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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the world’s highest court for resolving disputes related to international athletics, will hear an appeal by American athlete Katie Uhlaender for a place at the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympic Games.
Uhlaender is seeking qualification after missing out on the opportunity to qualify when Team Canada withdrew athletes from the North America Cup earlier this month, reducing the number of points the event could award. The points reduction made it impossible for Uhlaender to win enough to qualify.
Now the CAS will review the case.
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“Ms. Uhlaender requests that the CAS determine whether the BCS’s decision to withdraw four of its athletes from the IBSF North American Cup race on January 11, 2026 violated the Olympic Movement’s Code on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions, and whether the BCS coaches violated the IBSF Code of Conduct,” the CAS said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The hearing is scheduled for Sunday morning.
An investigation by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) found that Team Canada intentionally manipulated points at the competition in Lake Placid. However, the IBSF also did not review any of the results or impose any penalties as a result.
AMERICAN OLYMPIAN SPEAKS AFTER TEAM CANADA’S WITHDRAWAL PREVENTS HER FROM QUALIFYING FOR MILAN-CORTINA
Katie Uhlaender of the USA reacts after the women’s skeleton race 2 during the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games at the Olympic Sliding Center in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on February 16, 2018. (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)
“Although Canada subsequently attributed its decision to order four athletes not to slide in official training to concerns about the athletes involved, substantial evidence supports Ms. Uhlaender’s claim that the move was a deliberate effort by Canada to reduce the points available at the Lake Placid NAC final to protect its own Olympic quotas,” the IBSF said.
“Although the disqualification of an athlete and the cancellation of results may have collateral impacts (for example, other participants moving up in official positions), the Olympic Movement Code does not establish standards or means by which event records can be changed, except through sanctions,” the announcement reads.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requesting that Uhlaender be granted a spot. Fifteen other countries They have joined that request.
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Katie Uhlaender (USA) competes in the women’s skeleton event at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games at the Olympic Sliding Center in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on February 17, 2018. (James Lang/USA TODAY Sports)
Canadian team skeleton coach Joe Cecchini defended the decision to withdraw the athletes earlier this month.
“This is all within the rules. There’s nothing wrong with those things. And people can be strategic in the races they enter. And she was doing that, and other nations were doing the same, because you want to do your best,” Cecchini said. CBC News. “This is, if anything, a failure of the system. But we were within the rules.”
