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Sporting tensions between the USA and Canada have erupted once again, this time in skeleton as next month’s Winter Olympics approach.
USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, has accused the Canadian team of depriving her of a place at the Milan-Cortina Games by manipulating a qualifying event over the weekend.
Uhlaender says that Canada deliberately pulled four of its sixth athletes from the race in the North American Cup in Lake Placid, New York. That meant the field was reduced to under 21 athletes and fewer qualifying points were on offer due to the lack of competition. Uhlaender believes the Canadian team did so to prevent American athletes from catching them in the standings for Olympic qualifying.
Uhlaender claims Joe Cecchini, the head coach of Canada’s skeleton team, told her he had come up with the scheme.
“I cried when I found out he went through with this plan,” Uhlaender told DW. “I didn’t know if it hurt more that my friend of 20 years just nailed my coffin, my Olympic dream is over. Or, that my best friend of 20 years is doing something so horrible that hurts so many people.”
Uhlaender says that Cecchini told her on Friday that it was not his job to “uplift” athletes from other countries and that his aim was to “eliminate any possibilities” that Canada’s Jane Channell would miss this year’s Olympics.
Uhlaender won the event at Lake Placid but the reduced points on offer means the 41-year-old will miss the Olympics. Although she won gold at the 2012 skeleton world championships, the closest she has come to an Olympic medal was when she finished fourth at the 2014 Games in Sochi.
Coaches from the US, Denmark, Israel and Malta, whose athletes were all affected by the Canadian withdrawals, have written to the IOC expressing “serious concerns” about the qualification process.
In a statement, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton defended the withdrawals, saying some of the athletes who were pulled from competition had already raced several times last week. It said the decision was “appropriate, transparent and aligned with both athlete welfare and the integrity of the sport.”
Uhlaender disagrees. “[Cecchini] did not have to do that. He did it because he could. And it wasn’t to protect his athletes; it was to manipulate the system,” she told DW. “He waited until after everyone was registered and gave the illusion that the Canadians were going to be competing. He wanted to make sure that we could not get full points.”
The flare-up comes after a number of heated sporting clashes between Canada and the US at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to make his neighbor a “51st state” and has raised tariffs on Canadian goods. During last year’s 4 Nations Face-off, Canadian ice hockey fans booed the US national anthem and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: “You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game.” Last season’s World Series saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays in a thrilling seven-game series, although most of the tension was due to the action on the field.
