Women Ski Jumpers Aim for Sochi Olympics

Proponents Quietly Tell Their Story in Vancouver

They were in Vancouver with two missions: to keep their story alive in the media and to meet with the Russians and invite their female ski jumpers to a training camp in June at Park City, Utah.

"We didn’t want to take away from the joy of the Games or the men’s jumping, but we did want people to remember that the women weren’t here," Deedee Corradini, president of Women’s Ski Jumping USA and a leading advocate of the movement, tells Around the Rings.

That goal was achieved with international press coverage of the excluded women.

Corradini and Canadian ski jumpers Katie Willis and Jade Edwards watched the men’s normal hill competition on the large video screen at Whistler Square.

"It was bittersweet," Corradini says. "They were excited for the guys, but they were pretty sad that they weren’t there with them at the Games."

They handed out 500 pins that showed a ski jumper with a ponytail and said "Sochi 2014." An eBay seller erroneously called them "protest pins," selling one for $13.17.

They also went to Russia House to meet with members of the Russian delegation and extend the invitation to the "friendship training camp." All expenses would be paid except airfare.

"We want to start building bridges with Sochi and also help the Russian women’s team get better," says Corradini, who was the mayor of Salt Lake City when the Games were awarded in 1995.

Corradini says women’s ski jumping does not plan to have a presence at SportAccord in April in Dubai and she does not foresee going back to court.

"We’ve done our thing with the court case, we’ve made our point," she says. "We’re being good sports going forward and just hope the IOC does the right thing."

That will be a relief to Gian-Franco Kasper, FIS President, who tells ATR, "I hope they don’t make too much noise again, particularly in the U.S., Deedee Corradini and so on. If not she kills it."

Kasper says the women shouldn’t campaign. "Not at all," he says. "It was just unnecessary. Just to come in with lawyers and whatever, that doesn’t help the sport."

FIS went to the IOC several months ago with a request to let women jump in 2014 and Kasper says he is "quite convinced" that the IOC will agree.

"They will have to see in another year or so how many girls are actually jumping," he says.

"There are only very few that have a certain level."

Building a Field of Elite Jumpers

IOC President Jacques Rogge said at the Vancouver Games that he supports the addition of women’s ski jumping for the 2014 Olympics as long as there’s growth in the number of elite athletes.

The dearth of elite female jumpers was cited as the reason the IOC voted four years ago not to add women’s ski jumping to the Olympic program. At that time, there were 84 women from 14 countries. Now there are 130 women from 18 countries who have FIS points. The men have 24 countries.

"It’s a chicken-and-egg issue," Corradini says. "As soon as the IOC votes to let women in, you better believe that any country that has males would start working on the women."

Kasper also says there is an age issue. "We have seen that the girls are quite good at the age of 13, 15, 16, and the moment their body develops, they stop. Very few are in. And we don’t want to have a kindergarten."

Corradini says she has never heard that contention before, but has heard Kasper say that ski jumping is not good for ladies from a medical point of view.

"I think there’s a lack of understanding about women’s ski jumping we’ve been fighting to overcome," Corradini says. "Lindsey (Van, an elite jumper from the U.S.) is actually quite stocky for a women’s ski jumper, but she’s world champion.

"If you look at photographs of our gals on the podium, they all look like normal girls and women."

Moving Ahead

Corradini hopes that the IOC Executive Board will vote by the end of 2010 to bring women to Sochi -- much like the 2009 EB in Berlin added women’s boxing to London -- or risk losing elite jumpers.

"It’ll be a self-fulfilling prophecy to the IOC if they don’t let women in," Corradini says.

Although the FIS proposal would only be womento compete on the normal hill – not the large hill or in a team event – she says they will take what they can get.

"They say that the women aren’t ready for the large hill, but we don’t agree," she says. "We have to be realistic at the same time. We know we’ve got to get the women into the Olympics and this will be a first step."

She says the men’s side of the sport has not always been supportive.

At Holmenkollen in Norway, the most famous ski jumping site in the world, there was a controversy surrounding who would fly first off the new jump. Women’s ski jumping pioneer Anette Sagen was given the honor, after a big push from a Facebook page with 46,000 people supporting her and a petition to the Oslo City council from Ski Jumping USA.

The night before Sagen was scheduled to make the first official jump, coaches allowed a male ski jumper to take off, bringing outrage from all over Norway.

"It goes to show the arrogance that the men had about allowing Anette to be the first jumper," Corradini says. "It’s part of our story and our struggle to get women into the Games."

She emphasizes that they are not asking for a new sport, just the other half of an event that’s been in the Olympics since 1924. "If you read the Olympic charter, it says the Olympic Movement is all about equality for men and women and they do not want discrimination of any sort," Corradini says.

Women have been ski jumping since the late 1800s when they were in skirts. Now girls train next to boys and compete against them, "and it’s just been heartbreaking to have them not be in," says the former mayor.

And if they do get into the Olympics, and with women’s cross country already on the program, does that open the door to push for women in Nordic combined?

"Absolutely."

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Written by Karen Rosen.