Isn't this a dead-simple issue?
No, it's not.
In 2005, Gian Franco Kasper, FIS president and a member of the IOC, said that he didn't think women should ski jump because the sport "seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."
Well that was five years ago. Women's ski jumping will be included in the 2012 Youth Olympic Games and Jacques Rogge has said there is a good chance it could be added to the Olympics in 2014. A sport can't just decide it wants to be in the Olympics right away, it needs to experience world wide growth, have time to develop the athlete's and draw in a fan base. A couple years down the road it will be in an Olympic sport.Originally Posted by zowie
Women ski jumpers have petitioned to join every Winter Olympics since Nagano in 1998, and each time they have been denied by the International Olympics Committee (IOC).
Yes for the reasons I stated above - not enough countries participating, not enough athletes, and no World Championship (until last year).
You made it sound like in your previous post that it was something new they were asking.
I also think that they waited too long; in fact I pointed that out before. But there are a lot of sports without world wide popularity or participation which are Olympic, there is not even a definition what worldwide means - how many nations have to take part in international events, how many and which continents have to be included and so on. As much as I am a fan, I wouldn't even call mens ski jumping a world wide event, there are only about twelve nations where it has a higher degree of popularity; outside Europe it's only Japan. But as where it has popularity it is very, very popular, it is Olmpic. As is Curling, or, as an example of the Summer Olympics, Archery.
Last edited by viv; 02-24-2010 at 02:31 PM.
Whoa, a big problem with a lot of posters' sentiments here: a sport without robust participation from both genders is not a sport with "worldwide participation". Female ski jumping isn't a separate sport, it's part of ski jumping. That, for whatever reasons, it's not more open to half the population of the Earth is a failure of the sport. Therefore, until ski jumping truly gains full participation of people around the world, it should be stricken from the Olympic games.
The same goes for any other sport that outright excludes a gender, including synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. The Olympics should strive to be equal and fair, more so than other sporting events. That's what makes the Olympics special and worthy of the glory people bestow on it and its medals. It's time the games live up to it.
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Didi Corradini has been representing the Women ski jumpers in an attempt to get the event into the Olympics. Here are some links to articles appearing in the Salt Lake Papers.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...ts-briefs.html
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...o-compete.html
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...-Olympics.html
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...i-jumping.html
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...-with-IOC.html
They have really been working at it for quite a while.
No. He repeated it recently and is quoted in todays German newspaper FAZ with the words: "Ski Jumping should not be allowed to women because the landings could damage their wombs." No need to say that he is not a physician.
:sheesh:
Last edited by viv; 02-25-2010 at 11:06 AM.
This was not what I said or at least what I wanted to say. (Did my English let me down?) What I tried to express was that the demand of "world-wide participation" is hypocritical here because there are a lot of sports without worldwide participation which are Olympic anyway.
How come there is 2 man luge, but not 2 woman luge?
I think 2woman luge exists, but it is not Olympic - as, for example, in athletics 3000m are not Olympic. It is a different question than women ski jumpers - the luge ladies can compete as single.
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