Katie Uhlaender pleased to feel 'Games spirit' on Olympic swansong

American Katie Uhlaender ended her Olympic career at Beijing 2022 on Saturday (12 February).

On her fifth appearance at the Olympic Winter Games, the 37-year-old finished sixth in the women's skeleton.

"I feel the best I’ve ever felt at an Olympics,” she said after her first two runs, according to TeamUSA.org. "I feel the most prepared mentally."

Her sixth place finish is her third top-10 finish at the Games, having also finished sixth at Torino and a career-best Olympic finish fourth at Sochi 2014.

“It’s definitely shown that, despite the troubles and that chaos getting here, the spirit is still strong for the Games,” Uhlaender said. “I wish it had kicked in a little sooner, but it doesn’t matter. When it gets here, you take it.”

The 2012 world champion, who is the oldest skeleton racer to compete at the Olympic Games for the U.S., says she'll pursue a college degree after ending her sporting career.

Weightlifter, rancher, 'Survivor' - the many lives of Katie Uhlaender

The Vail, Colorado native is the daughter of former Major League Baseball outfielder Ted Uhlaender.

She wears his 1972 National League ring, won with the Cincinnati Reds, on a necklace since his death of a heart attack in 2009 while she was on Skeleton World Cup duty.

That was not her last brush with tragedy.

Uhlaender was best friends with Olympic gold medal bobsleigh pilot Steven Holcomb, and discovered his body at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid in May 2017.

A year earlier, she was bedridden with an auto-immune disease that nearly killed her.

While going through a low point, Holcomb's advice to her was "You need to be you."

She then set out to honour both Holcomb and her father's memories, telling the Salt Lake Tribune, "That’s how I can continue their legacy by being me, by doing me to my best and continuing to live as they would want me to. It’s not for them. I’m doing me to honour them."

Uhlaender has certainly led an interesting and varied life.

Just over a week after winning the women's and mixed team titles in the 2012 World Championships at Lake Placid, Uhlaender competed in the U.S. Olympic weightlifting trials but failed to make a clean lift.

She has also had a number of jobs as well as being a skeleton racer.

She told WRAL.com, "During the pandemic, I worked as a tree arborist assistant - pulling trees over, throwing logs. For me just being in the woods, I loved it.

"I've worked as a rancher tagging cattle [on her late father's ranch]. I've worked at a functional neurology clinic as a post-care coordinator with combat veterans.

"But I think my favourite is the adventure television."

Uhlaender has worked for a number of years on the show Survivor and loves working with the crew who she says are "like family".

"I started out testing out the challenges and doing PA work. Then I got promoted to camera assistant."

Judging by what's come before, whatever Uhlaender does in her retirement certainly won't be dull.