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U.S. skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender has asked the International Olympic Committee for a wildcard into the 2026 Winter Olympics after Canada’s skeleton team withdrew four athletes from a competition earlier this month, ending her bid for a sixth Games despite winning the race.
Due to the Canadian withdrawals from the races in Lake Placid, U.S., the field dropped to a size that reduced the number of ranking points available. This ended Uhlaender’s qualification hopes for next month’s Milano-Cortina Olympics.
Uhlaender, a double world champion with a personal Olympic-best finish of fourth in 2014, alleged that the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton [BCS] “manipulated” the race, impacting Olympic and World Cup qualification points for athletes from more than five nations.
“This request is not about special treatment. It is about preventing further damage and upholding the spirit and values of Olympic sport,” she said in a statement on Saturday.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton is defending a decision to remove four athletes from a competition after a coach was accused of intentionally sabotaging an American athlete trying to reach her sixth Olympics.
BCS, which did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, was cleared last week by the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation of any wrongdoing after an investigation.
BCS said it withdrew the athletes out of safety concerns and recognized the move had an unintended impact on the size of the field.
Uhlaender said she will also ask the Court of Arbitration for Sport to intervene in the case.
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