Skeleton

Calgary - Skeleton athlete Michelle Kelly's nightmare run is over.

The 2010 Olympic hopeful who was disqualified for using improper runners on her sled during a recent competition, was informed late Tuesday by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton that her appeal had been approved.

The unanimous decision was made by a three-member BCS appeals panel and will allow the former world champion to join her Canadian teammates on the World Cup tour.

The panel determined there was "no quorum for the (race) jury therefore the decision reached by the jury (in Whistler, B.C.) does not stand."

Don Wilson, BCS chief executive officer, said in a statement, "Like our athletes, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton must follow the same standards in terms of the process and guidelines as to how our athletes are governed. In this case, quorum was not reached at the time of the decision ...

"We respect the decision of the panel, and we welcome Michelle back to our national program and onto the World Cup team," added Wilson. "We fully support Michelle's continued journey to representing Canada at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games."

Kelly, from Fort St. John, B.C., was quoted in a news release saying she was "very happy with the decision, and I feel vindicated and that justice was served because there was no performance enhancement and I competed fairly against my teammates. All I want to do is focus on sliding, winning more medals for Canada and focus on achieving my Olympic dream which is thankfully still alive."

The issue for Kelly arose during the Oct. 18 selection races at the Whistler Sliding Centre prior to the Canadian championships. Kelly and another athlete were warned before their slides that a set of their steel runners did not meet the regulations set by FIBT, the sport's international governing body. A FIBT stamp is pressed into the steel of the runners to assure uniformity. Any tampering with the runners, intentional or not, is against the rules.

Kelly competed with a different set of runners and, at the post-race review, there was a problem found with the FIBT markings on those. Kelly's two runs at Whistler were disqualified effectively quashing her chances of competing on the World Cup circuit leading up to the Vancouver Games.

Now, she will be allowed to slide at Thursday's first World Cup race of the season in Park City, Utah,

Should Canada's female skeletors total enough points to rank first or second in the world they will qualify three racers for the Olympics. Mellisa Hollingsworth, a bronze medalist in the 2006 Winter Games, Amy Gough, Sarah Reid and Kelly will all be vying for those two or three Olympic berths.

Kelly was 10th at the 2002 Olympics and failed to qualify for the 2006 Turin Olympics where teammate Mellisa Hollingsworth won a bronze medal. In 2003, Kelly won gold at the world championships in Nagano, Japan.