Olympic Times - Sports Daily

A group of women ski jumpers who are suing to have their sport included in the 2010 Winter Olympics received a boost from a Canadian athlete on Wednesday.

Zoya Lynch, a 17-year-old member of Canada’s national team, joined the lawsuit that includes 10 female athletes, most from the United States and Europe, who want women’s ski jumping included at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. No other current members of the team are part of the lawsuit.

Marie-Pierre Morin, 26, a retired ski jumper, is the only other Canadian involved in the lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

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“As a Canadian, I don’t want to stand on the sidelines watching the boys compete. The Olympics is where I want to be,” said Lynch, as she stood outside the Vancouver courthouse where her name was added to list of women ski jumpers suing VANOC.

“I just feel we’re being discriminated against because we’re girls,” Lynch said.

At issue is whether women ski jumpers are being discriminated against by being barred from competing at the Games. The plaintiffs argue that allowing men’s ski jumping but not women’s violates their equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The International Olympic Committee has said its decision to exclude women’s ski jumping at the Vancouver Games is based on “technical merit” and isn’t discriminatory. In 2006 the IOC voted not to allow women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Games, saying the sport has not developed enough and that it didn’t meet basic criteria for inclusion.

In order to be considered for inclusion in an Olympic Games, a sport must have held at least two world championships. The first women’s ski jumping world championships will be held next year in Liberec, Czech Republic.

The Olympic charter also won’t allow new sports to be added within four years of a Games.

Earlier this year, Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, said because there are so few women ski jumpers in the world, including them in the Games would dilute the medals being handed out to other athletes.

Supporters of women’s ski jumpers argue there are 135 women ski jumpers in 16 countries. This compares with other sports already in the Games including snowboard cross, which has 34 women from 10 countries, skier cross, which has 30 women from 11 nations, and bobsled, which has 26 women from 13 nations.

They also say the women’s marathon was added to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles after a single world championship in 1983.

from: cbc.ca