Katie Uhlaender, a U.S. skeleton racer and five-time Olympian, faced a setback in her bid to qualify for the upcoming Milano Cortina Games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) stated it lacked the authority to intervene in a race dispute that could have secured Uhlaender a spot in the Olympics. Uhlaender had raised concerns that Canada’s skeleton coach manipulated a race outcome by withdrawing four athletes from a North American Cup event in Lake Placid on January 11, reducing the available ranking points and impacting her qualification chances.
Despite Uhlaender’s appeal to CAS, both the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation and the International Olympic Committee had previously concluded that no rules were violated. CAS’s division for the Milano-Cortina Winter Games clarified that it could only address disputes occurring within 10 days of the Olympics’ commencement, starting from January 27. As the race incident took place on January 11, falling outside the specified timeframe, CAS dismissed Uhlaender’s appeal.
As a result, Kelly Curtis and Mystique Ro have been selected to represent the U.S. in the women’s skeleton event at the Olympics. CAS also rejected an appeal from Ireland’s luge team against the International Luge Federation, citing the same jurisdictional limitation regarding the 10-day window around the games.
Ireland had contended that Elsa Desmond was unfairly denied a qualifying place for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games due to the allocation of qualification spots to athletes with Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) status. The dispute centered on the eligibility of two Russian sliders granted AIN designations, which, according to Ireland, did not meet all the criteria for Olympic qualification. Despite all 106 luge athlete spots being filled by 105 athletes, with Wolfgang Kindl securing qualification in two disciplines, Ireland argued for the inclusion of a 106th athlete based on the circumstances.
In a separate development, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton defended its decision to remove four athletes from a competition following allegations of sabotage aimed at an American athlete seeking her sixth Olympic appearance.