Katie Uhlaender facts for kids
Uhlaender in 2021
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Kathryn Uhlaender | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | July 17, 1984 Vail, Colorado, U.S. |
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| Height | 5 ft 4 in | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 145 lb | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United States |
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| Sport | Skeleton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals | 6th (Torino 2006) 11th (Vancouver 2010) 4th (Sochi 2014) 13th (Pyeongchang 2018) 6th (Beijing 2022) |
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Medal record
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Kathryn "Katie" Uhlaender (born July 17, 1984) is an American athlete who races in a sport called skeleton. In skeleton, athletes slide head-first down an icy track on a small sled. Katie has won many medals, including two gold medals at the FIBT World Championships in 2012. She has also competed in five Winter Olympics.
Contents
Katie's Skeleton Career
Katie Uhlaender started competing in skeleton in 2003. She quickly became one of the best racers in the world. She won the women's Skeleton World Cup title twice. These wins happened in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 seasons.
Olympic and World Championship Success
Katie has earned six medals at the FIBT World Championships. She won two gold medals in 2012 in Lake Placid. One was for women's skeleton and the other for a mixed team event. She also has one silver medal from 2008 and three bronze medals from 2007, 2008, and 2009.
She has competed in five Winter Olympic Games. Her first Olympics was in Turin where she finished sixth. She also competed in Vancouver (11th place), Sochi (4th place), Pyeongchang (13th place), and Beijing (6th place). In the 2014 Sochi Olympics, she just missed winning a medal by a tiny amount of time.
Overcoming Injuries
Katie has faced many challenges, including serious injuries. In 2009, she had a snowmobile accident and broke her kneecap. She broke it again later that year. She had four surgeries in total to fix her knee.
Despite her injuries, she worked hard to recover. She was able to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics. After those Olympics, she had another surgery on her hip. She took the 2014-2015 skeleton season off to focus on getting healthy.
Other Sports and Advocacy
Besides skeleton, Katie has also tried other sports. She competed in weightlifting and even tried track cycling. She worked hard to be a starter in the women's team sprint cycling event.
Katie is also a strong supporter of fair play in sports. In 2018, she spoke to the U.S. Helsinki Commission. She talked about the problem of doping (using banned substances) in sports. She felt that doping had unfairly affected her chances of winning Olympic medals. She believes that sports should be fair for all athletes.
Katie's Personal Life
Katie Uhlaender grew up in Vail, Colorado. When she is training for skeleton, she lives in Breckenridge, which is nearby. The rest of the year, she lives in McDonald, Kansas.
Her father was Ted Uhlaender, a professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball. To remember her father, Katie wears his 1992 Cincinnati Reds championship ring on a necklace.
See also
In Spanish: Katie Uhlaender para niños
