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 with two gold (women's skeleton: FIBT World Championships 2012, mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event: 2012), one silver (women's skeleton: 2008), and three bronze (women's skeleton: 2007, mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event: 2008, 2009).
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 in Turin. 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 accident where Uhelander shattered her kneecap. She then broke it again in August 2009 (having a total of four surgeries). She qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, 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.[1] She placed fourth at the 2014 Olympics, missing out on a medal by .04 seconds.[2]
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.[3] 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.
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, the attorney for Russian whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, and Yuliya Stepanova, a former Russian track star turned whistleblower.[5] 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."
