Canada’s skeleton team have been cleared of allegations they rigged a qualifying event for the Winter Olympics and denied rival athletes from qualifying for next month’s Games.
USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, accused the Canadian team of deliberately pulling four of its six athletes from a race in Lake Placid, New York, last weekend in order to make it harder for athletes from other countries to qualify. The reduced field meant fewer qualifying points were available and Uhlaender, who won the event, did not secure her place at this year’s Games, which will take place in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Uhlaender claims Joe Cecchini, the head coach of Canada’s skeleton team, told her he had come up with the scheme.
However, the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) said it would take no action after investigating the allegations.
“The current IBSF Rules allow National Federations to withdraw athletes from competition at any time,” IBSF said in a statement on Thursday. “The IIU dismissed the complaints as the current IBSF Rules and Regulations did not give grounds for a breach of the International Rules, the Code of Conduct, and respectively the Code of Ethics.”
Three officials for Norway’s men’s ski jumping team have been suspended for 18 months and fined by the FIS Ethics Committee (FEC) for manipulating competition suits at last year’s Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim.
The case tarnished Norway’s hosting of the Nordic World Ski Championships last March and the country’s wider reputation for fair play.
The head coach Magnus Brevik, former assistant coach Thomas Lobben and suit technician Adrian Livelten were sanctioned after an investigation into equipment tampering during the men’s large hill event in March 2025.
The controversy erupted after Norway’s Olympic champions Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, along with the coaching staff, were charged over the use of altered suits. Lindvik initially finished second but was stripped of his silver medal after being disqualified, while Forfang, who placed fourth, was also disqualified after an equipment inspection.
The Norwegian Ski Federation admitted after the competition that the team had manipulated the suits but said the ski jumpers were not at fault for the violations. The organisers found nothing untoward during the initial check, but after the race they discovered different material in the seams. Forfang and Lindvik accepted three-month bans in August and are back competing ahead of the Milan Cortina Olympics next month.
In a statement, the FIS said Brevik, Lobben and Livelten would be ineligible for a period “of 18 months, commencing on the date of the decision (8 January 2026), less the period of provisional suspension already served since 12 March 2025”.
The governing body added they would have to contribute 5,000 Swiss Franc (£4,650, $6,246) each to the costs of the proceedings and the investigation.
In a statement to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, the trio’s lawyers said the decision was “disproportionately strict”.
“The grounds of the judgment expressly state that similar rule violations have not been sanctioned previously – or have only been met with a warning – and that this case is being used as an example to mark a new and stricter line in international ski jumping,” they added. AP and Reuters
Coaches from the US, Denmark, Israel and Malta, whose athletes were all affected by the Canadian withdrawals, had expressed “serious concerns” about the qualification process.
However, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton defended the withdrawals, saying some of the athletes who were pulled from competition had already raced several times last week and needed to rest. It said the decision was “appropriate, transparent and aligned with both athlete welfare and the integrity of the sport.”
Uhlaender, who is 41, has said the 2026 Olympics will be her last. She can still qualify for next month’s Games, but the US spots are likely to go to Kelly Curtis and Mystique Ro. Although Uhlaender 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.
The incident 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.
