Jon The Blogcentric

On Wednesday, April 6th, it was made official mention by the International Olympic Committee. Six new events will be added to the Winter Olympic program and one of which will be Women’s Ski Jumping.

For those who were living in Vancouver, this was a big news story before the 2010 Winter Olympics were to begin. Of the fifteen sports to be contested at the Vancouver Olympics, two of which–ski jumping and nordic combined– would not have women competing. This was disheartening to many young women who were competing in ski jumping, including at the 2009 World Nordic Championships. IOC president Jacques Rogge had always maintained the it was due to the level of the competition. It was not competitive enough and not World class enough. Many of the young women complained it was discrimination. In fact some even pointed to Canada’s Charter Of Human Rights, which prevents gender discrimination. They tried in three different courts to get their case heard and it was always the same result: While it was discriminating, the IOC decision overrides any other court. There was definitely disappointment. World Champion Lindsay Van of the USA made things look bad for them by describing the Canadian justice system as ‘weak’ and the IOC as the ‘Taliban.’

Just before the IOC was to announce new events for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the World Nordic Championships were held again this year. The entries in the women’s ski jump event went from 36 women from 13 countries in 2009 to 43 women from 15 countries this time. The competition results were a lot stronger this time too. Then came the official announcement from the IOC of the new events added to the Winter Olympic programs.  Women’s Ski Jumping – Small Hill was one of the six added to the program. The announcement was greeted with celebration from the women whom some have fought as long as seven years to get it included onto the Olympic program. Some have even said Sochi may be the first gender-equal Winter Olympics. One exception is that the sport of Nordic Combined (combined event of jumping and skiing) has yet to have a women’s event.

One of the common beliefs people shared around this subject was that the International Olympic Committee was sexist. Sexism was further echoed during the Vancouver Olympics when IOC president Jacques Rogge demanded that women’s hockey up its competitive level in eight years or it will face removal. This came after Canada won a preliminary round against Slovakia 18-0 en route to a gold medal-winning final against the USA: the third USA vs. Canada gold medal final out of four Olympics contested. One thing we should remember is that the IOC wants parity amongst sports on an even level. Every sport has a demand placed of having national federations in so many countries over so many continents for Olympic eligibility. Baseball and Softball were eliminated from the Olympic program for London 2012 because of that reason. I know it was disheartened for many to see no Women’s Ski Jumping event at the 2010 Winter Olympics, especially since ski jumping has been contested since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, but it’s because of that lack of parity and competitiveness that women’s ski jumping was left off the Olympic program in 2010. In fact it didn’t even have a World Championship event before the new events for 2010 were announced. The first ever women’s competition was held in 2009. Now it had it’s chance to demonstrate again at the 2011 World Championships and it proved itself worthy of being contested at the next Winter Olympics in 2014.

Already many women ski jumper who retired after being disheartened by their losing campaign at getting an even for Vancouver have immediately come out of retirement or are now reconsidering. Lindsay Van herself said she’s taking things one day at a time. In the meantime, gender parity is one step closer at the Winter Olympics. All that remains now for full parity is a Women’s Nordic Combined. Then we’ll really have a gender neutral Winter Olympics.