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| From the Salt Lake Tribune : 12/15/2004 04:06:47
AM |
| Let Them Jump |
To Lindsey Van, ski jumping is nearly a full-time job.
The 20-year-old Park City woman spends more than 30 hours a
week at it
and she is ranked No. 2 in the world. But she can't ski jump
in the
Olympics because she is a woman, and that is unfair and unreasonable.
Ski jumping and nordic combined (which involves
both ski jumping and cross-country skiing) are the only two winter
Olympic sports for which there is no women's competition, despite the
fact that the top women can jump distances that are comparable and
sometimes greater than the marks set by men.
Those who hold the key that would unlock the door
to Olympic competition for Van and Jessica Jerome, 17, also from Park
City and ranked fourth, say the reasons are based on economics and
tradition. There is little enough money for other athletes who now
compete under the auspices of the United States Ski and Snowboard
Association, they are told, and it would be burdensome to add women's
ski jumping.
That may be true, but fairness, not economics,
should be USSA's guide here. After all, the essence of the Olympic
spirit is sportsmanship and sportswomanship. Moreover, the International
Ski Federation needs the full support of the USSA before it can propose
to the International Olympic Committee that women's ski jumping be added
to the 2010 Olympics.
Women's Ski Jumping USA has given the sport
legitimacy in this country, but it still lacks the support it gets in
Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, even though the
Americans beat the Europeans last year, winning the Ladies Grand Prix.
Superior athletes and media attention can help any
sport and women ski jumpers would provide plenty of both. The sport has
hundreds of competitors in Europe, North America and Asia, and many who
could be contenders for spots at the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010.
This year women from 12 nations competed in International Ski
Federation-sanctioned competitions.
If the USSA is worried about its already tight
budget, Women's Ski Jumping USA can help with that, too. The group
raised its entire budget of $50,000 so the team can compete this winter
in the international federation's Continental Cup series.
International Olympic Committee member and former
Olympic medalist Anita DeFrantz has rightly urged donors and Olympic
officials not to put women's ski jumping on the back burner. The IOC
will decide in 2006 whether to add the sport in 2010, so USSA must act
now.
Women ski jumpers deserve to compete on the
ultimate world stage. |
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