photo: Shay Haas/ BY-NC-SA

According to Yahoo! News and National Public Radio, the 2010 Olympics will not include women in its ski jump event. Since 1998, female ski jumpers have petitioned every year to join the Winter Olympics—and they are no more successful in 2010 than they have been in the past. Ski jump is the only Winter Olympic sport barring women. In 1991, the IOC ruled that future Olympic sports must allow both men and women to participate. However, this did not pertain to sports that already existed at the time, which included the ski jump. The original decision to exclude women’s ski jump was made in 2006. In April 2009, 10 female jumpers sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics, claiming that the VANOC had infringed upon the ban on sexism in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Justice Lauri Fenlon of the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled on July 10, 2009 that—though the exclusion of women from the Winter Olympics ski jump event was gender discrimination—the International Olympic Committee, not the VANOC, was responsible for the decision, and Canada’s charter did not apply to an international organization. The IOC seems to have no intention to change its mind. After the lawsuit in Canada, it issued a statement saying that [quote] “we strongly disagree with the court’s analysis that the IOC acted in a discriminatory manner”. The IOC claims that there are too few representatives in the sport for it to be included in the Olympics. However, not only does women’s ski jump have as many participants as Olympic women’s bobsled, but the IOC recently allowed the ski cross event to join the list of Olympic sports, even though the sport allegedly had fewer representatives than women’s ski jump at the time.  

Justice Fenlon stated in her ruling that [quote] “if the IOC…applied the criteria for admission…to both men and women’s ski jumping events, neither group would be competing in the 2010 Games.” The exclusion of women’s ski jump from the Olympics has had negative consequences outside the Olympic competition as well. After the IOC’s pronouncement, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association dropped the U.S. women’s ski jump team because, due to the recession, it could not afford to fund a non-Olympic event. Female ski jumpers have dealt with limited sponsorship opportunities, and ski jumper Lindsey Van has expressed worries that women’s ski jump’s low profile will diminish its appeal to potential future jumpers. Van currently holds the world record for the longest jump on the K95 Olympic hill—she has jumped farther than any man—but she, too, is not permitted to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics. The IOC’s decision is a clear example of sexism. Women’s ski jump is more than qualified to participate in the Winter Olympics. There is no reason that women should be excluded—unfortunately, the question is then raised as to how these skilled athletes will ever get the chance to compete in what is generally regarded as the most prestigious sports competition in the world.