Gender Inequality at the Olympics

At 25, Lindsay Van is considered the best female ski-jumper in the world. During the International Ski Federation’s Nordic Ski Championships 2009 held in February and March 2009, women’s ski jumping made its sporting debut, and Van was the first North American to medal in ski jumping and the first American to win gold at the championships. However, despite Van’s status as holding the record (for both men and women) for the normal ski jumping hill at the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Van will not be able to compete as athletes gather today in Vancouver for the start of the Games. While the Olympics hold three ski jumping events, they have always been restricted to men, who have been invited to compete since 1924. This past November, Van led a group of 14 women ski jumpers in a lawsuit against the Olympic Organizing Committee, suing the IOC for discrimination against them by excluding female ski jumpers while allowing men to compete. Three British Columbia Courts of Appeal judges unanimously dismissed the lawsuit, asserting that the courts had no jurisdiction over the IOC, which had made the decision to exclude women.

Even more shockingly, Gian Franco Kasper, the President of the International Ski Federation, expressed reluctance to allow women to compete at the Nordic Ski Championships a year before they were held, as he was concerned about the health issues for women. He explained, “It’s like jumping down from two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seem not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.”

Alissa Johnson, a world-ranked women’s ski jumper, revealed to MSNBC that it is frustrating and difficult to be taken seriously in a sport that she and a dozen of her teammates have spent their whole lives developing and improving without participation in the Olympics. Yet the IOC maintainted that it made its decision to exclude women’s ski jumping strictly on a technical basis and not on gender bounds.

In another blow to US women’s ski jumping, the US Ski and Snowboard Association would drop the American team because it cannot afford to support athletes that aren’t going to the Olympics.

While Olympic CEO John Furlong maintained that “there is a very good chance that [women ski jumpers] are going to get included in the program in the future,” Johnson and Van declare that the IOC insisted the same thing after the 2002 and 2006 Olympics. “It’s like a broken record, and we’re tired of hearing empty promises,” they said.

Van fears this may mark the end of her career, that it may be time to move on, for without the Olympics or sponsors, many athletes become frustrated and quit. She cares more about the sport moving forward, and hopefully, for young athletes such as 15-year old Sarah Hendrickson, women’s ski jumping will appear on the roster for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Hendrickson affirmed, “I’m just going to keep jumping and loving it. We just have to keep going and keep trying for the people behind us.”