Comments on: Women ski jumpers in Court of Appeal today

By: caldxski

caldxski — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:41:18 +0000

In trying to find some of the reasoning the IOC has been using to thwart women’s ski jumping, I look at this year’s Olympic quotas for all countries, which have been published (and available on this website–thanks!). It shows a total of 70 jumpers and a mere 55 for Nordic Combined (my event, and I was strongest in jumping, so I sympathize with jumpers). Compared to over 300 for xc and alpine, nearly 200 for freestyle and snowboarding. the numbers for jumping and combined are not impressive. Fans arguing for women’s jumping could go a step farther and argue for women’s Nordic Combined. Doesn’t make sense now.
Most sports organizations reason that if there is not much event participation among the bodies, groups, nations, or whatever they control, they won’t sponsor a “championship” in that event. The NCAA’s dropped ski jumping several years ago, as an example. There were not many colleges with ski jumping teams, so——-. Just now, I’m afraid there simply aren’t enough nations with ski jumping teams, so the IOC is not impressed.

By: ande3577

ande3577 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:51:58 +0000

In this case I place the blame on the FIS rather than the IOC. If I recall correctly it was only added to the world champs last year in Liberec. It’s hard to make an argument that a sport is developed enough to deserve a spot on the Olympic roster when it’s own governing body disagrees.

Now, as for the FIS failing to take steps to develop the sport on the international level, that is inexcusable.

By: themkom

themkom — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:03:28 +0000

If I and 200 other men starting competing at rythmic gymnastics, it wouldn’t give us the “right” to compete in the olympics simply because women do. When we were turned down, it would be because the sport of men’s rythmic gymnastics wouldn’t have enough participation to qualify as an olympic sport. It wouldn’t be fair to the athletes in other sports. It would not be gender discrimination.

By: T.Eastman

T.Eastman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:35:12 +0000

themkon, I strongly disagree with your position. The sport is currently part of the Winter Olympics and this exclusion based on gender is an obvious case of discrimination.

Since women’s XC skiing is a “niche sport” across most of the globe, should it too be omitted from the OWGs?

By: themkom

themkom — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:31:13 +0000

This is a joke. They should probably be counter-sued for continuing this frivolous lawsuit. Don’t they realize they are a very small niche in a niche sport. We probably need to worry more about all ski jumping remaining in the Olympics. A very small population participates in ski jumping. This hardly represents the type of world-wide competition that the Olympics is supposed to represent. How is this fair to athletes in other sports that must compete against millions of others to be considered olympians?