Skeleton Discussion | Qualification to Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026

[Holgermat 9]

Agree. That article is completely non-sensical. No one understands the qualification system apart from actually Cecchini. And the ones who technically could be upset (e.g. Austria) are not mentioned. :D

 

And the Israelis athlete is interestingly the woman who just drove down the halfpipe at the 2018 Olympics.

 

Plus, that race did get Johansen into the quota slot for 

Edited January 13 by Holgermat

[heywoodu 16,434]

I am so confused at the whole thing

 

Can someone give a short summary of what is the actual issue, and what would have happened (as in, who would have qualified) if those Canadians who withdrew did start?

[Faramir 515]

21 hours ago, evil betty said:

The interesting part of the article is the opening, about Uhlaender. She claims it dashes her hopes for making it to the Olympics? How? The americans have no rational chance of qualifying 3 sleds, so does losing 30 points deprive her of being nominated as one of the two americans ahead of either mystique ro or kelly curtis?

The American selection criteria is IBSF ranking as of January 18th. Currently:
 

15	Kelly Curtis	710
16	Alessandra Fumagalli	704
17	Mystique Ro	694
18	Valentina Margaglio	668
19	Sujung Hong	662
20	Katie Uhlaender	660

 

So those 30 points could be important depending on next weekend.

[evil betty 88]

35 minutes ago, Faramir said:

The American selection criteria is IBSF ranking as of January 18th. Currently:
 

15	Kelly Curtis	710
16	Alessandra Fumagalli	704
17	Mystique Ro	694
18	Valentina Margaglio	668
19	Sujung Hong	662
20	Katie Uhlaender	660

 

So those 30 points could be important depending on next weekend.

I see, wasn't sure if they had internal trials like Canada had in the past. So Uhlaender will receive 84 points, more possibly if she races again, and Ro has one more race. So very understandable why she would be upset. 

[evil betty 88]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

I am so confused at the whole thing

 

Can someone give a short summary of what is the actual issue, and what would have happened (as in, who would have qualified) if those Canadians who withdrew did start?

So qualification isn't done, and the last few spots are very close with essentially one more race to go.

 

On the 6th and 7th Canada entered 6 racers in the lower tier North American cup races in Lake Placid. On the 11th there was races again in Lake Placid, Canada only entered 2 (articles say withdrew 4, start list on the 10th says 2 registered, whatever). 

If the total amount entered was above 20 then the ranking points for first start at 120 and go down incrementally, with only 2 Canadians entered there were 19 competitors so points for first only start at 90. 

 

The USA only has a shot at qualifying 2 sleds at this point, and Uhlaender appears to have had a shot at catching up to 2nd best among the americans. She came 1st, those 30 points really cost her if that is how the USA nominates their team.

 

The best 17 countries get one sled, based on how their top competitor is ranked.  is in 13th with 498 points,  is in 14th with 480,  15th 475,  16th 468,  17th 457,  18th 456 and no one else has the ability to gain enough points.  could have received 27 more points,  19 more,  21 more. So a big deal for them, and not appearing in the stories.

 

The accusation is that Canada did it for their own gain, to protect Channell's chance of qualifying: the 6 countries with the highest ranked 2nd best slider get a 2nd quota.  Channell holds the last spot at 512,  Erlacher is next at 484. Both only race at the World Cup level. However, the next best after that is  Simmchen at 391, who did race in Lake Placid and misses out on 25 points. Both her and her teammate would have to pass both Channell and Erlacher in the rankings for them to achieve a 2nd quota. A miraculous outcome, but that is what Uhlaender is accusing the Canadians of being afraid of. Could be, I don't think so but who knows.

 

[Josh 13,429]

This might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read and the complaints by Uhlander are ridiculous and unjustified just because the decision benefits Canada and not her and it’ll lessen her odds of making the Olympics 

 

Since when are other countries supposed to look out for you? 

[Josh 13,429]

2 minutes ago, Josh said:

This might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read and the complaints by Uhlander are ridiculous and unjustified just because the decision benefits Canada and not her and it’ll lessen her odds of making the Olympics 

 

Since when are other countries supposed to look out for you? 

Yes, I can understand where she’s coming from. 
 

The complaining on her IG stories is getting a bit much though… 

[NearPup 4,136]

The IBSF has concluded their investigation on the late withdrawal of Canadian athletes from the Lake Placid race and will not be taking any actions.

 

[Grassmarket 4,249]

27 minutes ago, NearPup said:

The IBSF has concluded their investigation on the late withdrawal of Canadian athletes from the Lake Placid race and will not be taking any actions.

 

Full ruling here

 

https://www.ibsf.org/en/news/detail/interim-integrity-unit-renders-decision-on-incident-at-skeleton-north-american-cup-competition

[evil betty 88]

3 hours ago, Josh said:

Yes, I can understand where she’s coming from. 
 

The complaining on her IG stories is getting a bit much though… 

You kind of wonder if some of it is misdirected. I mean, the americans get 3 entries in the world cup and she is not one of them so it was a near impossible task from the beginning. It seems like when she was doing well they could have reconsidered their top three for the January races, then she would have had a decent chance. Or her team could have entered more americans in earlier races too to boost the score of the first four NA cup races, but they didn't. So what were her conversations like with the american coaching team like?