{"id":441480,"date":"2026-01-29T19:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441480\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:47:14","slug":"team-canada-skeleton-actions-ruled-intentional-to-keep-u-s-athlete-out-of-competition-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441480\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada skeleton actions ruled \u2018intentional\u2019 to keep U.S. athlete out of competition – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

An International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation<\/a> (IBSF) investigation has found that Team Canada<\/a> intentionally altered the outcome of the North American Cup (NAC) in Lake Placid, N.Y., earlier this month after it withdrew its athletes, thereby denying American Olympian Katie Uhlaender<\/a> a chance to qualify<\/a> for this year\u2019s Winter Olympics in Italy.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. skeleton athlete was hoping to be the first woman to compete in the Winter Games six times for the U.S., but fell just short of qualifying for the Olympic team.<\/p>\n

Though Uhlaender won in Lake Placid, she received 25 per cent fewer ranking points than she would have in a full field, which consists of 21 or more sliders. That point difference left her behind the U.S.\u2019 Mystique Ro in the final standings.<\/p>\n

The NAC series is a tier below World Cup level and is typically reserved for developmental athletes. Uhlaender competed in seven races this season on the NAC and Asian Cup circuits \u2014 another lower-tier series \u2014 in an effort to collect enough points to make the Olympic team after failing to make this season\u2019s U.S. World Cup roster. She\u00a0appealed the decision by international officials.<\/p>\n

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She also asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a wild-card berth into the Olympic women\u2019s skeleton field, which currently has a maximum of 25 sliders, including two from the U.S.<\/p>\n

Read IBSF tribunal final order<\/p>\n

Sorry, this visualization could not be loaded\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appeals tribunal is satisfied that the action of the Canadians was intentional and directed to reducing the points available to athletes who slid at the final Lake Placid NAC,\u201d the ruling found.<\/p>\n

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The complaint was ultimately dismissed, however, on the grounds that \u201cthe Olympic Movement Code does not set out standards or means by which event records can be changed other than through sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear what those sanctions would be, or if they will be implemented.<\/p>\n

Uhlaendar responded to the ruling by the IBSF in a statement to Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cToday\u2019s decision by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) Appeals Tribunal reinforces what I, and many other athletes, have known all along,\u201d she said. \u201cThe actions of Canadian coach Joe Cecchini and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton were intentional and deliberately aimed at reducing the points available. This was blatant competition manipulation, yet there have been no consequences for the coach involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The sporting body clarified in a news release<\/a> earlier this month that current rules allow federations to withdraw athletes at any time, but reminded coaches to operate \u201cwithin the spirit\u201d of the rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll parties concerned should also act within the spirit of the Code, whose aim is to promote fair play and ethical conduct at all times,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IBSF will task its Sport Committee to review this incident that occurred at the NAC in Lake Placid during the Sport Committee meeting in spring and possibly suggest adjustments to the Rules,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

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Canadian coaches, athletes and sports officials have denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS)\u00a0told the New York Times<\/a> that\u00a0the decision to withdraw athletes was made \u201cafter careful evaluation of the program\u2019s needs and in consultation with the IBSF.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing a collective assessment by the coaching and performance team, it was determined that continuing to race these athletes was not in their best interests, nor in the best interests of the program,\u201d the organization said.<\/p>\n

BCS also said the decision was made after \u201ccareful consideration of athlete health, safety, and long-term development.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee chief of sport and athlete services, Rocky Harris, said the IOC deferred to the IBSF\u2019s investigation, finding that no rules were broken.<\/p>\n

Global News has reached out to BCS for further comment. As of this writing, there has been no response.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Global News\u2019 Katie Scott<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) investigation has found that Team Canada intentionally altered the outcome of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[161684,49,48,182764,105661,82,13543,519,2845],"class_list":["post-441480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-olympics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-katie-uhlaender","tag-skeleton","tag-sports","tag-team-canada","tag-trending","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}