Austin Florian, Mystique Ro, Kelly Curtis, Dan Barefoot make the US Olympic skeleton team

Austin Florian and Mystique Ro, winners of the mixed skeleton world championship last season, were announced Monday as two of the four members of the U.S. team that will compete in the head-first sliding event at the Milan Cortina Olympics next month.

Florian and Dan Barefoot got men’s spots, while Ro and Kelly Curtis were picked for the women’s roster.

Curtis is the lone returning member of the 2022 Olympic team.

Florian, Ro and Curtis all were on the World Cup circuit this season. Barefoot was on the World Cup for the first half of the season — not finishing higher than 23rd in any of his four races — then regrouped with three wins in a six-day span earlier this month on the North American Cup circuit to collect the points he needed for an Olympic nod.

Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Olympian, tried to earn a spot by competing in NAC and Asian Cup races this season and fell just short. She asked the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation last week to award full points from a race she won on Jan. 11; if that request was granted, it’s possible she could have made the Olympic squad.

Uhlaender said a decision by Canadian coaches to pull some of their sliders out of that race in Lake Placid, New York, was unfair, since it lowered the total standings points available in that event. The IBSF investigated and found no rules were broken by Canada’s decision.

The skeleton competition at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, runs from Feb. 12-15.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics