Women ski jumpers brought down to earth

Unnoticed by the vast majority of those watching these winter games is that not one woman will have descended down either of the ski jump hills in competition.

As Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria completed the team ski jump competition today, one of the rare sour tastes of this Winter Olympics was left in the mouth

His soaring 146.5m jump (the longest of the competition which yielded 145.2 pts) was enough to earn Austria the gold medal.

But why should men be the only ones permitted to celebrate their great achievements in this event (and the nordic combined, of which ski jumping forms one half)?

Especially when considering the fact that it is a woman (Lindsay Van) who holds the record jump off the normal hill at Whistler ski park.

USA's Johnny Spillane won silver in the nordic combined competition.

And perhaps more importantly, should a body such as the International Olympic Committee be able to ride roughshod over the host nation's entire legal system?

Because that is exactly what was allowed to happen.

Illegal

The Vancouver Olympics were supposed to be games of equality, in a nation that possesses a specific clause about gender discrimination in its charter of rights and freedoms, and when a British Colombia judge ruled that the action to exclude women from the ski jump competition was indeed illegal under Canadian law, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope.

But that hope was quickly extinguished when the court added that the law didn't apply to an international body such as the IOC.

All that belief and integrity might as well have been thrown to the four winds from the summit of the large hill at Whistler.

There is not a lack of interest, or an absence of willing competitors.

It is down to the stubbornness and commercial minded cynicism of the Vancouver Organising Committee and IOC, and a lack of strength in the Canadian court system to hold both these bodies to account to its national laws.

Excuses

These organisations, it appears, would rather include newer events that have fewer participants but a greater marketing potential, than address a very simple question.

Excuses ranging from the short-sighted (limited space in the athletes' village) to the downright bizarre (female bodies not being suitable for ski jumping) have been used but none satisfy the argument.

The female ski jumpers have been trying to achieve this goal since 1998, and now have their own tour and World Championship, but with the next Olympics in the very un-feminist Russia, they maybe forced to wait until 2018 for their first Olympic contest.

That would be a real leap of faith.