Fill in this blank: Women are not permitted to enter the ________ event in the Winter Olympics.
It is hard to believe that there is an event that is not open to both men and women isn’t it? I mean isn’t the whole idea behind the Olympics supposed to be sportsmanship? OH I get it—It’s sportsMANship. At least that is what it seems many women are complaining about lately. There is in fact ONE event that is NOT OPEN TO WOMEN in the Olympics; that sport is the SKI JUMP. Men’s ski jumping has been an event in the winter Olympics for years–Now women are fighting to try to get the International Olympic Committee to lift the bar on women which does not allow women to compete in this traditionally male event. The IOC claims that there are not enough women competitors world wild to fascilitate this change and that it isn’t about discrimination, but women are not buying it. The argument has also been made that people just don’t want to see or participate in ski jumping anymore because more peopleare into snowboarding and other extreme sports. The IOC belieive the desire to see the sport expanded just isn’t strong enough to make it an issue. The problem with the lack of interest argument however is this: The Olympic committee has added events for women to the Olympic program in recent years which have had less participating athletes, nations, and universality in competitions than women’s ski jumping.
Oh ladies…. I thought we had come further than this! I guess it’s okay for a woman to go on skiing holidays but they shouldn’t be permitted to do anything extreme. Okay–now I am starting to sound like a feminist, but I can’t help but feel badly for those women who have dedicated a good portion of their lives to honing their skiing skills and whom already professionally take on the ski jump anyway. I just think its ridiculous to keep the event out of the olympics when women are already competing in this sport outside of the olympics. To me this whole thing screams inequality!
All of this seems pretty crazy to me considering the fact that the Olympic Charter specifically states one of the missions and roles of the IOC is ”to encourage and support the promotion of women in sports at all levels and in all structures with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women”. So where is the equality in omitting women from this particular sport?
Further still, and I quote this, the Olympic Charter also specifically states that “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement” as a fundamental principle of Olympism”
What is your opinion on this matter? Do you think Women should be permitted to compete in the Ski Jump in the 2010 Winter Olympics?
Oh and one more great fact to add here: A WOMAN jumped the longest ski jump ever, 240 meters in 2005, but fell, and the length was never considered a World Record.
There is currently a petition on-line that women and men are signing to show support for the women who want their chance t compete in the Ski Jump in the 2010 Winter Olympics. If you would like to show your support and sign this petition click here! I signed =)
Feel free to comment on this subject.
Blessings
Cheryl
