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Canadian national skeleton team coach Joe Cecchini has spoken out about the sudden national controversy surrounding his team’s decision to pull athletes from an Olympic qualifier, costing American Katie Uhlaender a chance to compete at the Milan Cortina Winter Games. Uhlaender responded to his claims.
Cecchini told CBC News “there’s nothing wrong” with his team’s decision to pull 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 no penalty or score revision was made by the IBSF despite the findings.
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Katie Uhlaender of the United States reacts after the second race of the women’s skeleton during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics at the Olympic Sliding Center in Pyeongchang, South Korea, February 16, 2018. (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s all within the rules. There’s nothing wrong with those things. And people can be strategic in the races they compete in. And she was doing it, and other nations were doing it, because you want to do your best,” Cecchini said. “It’s more of a flaw in the system. But we were within the rules.”
Cecchini also took direct aim at Uhlaender, saying she was not a “top 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 in that program. She was at the end of her career. Personally, I would rather race against Katie. She’s not as competitive as the other athletes,” he said. “That’s probably a very unfair thing to say and I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but that’s where we are.”
Uhlander, who competed in the previous five Winter Olympics, hit back at 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 PK Press Club Digital. “He hurt an entire group of athletes, all with dreams, and it sends the message that they don’t matter unless they’re number one. All athletes matter, and we all deserve to compete fairly, with integrity and respect. He didn’t respect anyone in this area.
“It’s not about my resume or the quality of the athletes in the race. It’s about the fact that he intentionally manipulated the competition to harm me and 13 other countries because he saw it necessary to eliminate any possibility. This is against the spirit of sport and not what the Olympic movement stands for.”
TEAM CANADA MANIPULATED A COMPETITION THAT COST AN AMERICAN SHOT AT THE MILAN CORTINA OLYMPIC GAMES
Uhlaender won two gold medals at the World Championships in 2012. Although she has never won an Olympic medal, she has reached the final in all five of her appearances.
Meanwhile, Cecchini, as an athlete, was originally a member of the Canadian skeleton team. He narrowly missed Olympic qualification in 2014. He then joined the less competitive Italian team and earned qualification for that country’s Olympic team for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games. He finished 27th in the men’s skeleton in Pyeongchang for Italy.
Now, as coach, Cecchini finds himself at the center of a global controversy ahead of Milan Cortina following his team’s decision earlier this month.
So far, 15 other countries have expressed support for Uhlaender’s bid for an Olympic berth in response to Canada’s decision.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) initially said the decision to remove the athletes was made “after a 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 found evidence that Canada made a conscious decision to remove athletes in order to manipulate the potential points at stake.
“Although Canada later 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 assertion that this decision was a deliberate effort by Canada to reduce the points available at the Lake Placid NAC final in order to protect its own Olympic quotas,” the IBSF verdict said.
Cecchini added that the situation was “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 Olympics at the National Stadium in Beijing, China, February 4, 2022. (Right) Katie Uhlaender of Team USA poses for a portrait while filming the Games Team USA’s 2022 Beijing Olympics in Irvine, California on September 12. 2021. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images; Tom Pennington/Getty Images for Team USA)
“For me personally, it’s been horrible. I never expected that such a decision under the rules of a development circuit would cause such a scenario,” he told CBC.
“I feel really bad for the athletes who are trying to understand why people are so potentially angry. There is the voice of an athlete who has been to multiple Olympics and has some influence. And that has been very difficult, and it has challenged myself and my team.”
