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) said the choice to withdraw athletes was made “after careful evaluation of this system’s needs and in consultation with the IBSF.”
“Following a collective assessment by the coaching and performance team, it was determined that continuing to race these athletes was not of their best interests, nor in one of the best interests of this system,” the organization said.
BCS also said the choice was made after “careful consideration of athlete health, safety, and long-term development.”
Canadian skeleton racers Madeline Parra, 18, and Brielle Durham, 21, told The Canadian Press that they were comfortable with their coach’s decision to tug them from the race.
Parra and Durham said the explanations given for his or her withdrawal were because of athlete welfare and enhancing Canada’s probabilities of a couple of woman sliding within the Olympic Games.
“They’d come over and explained to us that it could be in one of the best interest for the best way points had worked for Jane (Channell), in order that we as a team can qualify two spots to the Olympics,” said Parra.
Durham said that she had crashed within the second of three races in Lake Placid.
“There are also mental and physical points that needed to be evaluated on my end with my coaches about sliding,” said Durham. “It was for the team, but on a private discussion I had with the coaches, there have been also other reasons like my health and the way I might handle the next week following my first crash.”
Durham also said she was “absolutely comfortable and joyful” with the choice of her coaches.
There can be 25 women in the ladies’s skeleton field on the Olympics next month — two countries will get three entries, 4 countries could have two entries and 11 other nations will get one.
International Olympic Committee ruling
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee asked last week for Uhlaender to get a spot, citing how her qualifying possibilities were hurt by Canada’s decision to tug 4 sliders from a race and limit the available variety of rankings points earlier this month.
USOPC chief of sport and athlete services Rocky Harris said the IOC deferred to the IBSF’s investigation, finding that no rules were broken.
“We got a response this morning that they’re supporting the international federation’s decision on the matter,” Harris told The Associated Press on Jan. 26.
IBSF previously said it “requested its Interim Integrity Unit to analyze whether the described incident is a contest manipulation, a breach of the Code of Ethics or the Code of Conduct.”
“The late withdrawal caused complaints from International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) members and allegations of a possible competition manipulation by BCS, particularly its coach, because it resulted in a discount of rating points for all participants to 75% as an alternative of 100%, potentially supporting allegations that Canada was aiming to secure a second quota place on the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026,” IBSF wrote.
The IBSF requested its Interim Integrity Unit (IIU) investigate whether the incident was “a contest manipulation, a breach of the Code of Ethics or the Code of Conduct.”
“The IIU dismissed the complaints as the present IBSF Rules and Regulations didn’t give grounds for a breach of the International Rules, the Code of Conduct, and respectively the Code of Ethics, by the concerned coach or BCS,” the report added.
“The IIU noted that the Canadian coach and the National Federation shall be reminded that, whilst acting inside the letter of the IBSF Code of Conduct, it is anticipated that every one parties concerned also needs to act inside the spirit of the Code, whose aim is to advertise fair play and ethical conduct in any respect times,” IBSF wrote.
The IIU noted that “late withdrawal” of athletes “intuitively gives rise to concern that the motion can have constituted impermissible manipulation.”
“At the identical time, the express language of Section 7 of the IBSF Code of Ethics precludes any finding that conduct ‘expressly permitted’ by the competition rules is ‘improper’ or creates an ‘undue profit.’ As a consequence, the IIU dismisses the complaints,” the IIU added within the report.
Uhlaender said Monday she is exploring options for filing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which deals with all types of issues inside global sports.
The Americans are sending Kelly Curtis and Ro to the Olympics in women’s skeleton; each were formally nominated to the team by the USOPC on Monday.
“We were requesting an extra slot for the game to allocate to Katie, so it could not have taken away from certainly one of our currently competing athletes,” Harris said.
Bob Barney, an Olympic expert and historian and professor emeritus at Western University, can’t recall this happening at any previous Olympics.
“In my historical recollection/knowledge I don’t know any Olympic circumstance that matches this example. It might appear to me, seeing as how she appealed to the IOC for redress, that if denied, she should perhaps appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” Barney told Global News.
Noah Vanderhoeven, a PhD candidate at Western University in political science, specializing in sports and social justice, said he doesn’t think what happened in Uhlaender’s case is “too common.”
“Generally, countries are accountable for filling their very own Olympic slots for every sport they’re taken with competing in, and Uhlaender was excluded by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee,” Vanderhoeven told Global News. “The very fact she was not included at that stage, nor was she a member of the U.S. World Cup team in skeleton, made her probabilities of competing in a sixth Olympics for the U.S. already unlikely.”
Vanderhoeven noted that there are likely “many cases of less distinguished athletes of their sport narrowly missing out on discretionary places before each Olympic Games, but we don’t hear about them because they’ve not competed in an Olympic Games yet.”
“What is sort of interesting is how her standing as a multi-time Olympian in skeleton gave her the clout to get the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to launch an appeal on her behalf and see her call for the assistance of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance,” Vanderhoeven said.
Uhlaender asks JD Vance to advocate for her
Uhlaender is asking U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, who’s leading the U.S. delegation to Milan-Cortina, to assist advocate for her participation.
“As U.S. Vice-President JD Vance is scheduled to satisfy with the leadership of the International Olympic Committee, I respectfully ask that he stand with me as an Olympian that has represented the USA of America and our values, the USOPC, and the numerous affected nations in supporting our request to IOC President Kirsty Coventry to make use of her authority to uphold fairness in Olympic sport by granting a wildcard entry,” Uhlaender told Fox News.
“Doing so would protect the integrity of competition and forestall further harm. Such motion would send a robust message to young athletes in every single place: that standing up for ethics and integrity could also be difficult, however it matters.”
“If I could speak with JD Vance, I might ask if he would stand with me, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and lots of other nations,” she added in a post on X.
The 2026 Olympics will begin with opening ceremonies on Feb. 6. The ladies’s skeleton competition is about to happen on Feb. 13 and 14.
— With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press