Katie Uhlaender fights for Olympic spot after Staff Canada’s withdrawal

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5-time Staff USA Olympian Katie Uhlaender was on her strategy to making her sixth Winter Video games. However then a call by Team Canada took all of it away.

With a shot at qualifying in the course of the North American Skeleton Cup in Lake Placid, New York, earlier this month, Canada withdrew 4 of its athletes from competitors. The withdrawal shrunk the entire quantity of factors the competitors might award, making it unattainable for Uhlaender to earn sufficient for Olympic qualification.

4 Canadian girls’s skeleton athletes had been withdrawn simply earlier than competitors. Below Worldwide Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) guidelines, solely 75% of factors had been issued, mathematically eliminating Uhlaender from Milan-Cortina earlier than the primary warmth even started.

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Katie Uhlaender of the U.S. competes within the girls’s skeleton occasion on the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Video games on the Olympic Sliding Heart in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 17, 2018. (James Lang/USA In the present day Sports activities)

One of many Canadian athletes mentioned the coaches mentioned the rationale for the withdrawal was attributable to "the perfect curiosity for the best way factors had labored."

"That they had come over and defined to us that it could be in the perfect curiosity for the best way factors had labored for Jane, in order that we as a crew can qualify two spots to the Olympics," Canadian skeleton racer Madeline Parra advised The Canadian Press.

Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) mentioned the choice to withdraw the athletes was made "after cautious analysis of this system's wants and in session with the IBSF" and "cautious consideration of athlete well being, security, and long-term growth."

"It was decided that persevering with to race these athletes was not of their greatest pursuits, nor in the perfect pursuits of this system," it added.

For Uhlaender, at 41 years outdated, the end result was laborious to swallow, however she additionally feels for each different competitor affected. So, now she is preventing again.

"It harm all of us," Uhlaender advised Fox Information Digital. "So, after I turned, and I checked out these younger girls, as a result of I am a senior I have been to 5 Olympics, this could be my sixth.

"So, a few of these ladies are attempting to make their first, and so they're younger … so I believed it was my responsibility as an American Olympian and somebody who believes in doing the proper factor to say one thing."

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Katie Uhlaender of the U.S. reacts after the ladies’s skeleton warmth two run in the course of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Video games on the Olympic Sliding Heart in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 16, 2018. (Mark Ralston/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)

Uhlaender has lobbied the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to submit a letter to the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), asking for an extra Olympic spot for her. Fox Information Digital has obtained a duplicate of the letter.

"These actions circumvented the Olympic qualification rules, undermined truthful competitors, and in the end disadvantaged Ms. Uhlaender of the chance to compete within the XXV Milan-Cortina Winter Video games," the letter, signed by USOPC Chief of Sport & Athlete Companies Rocky Harris, mentioned.

"It's plain that Ms. Uhlaender deserves to go to the Olympic Video games."

Uhlaender beforehand submitted an appeal to the IBS , and says she needed to pay a $5,000 charge to do it.

IBSF’s Interim Integrity Unit investigated allegations of competitors manipulation. It acknowledged the withdrawals raised concern however concluded the governing guidelines permit groups to withdraw athletes at any time. As a result of the rulebook accommodates no penalty or safeguard for late withdrawals that alter factors distribution, the IIU dismissed the criticism.

However Uhlaender did not again down, vowing to problem the choice additional and even rallied worldwide help behind her trigger.

Belgium, South Korea , the Virgin Islands, Malta, Israel and Denmark's groups have all put their help behind Uhlaender's efforts, sending letters of help to the USOPC to try to have the occasion additional investigated.

"My mates in Denmark and I, we've not talked about Greenland as soon as," Uhlaender joked.

Uhlaender has even mentioned that some Canadian athletes are privately supporting her on this battle.

She will not be ruling out taking the problem to the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) till it's resolved.

Vice President JD Vance will lead the U.S. Presidential Delegation to the Milan-Cortina Olympics subsequent month. Uhlaender hopes the vp will advocate for her participation.

"As U.S. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to fulfill with the management of the Worldwide Olympic Committee, I respectfully ask that he stand with me as an Olympian that has represented the US 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 equity in Olympic sport by granting a wildcard entry," Uhlaender mentioned.

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Katie Uhlaender of the U.S. poses for a portrait in the course of the Staff USA Beijing 2022 Olympic shoot in Irvine, Calif., Sept. 12, 2021. (Tom Pennington/Getty Pictures for Staff USA)

"Doing so would defend the integrity of competitors and stop additional hurt. Such motion would ship a robust message to younger athletes all over the place: that standing up for ethics and integrity could also be troublesome, however it issues."

Fox Information Digital has reached out to BCS and the IBSF for a response.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports activities reporter for Fox Information Digital protecting important political and cultural points in sports activities, with an investigative lens. Jackson's reporting has been cited in federal authorities actions associated to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media shops together with The New York Occasions, The Los Angeles Occasions, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Related Press and ESPN.com.