For years, Katie Uhlaender had a purpose that few athletes even dare to dream — to compete in each the Winter and Summer time Olympics.
An damage derailed that try. Now one other dream seems to have been dashed for the daughter of former main league baseball participant Ted Uhlaender — representing the USA in a document sixth consecutive Winter Olympics.
Group Canada was discovered to have manipulated the end result of the Lake Placid North American Cup in early January. Uhlaender, 41, gained the race in skeleton, however the manipulation stored her from getting the requisite factors to qualify for the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Video games.
An investigation by the Worldwide Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) discovered that Canada purposely withdrew 4 athletes from the competitors, decreasing the variety of factors that may very well be awarded and making it mathematically not possible for Uhlaender to earn sufficient factors to qualify.
Why did Canada maintain again 4 athletes from competing? As a result of it ensured {that a} second Canadian would qualify for the Olympics reasonably than Uhlaender.
Canadian skeleton athlete Madeline Parra admitted as a lot, telling The Canadian Press that her coaches “defined to us that it will be in one of the best curiosity for the best way factors had labored for [Canadian skeleton racer Jane Channell], in order that we as a group can qualify two spots to the Olympics.”
But regardless of the IBSF discovering that Canada breached its Code of Ethics, no motion has been taken as a result of IBSF guidelines additionally state that Nationwide Federations might withdraw athletes from competitors at any time.
The IBSF mentioned it’s going to “probably counsel changes to the foundations” when its sport committee meets within the spring, however that doesn’t assist Uhlaender. The Winter Olympics start Feb. 6.
“That is in regards to the integrity of sport and code of ethics that upholds sportsmanship, honest play, integrity, respect and neighborhood,” Uhlaender mentioned in a publish on X.
A petition by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) to just accept Uhlaender as a discretionary entry was supported by 12 different nations, however the request was denied. Discretionary Olympic spots are rare, however in 2023, fencer Olga Kharlan obtained a spot at Paris 2024 from former IOC President Thomas Bach.
Uhlaender additionally felt a private betrayal as a result of she described Group Canada coach Joe Cecchini as a longtime good friend and former fellow skeleton competitor. Cecchini referred to as Uhlaender the evening earlier than the race to tell her that 4 Canadians had been pulling out.
“I cried after I discovered he went by with this plan,” Uhlaender mentioned. “I didn’t know if it damage extra that my good friend of 20 years simply nailed my coffin, my Olympic dream is over. Or, that my greatest good friend of 20 years is doing one thing so horrible that hurts so many individuals.”
Disappointment appears to hang-out Uhlaender. In 2009, she shattered her kneecap in a snowmobiling accident and required eight surgical procedures, however she recovered in time to compete on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
She completed in eleventh place in these Video games, saying the demise of her father in 2009 to most cancers impacted her much more than recovering from the surgical procedures. Ted Uhlaender was thought of one of many high middle fielders in MLB from 1965-1972 for Minnesota, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
The damage ended her try and make the summer season U.S. Olympic group as a weightlifter, a sport through which she had risen to a world-class stage within the ladies’s 63-kilogram division. Uhlaender continued to dominate in skeleton, the place a racer rides a small sled as much as 80 mph head-first and face-down alongside a steep, banked ice observe.
Though Uhlaender has not gained an Olympics medal — coming closest with a fourth-place end on the 2014 Sochi Video games — she gained the skeleton World Championship in 2012 and World Cup titles in 2007 and 2008.
The U.S. will ship Kelly Curtis and Mystique Ro to the Milan Olympics in skeleton. Uhlaender’s final hope for a discretionary berth is an attraction to the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport. Ought to that fail, Uhlaender’s last Olympics influence may be a change in IBSF guidelines to stop a recurrence of Canada’s scheme.
The IBSF alluded to the issue in its ruling that Canada was free to carry again its racers, no matter motive: “The Canadian coach and the Nationwide Federation shall be reminded that, while appearing throughout the letter of the IBSF Code of Conduct, it’s anticipated that every one events involved must also act throughout the spirit of the Code, whose intention is to advertise honest play and moral conduct always.”
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