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Canadian national team skeleton coach Joe Cecchini has spoken out about the sudden national controversy surrounding his team’s decision to withdraw athletes from an Olympic qualifier, costing American Katie Uhlaender a chance to make it to the Milan Cortina Winter Games. Uhlaender has responded to his claims.
Cecchini told CBC News there is “nothing wrong” with his team’s decision to withdraw four athletes from the North America Cup earlier this month, which reduced the total number of points the event could award.
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) determined this week that the decision was “intentional and aimed at reducing the available points”, making it mathematically impossible for Uhlaender to qualify for Milan Cortina. But the IBSF did not impose sanctions or review scores despite the findings.
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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)
“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. “This is, if anything, a failure of the system. But we were within the rules.”
Cecchini also took direct aim at Uhlaender, saying she is not a “top-level athlete.”
“I don’t really want to speak negatively about Katie, but Katie wasn’t on the World Cup team. She was no longer a top athlete on that program. She was at the end of her career. Personally I would rather compete against Katie. She’s not as competitive as the other athletes,” he said. “It’s probably really unfair to say it and not really where I’m going with this, but that’s where we are with it.”
Uhlander, who competed in the five previous Winter Olympics, responded to the coach for his comments.
“If I were Canada, I would be concerned about how this coach represents his country’s Olympic values,” Uhlaender told Pak Gazette Digital. “He hurt an entire field of athletes, all with dreams, and this sends the message that they don’t matter unless they are number one. All athletes matter and we all deserve to compete fairly, with integrity and respect. He didn’t respect anyone in that field.
“It’s not about my resume or how good the athletes were in the race. It’s about the fact that he intentionally rigged the competition to hurt me and 13 other countries because he felt it necessary to eliminate any possibility. That goes against the spirit of sport and not what the Olympic movement stands for.”
TEAM CANADA WAS FOUND TO HAVE MANIPULATED THE COMPETITION THAT COST THE AMERICAN SHOOTING AT THE MILAN CORTINA OLYMPIC GAMES
Uhlaender won two world championship gold medals in 2012. While he never won an Olympic medal, he reached the final in all five of his appearances.
Meanwhile, Cecchini, as an athlete, was originally a member of the Canadian skeleton team. He narrowly missed Olympic qualification in 2014. He later switched to Italy’s less competitive team and qualified for that country’s Olympic team for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games. He finished 27th in men’s skeleton in Pyeongchang for Italy.
Now as coach, Cecchini finds himself at the center of a global controversy facing Milan Cortina following his team’s decision earlier this month.
So far, 15 other nations have expressed support for Uhlaender’s bid for an Olympic berth in response to Canada’s decision.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) originally said the decision to withdraw the athletes was made “after careful assessment of the needs of the program and in consultation with the IBSF” and “careful consideration of the health, safety and long-term development of the athletes.”
However, the IBSF has found evidence that Canada made a conscious decision to withdraw athletes to manipulate the potential points at stake.
“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 verdict read.
Cecchini added that the situation has been “horrible” for him.
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(Left) A large Olympic rings logo is seen inside the stadium as flag bearers Charles Hamelin and Marie-Philip Poulin of Team Canada lead their team during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China, on February 4, 2022. (Right) Katie Uhlaender of Team USA poses for a portrait during the team’s Olympic shoot USA Beijing 2022 in Irvine, California on September 12. 2021. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images; Tom Pennington/Getty Images for Team USA)
“For me personally, this has been horrible. I never expected that a decision like this within the ruleset on a development circuit would cause such a scenario,” he told The CBC.
“I feel very bad for the athletes in trying to understand why people are potentially angry. There is the voice of an athlete who has been to multiple Olympic Games and has some influence. And it has been very difficult, and it has challenged myself and my staff.”
