2008
19
Nov
Women want ski jumping invite to 2010 Games
Few people know about Lindsey Van, just as few had heard of Stacy Dragila before she became famous at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic Committee named Van athlete of the month for October. The ski jumper had just won her 13th national championship on Oct. 11. She holds the record for longest jump among men or women.
Unfortunately for Van and for the USA, ski jumping is the only sport in which women will not be competing at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Van says it is her last shot at the Olympics and that her sport would draw a following as passionate as women’s pole vault did when Dragila was first permitted to compete in on the Olympic stage eight years ago.
Nearly everyone involved, except members of the International Olympic Committee, would like to see Van stand at the gate at the top of the hill, slide down the runway and get her shot at a gold medal in 2010. The IOC executive board said no in 2006, citing “their development is still in the early stage thus lacking the international spread of participation and technical standard required for an event to be included.”
Deedee Corradini does not buy it. She is making her pitch for the women’s participation today at a briefing in Vancouver where members of the worldwide news media are gathered for an update on Olympic preparations.
The former mayor of Salt Lake City is president of the Women’s Ski Jumping-USA.
“The IOC would have loved for us to go away,” Corradini said. “We’ve shown we will not give up. This is going to be a mission right up to the Games.”
Tops on her agenda will be the lawsuit filed by 10 plaintiffs from six countries, including Van and two other U.S. athletes, against the organizers of the Vancouver Olympics.
The lawsuit cites having men’s ski jumping events while failing to include women’s ski jumping events violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The hearing is April 20 in British Columbia Supreme Court. VANOC argues that it does not come under the jurisdiction of the charter. The IOC is not bound by any country’s charters.
VANOC’s Cathy Priestner, executive vice president of sports and games operations, wrote in an email Monday that the IOC sets the sports program: “In advance of the IOC’s decision not to include women’s ski jumping for 2010, we supported the inclusion of women’s ski jumping and communicated to the IOC that if they elected to add the event at that time, we would and could support it from a logistical and operational standpoint.”
Corradini hopes the women get the thumbs up and points to the late add of the women’s marathon in 1984 as a precedent.
source: usatoday.com