Canadian slider Jane Channell saw her skeleton team under an intense spotlight before and during this year's Winter Games.Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Skeleton racer Jane Channell had a lot to get off her chest. Speaking through tears after her final run at the Cortina Sliding Centre, the 37-year-old three-time Olympian shared thoughts she had shelved while preparing for the Games.
The native of North Vancouver, B.C., tried to focus on training, but in the background a point-manipulation controversy swirled and the actions of her coach, Joe Cecchini, were under scrutiny.
“It’s been a lot, so these tears are just a release,” Channell told The Globe, still holding her helmet after the mixed team event where she finished 15th with teammate Josip Brusic.
The Canadian skeleton team made international news in January after U.S. slider Katie Uhlaender complained that a decision by Cecchini to pull four development team athletes from a women’s race in the lower-tier North American Cup was unfair because it reduced the ranking points available and lessened her chances of getting to a sixth Olympics.
Canada’s skeleton team looks past controversy to Olympic Games
The move helped assure Canada qualified two sleds and therefore protected Channell’s spot.
“Every other coach and every other nation would have done the same thing,” said Channell.
The U.S. had qualified two sleds, and that would not have changed. So Channell said Uhlaender should have been appealing to her own federation or competed head to head on the World Cup circuit if she thought she deserved the second U.S. spot, which was earned by Mystique Ro.
“If Katie wasn’t going to the Olympics, there was going to be an enemy. It was either going to be Canada, or it was going to be the U.S.,” said Channell. “It was easier to go after Canada, when in reality she should have been taking it up with her own federation.”
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation investigated and said Cecchini had acted within the rules, but was reminded to act within the spirit of fair play. Bobsled Canada Skeleton, the sport’s governing body in Canada, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Channell disagreed with a report that surfaced during the Games that said her coach, Joe Cecchini, was intimidating and scary.Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
Then, just as that controversy had calmed down, the Toronto Star reported that multiple former skeleton athletes accused Cecchini of intimidation, once again bringing the organization under scrutiny. (Cecchini declined to be interviewed for this story. The CEO of BCS, Kien Tran, said Cecchini has the organization’s backing.)
Channell, meanwhile, defended her coach.
“Everything that they said about him, being scary, being intimidating, I personally disagree with,” Channell said.
Channell, who also competed in the women’s event in Cortina and finished 18th, hopes the IBSF follows through with changes to its protocols for qualifying for the Olympics, so athletes need to earn their points on the World Cup tour.
Despite all the drama that swirled around the team prior to the Games, once she arrived in Cortina with her two teammates, Brusic and Hallie Clarke, they pushed it from their minds.
“As soon as we walked into opening ceremonies, it was all gone. It was quiet,” said Channell. “I’m so glad and thankful for the rest of my team, my coaches, Hallie and Josip, to be able to get to shake that off and share the moment and be present with them.”