Katie Uhlaender of the U.S. during fourth run at the skeleton world championships on March 7, 2025, in Lake Placid, N.Y.Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press
It is a rule of scandals that none that take 10 paragraphs to explain can really get going. That’s how Canadian politicians have been getting away with it for so long.
This is the case with the great skeleton eruption of 2026.
The broadest of broad strokes – that Canada pulled a number of young skeleton riders from a junior circuit race, which caused fewer points to be awarded to participants and prevented 41-year-old American and former world champion Katie Uhlaender from qualifying for the upcoming Olympics.
According to the Times of London, Uhlaender told the Canadian coach who made the call that he had you-know-whatted her, which in turn caused him to try to explain, which in turn caused Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton to explain his explanation, and now the sport’s governing body will take some time and decide on a final explanation. If you’re not familiar with the intricacies of skeleton competition – and who is? – this is all a little confusing.
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Here’s an explanation everyone can understand, and the one Canada should have started with – tough.
You didn’t qualify? Tough. You’re upset about that? Tough. You believe you are owed a spot in the Olympics because you really want one? Double tough.
On one level, this is the reality of Canada’s changed relationship with the U.S. We used to be friends, but now we can’t be invited to the same parties without it causing a problem. For us, at least.
Take sports out of it. Why would any Canadian be looking to help out any American right now? You want to play by friend rules? Then you should try being friends.
If we’re not friends, we’re not doing you any more solids. Go ask Russia to give you a hand.
This is a corrective to the skewed perception of what the Olympics is about. It’s not about friendship, or helping hands, or sharing is caring. This is not an exercise in participation, where everyone should leave feeling good about themselves because they all got a chance.
That messaging worked in the early 2000s when everyone was getting along. The world was shrinking and the Fukuyama-ian vision of the end of history still seemed plausible. Winning at sports had never been less important.
That world has slowly, and now quickly, disappeared. We’re back to the grab-what-you-can-for-yourself seventies, and a more primal sort of Olympics. This is the Olympics as it was originally envisioned – a ruthless competition between nation-states vying for prestige and influence.
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It’s war by other means, very literally. Because if you start an actual war, you are less likely to be allowed to compete in the Olympics’ phony war (though this standard is not universally applied).
If you’ve read about the Uhlaender case, one of the terms that keeps popping up in statements is “Olympic spirit.” Several people, including Uhlaender, have accused Canada of going against it.
When an American says it, they’re asking for something. When a Canadian hears it, they’re being told to bend over. In either direction is fine.
The Olympic spirit is present amidst the athletes themselves. They ought to treat each other with the respect that elite practitioners of any art generally give one another.
As much as they would like to think they do, sports administrators and bureaucrats do not have Olympic spirit, because they aren’t in the Olympics. Their job is to support the athletes who are.
Nobody talks about the creative spirit of Picasso’s art dealer. That guy’s job wasn’t aspiring to the highest ideals of the muse. It was shifting product at the best possible price.
Jane Channell of Team Canada slides during the Women's Skeleton heat 4 on day eight of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in Yanqing, China, in February, 2022.Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton’s job is to make sure Canadian athletes are put in the best position to perform. End of. How those decisions are made and how they affect other people is immaterial – as long as no rules have been broken.
As far as I understand, no one has accused Canada of breaking any rule. There isn’t a statute somewhere that says that once you agree to enter a race, you must race it, no take backs.
Because no rule was broken, everyone wants to start complaining about the “spirit” of the thing. Call me a cynic, but whatever happened to taking one on the chin? If Uhlaender wanted to make the Olympics so badly, she ought not have left her fate in the hands of someone who works for the competition.
Something tells me that given the current state of world affairs, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation will find a way to squeeze Uhlaender into the Olympics. Had this happened to Canada – forget about it. But the U.S.? Now? When they’re running around looking for bougie international institutions to light on fire? This is how real power works.
When that happens, it will be another example of how the Olympics has changed. Once you start bending the rules for some people, then there are no rules.
Which is great. This is what Canada should want.
This country recognized a while ago that the Olympics aren’t about being nice and making way. It made us feel good about ourselves and made others think we were weak. With Own the Podium, Canada acknowledged that a muscular sports apparatus projects strength to our friends as well as our enemies.
But that strength doesn’t matter unless it is tested, even unfairly. We’re the little guy again, being pushed around by bigger guys.
The important thing isn’t to win, since that is outside our power to determine. It’s to refuse to bend, which is entirely up to us. I don’t know about other places, but the Olympic spirit Canada needs right now is the spirit of combat. Go out there and fight – always within the rules – but unceasingly and uncompromisingly.
If Canada wants to be taken seriously on the world stage, refusing to roll over every time someone makes a complaint would be a nice change and a good place to start.