Kathryn "Katie" Uhlaender (born July 17, 1984) is an American skeleton racer who has competed since 2003. She has won six medals at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since FIBT World Championships 1930, 1930. Starting with 2002, no Wo ...

with two gold (women's skeleton: FIBT World Championships 2012, mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event: 2012), one silver (women's skeleton:

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

), and three bronze (women's skeleton:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event: 2008,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Career

Uhlaender won the women's Skeleton World Cup title twice ( 2006-7, 2007-8). She also finished sixth in the women's skeleton event at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. She earned a medical waiver to compete in the 2009-10 Skeleton World Cup season following surgery in the wake of an April 2009

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...

accident where Uhelander shattered her

kneecap The patella (: patellae or patellas), also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in m ...

. She then broke it again in August 2009 (having a total of four surgeries). She qualified for the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, where she finished 11th. She then had another surgery (microfracture labral repair by Dr Phillipon at Steadman Hawkins). On January 18, 2014, Uhlaender was named to the 2014 Olympic team. She placed fourth at the 2014 Olympics, missing out on a medal by .04 seconds. Uhlaender has also participated in weightlifting competitions. The 2012 U.S. Olympic trials were just the third meet of her weightlifting career, but she did not make the team. She took the 2014-15 season off from skeleton and gave up on weightlifting to get healthy. She participated in track cycling, attempting to be a starter in the women's team sprint. She posted her best one-lap time of 20.7 at Senior Nationals 2015. Uhlaender was named, along with Kendall Wesenberg, to represent the U.S. in women's skeleton at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

. In July 2018, Uhlaender testified before the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington, DC, on the subject of doping in sports. She was on a panel alongside Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Administration,

Jim Walden Jim Walden (born April 10, 1938) is an American former gridiron football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University from 1978 to 1986 and Iowa State University from 1987 to 1994, compiling a career col ...

, the attorney for Russian whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, and Yuliya Stepanova, a former Russian track star turned whistleblower. Uhlaender told the body that she felt she was twice unfairly denied an Olympic medal. The loss "erased the meaning of sport and the Olympics as I knew it."

Personal life

A native of

Vail Vail is a home rule municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,835 in 2020. Home to Vail Ski Resort, the largest ski mountain in Colorado, the town is known for its hotels, dining, and for the nume ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, Uhlaender lives in nearby Breckenridge while training, but lives in McDonald,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

the rest of the year. She is the daughter of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

outfielder (and former

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

coach) Ted Uhlaender. In memory of her father, she wears his National League Championship ring from the 1972 Cincinnati Reds on a necklace.

References

External links

* * * * * . October 26, 2009. Accessed October 27, 2009. * *
"Meet Katie Uhlaender, Skeleton"
AP Winter Games, February 2010. * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Uhlaender, Katie 1984 births American female skeleton racers Living people Olympic skeleton racers for the United States People from Vail, Colorado Skeleton racers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2022 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Colorado 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century American women