• US athlete said she was deliberately deprived of points

• Investigation says Canada acted within rules

Canada’s skeleton team have been cleared of allegations they rigged a qualifying event for the Winter Olympics and denied rival athletes from qualifying for next month’s Games.

USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, accused the Canadian team of deliberately pulling four of its six athletes from a race in Lake Placid, New York, last weekend in order to make it harder for athletes from other countries to qualify. The reduced field meant fewer qualifying points were available and Uhlaender, who won the event, did not secure her place at this year’s Games, which will take place in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Uhlaender claims Joe Cecchini, the head coach of Canada’s skeleton team, told her he had come up with the scheme.

Legault’s abrupt resignation follows months of chaos that has rocked the governing Coalition Avenir Québec party

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, has announced his resignation as leader of the province, in an abrupt departure for the polarizing figure whose embattled government faces the prospects of an electoral wipeout in the coming months.

Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in Quebec City on Wednesday, Legault said he was proud to have founded the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party and won consecutive majority governments beginning in 2018.