Katie Uhlaender is a 29-year-old skeleton racer from Breckenridge, Colorado, who is currently competing in the XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Uhlaender has been competing in skeleton racing since 2003, and she is also a two-time gold medal recipient from the Women’s Skeleton World Cup (2006 and 2007). For her involvement in this year’s Olympics in Sochi, Uhlaender has turned to Twitter to ask the public’s opinion about the helmet she will wear when she races.

Uhlaender’s journey to Sochi has not been a bright one. In 2009, one year prior to Uhlaender’s invitation to Sochi, her father Ted (a well-known MLB outfielder), who she was very close to, died of a heart attack.

This past Thursday (February 6th), Uhlaender tweeted “Help me pick back helmet for #sochi2014” and displayed a picture of two different eagle-designed helmets. At the time of this article, the Twitter post from Uhlaender’s account currently has 16 retweets and has been favorited 22 times.

Help me pick back helmet for #sochi2014 #SochiProblems ! @USBSF @StevenHolcomb @NBCOlympics @USOlympic @PicaboStreet pic.twitter.com/WFm86eLeJx

— Katie Uhlaender (@KatieU11) February 7, 2014

According to The Chicago Tribune, Uhlaender announced this past Monday that she will be wearing a dramatic Eagle-themed helmet during her competition in the women’s skeleton event later in the week. Uhlaender stated her reaction to her Twitter-chosen helmet below:

“I just decided to tweet a photo of both helmets and see what the public thought. Because I wasn’t sure about changing helmets just before the Olympics was a good idea and it blew up. There were like a thousand tweets about it. I decided to tally it up and let them pick my helmet.”

The helmet that Uhlaender has selected was made by the same person who designed various helmets for Olympic skier Picabo Street, who serves as a mentor to Uhlaender. “She is an inspiration for me,” Uhlaender stated as she praised Street, “She offered to hook me up with her guy that painted her 2002 helmet, and this is what he came up with.”

"@twithersAP: @KatieU11 has chosen the helmet she'll wear in Olympic skeleton. And yes, that's Picabo Street. pic.twitter.com/gmkCTpbcdO"

— Katie Uhlaender (@KatieU11) February 10, 2014

Uhlaender is slated to compete in the skeleton race this coming Friday (February 14th). To keep up with the various Olympic athletes on Twitter, be sure to visit Twellow’s Olympics category.

Image via Twitter