Ski Jumping for women: Olympic Winter Games 2010 Vancouver

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Story

A female speed enthusiast with nerves of steel, this is an accurate description of the professional ski jumping champion Lindsey Van. This is the story of Van who took on the International Olympic Committee in a battle of many years to get womens ski jumping recognized as an Olympic sport. Van has won countless competitions throughout the years, often beating male jumpers. Despite her outstanding achievements, the IOC refused to recognize womens ski jumping as an Olympic sport. In this film, we follow Van and her colleagues in their struggle for recognition.

About Womens Ski Jumping

On 28 November 2006, the proposal by the International Ski Federation for a womens ski jumping event was rejected by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee. The reason for the rejection cited the low number of athletes as well as few participating countries in the sport. The Executive Board stated that women’s ski jumping has yet to be fully established internationally. A group of 15 competitive female ski jumpers filed a suit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee saying that conducting a mens ski jumping event without a womens event in the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 would be in direct violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but a judgment came down on 10 June 2009 against the ski jumpers. On 6 April 2011 the International Olympic Committee officially accepted women ski jumping into the official Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The first ladies ski jumping gold medalist is the German Carina Vogt. Within 15 months however, many of the female World Cup athletes suffered serious injuries and could not take part in the first Olympics with female ski jumping at Sochi.