Vancouver Olympic organizers not wrong to keep female ski jumpers out of 2010, lawyers say

Vancouver Olympic organizers in court

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Vancouver Olympic organizers were in court Wednesday, arguing that the decision to exclude women ski jumpers from competition next year is not theirs to reverse.

Fifteen ski jumpers are in a Canadian court this week seeking a ruling that women be allowed to compete in the event at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Three men’s events are planned at February’s Games but none are scheduled for women.

The women — from the U.S., Canada, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Norway — say that their exclusion by the International Olympic Committee is a violation of Canadian human rights laws. But VANOC lawyer George Macintosh said the IOC’s decision on what sports are included in the Games is governed by Swiss law.

“The IOC controls every imaginable aspect of an Olympic Games,” he said.

The IOC says women’s ski jumping simply doesn’t have enough international competitions to merit inclusion. VANOC spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade told reporters they jumpers will have to wait until 2014 to compete as the program set in 2006 cannot be changed.

American jumper Lindsay Van, who won the first women’s World Championship in February in the Czech Republic, said the IOC’s attitude is patronizing and that the Games should be subject to the laws of host countries.

“Why in Canada would we follow Swiss law?” she said. “I find it disgusting they’re not trying to improve the Games by extending gender equity to ski jumping.”

The women want the court to rule the men’s ski jumping be canceled if they are not allowed to compete, and their lawyer, Ross Clark, Monday told British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon the exclusion of female jumpers was “a direct assault on their human dignity.”

The lawsuit, however, is against the Vancouver Organizing Committee and not the IOC.

Macintosh told Fenlon the decision on included sports is not VANOC’s to make.

Clark said the Canadian government and British Columbia governments effectively control the Games and that therefore VANOC must comply with Canadian law.

Macintosh said no one level of government has effective control of the Games and the host agreements signed with the IOC make the international sport body the supreme Games regulatory body.

“The IOC controls VANOC,” he said. “No government does.”

He said the host contract the IOC signed with Vancouver in 2003 is not negotiable.

Clark said the organizers on Monday were “blindly accepting” IOC rules which “perpetuates the historical prejudice against women.”

VANOC told the court it fears that a victory for the women could mean the IOC would never again award an Olympics to Canada.

“These women have been told for years, ‘just wait,’” said Deedee Corradini, former mayor of Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Games in 2002, and who is acting as spokeswoman for the women.

“The net result is these women are becoming discouraged,” Corradini said.