Jump like a girl

In less than three months, the Italian city of Turin will host the 2006 Winter Olympics and the goggle-covered eyes of the world will watch the best compete in skiing, curling, figure skating, ice hockey, luge, ski jumping, snowboarding, speed skating and more. However, only one of these competitions is not open to women athletes and there appears to be no good reason why.

Ski jumping has been an Olympic sport since 1924, but it is only contested by men. The exclusion of women from ski jumping also excludes them from competing in the Nordic combined event and this is angering many female ski jumpers because they want to compete while at the peak of their athletic abilities.

According to the results from women's ski jumping competitions, the women are almost an equal match for their male counterparts. One distance jumped would have satisfied a male competitor in an official competition and 14 nations already have female ski jumpers ready for competition, so there appears to be hope at the end of the runway.

There appears to be no rational reason for this discrimination. We have certainly moved on from worrying about the effects of sport upon a woman's body, especially if you see some of the female ice hockey players in the Winter Olympics, and the sport has been steadily gaining momentum since Salt Lake City in 2002.

The athletes and supporters of female ski jumping are dedicated to ensuring that the decision to create an Olympic event is a natural advancement, rather than politically driven. This appears to be going well with official organisations, such as the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and International Ski Federation (FIS), supporting competitions and realising that they cannot continue to ignore the issue.

Naturally, the goal now is the 2010 Olympics. It is up to the political machinations of the International Olympic Committee to consider their proposal and there is sure to be a great deal of bureaucracy. Until then, give the ladies a thought when you tune into watch the Winter Olympics on February 10th.

According to the Olympic Charter (2004) pp. 47, an Olympic sport must conform to the following criteria:

1.2 only sports widely practised in at least twenty-five countries and on three continents may be included in the programme of the Olympic Winter Games;
1.4 sports are admitted to the programme of the Olympic Games at least seven years before specific Olympic Games in respect of which no change shall thereafter be permitted.

2.1 A discipline, being a branch of an Olympic sport comprising one or several events, must have a recognized international standing to be included in the programme of the Olympic Games.
2.2 The standards for the admission of disciplines are the same as those required for the admission of Olympic sports.

3.2 To be included in the programme of the Olympic Games, events must have a recognised international standing both numerically and geographically, and have been included at least twice in world or continental championships.

4.4 Sports, disciplines or events included in the programme of the Olympic Games which no longer satisfy the criteria of this rule may nevertheless, in certain exceptional cases, be maintained therein by decision of the IOC for the sake of Olympic tradition.