Pique News Magazine reports that the Canadian Ski and Snowboard Association (CSSA), a federation of nine Canadian snow sports, plans to fight Vancouver 2010 and the Calgary Olympic Development Association over their independent plans to scrap Olympic ski jumping legacies.
David Pym, the managing director of CSSA said, “here we are having an Olympics in our own country with an opportunity to upgrade the sport considerably, and we’re in danger, real danger, of not having any Canadians qualify to compete for 2010 in ski jumping”.
Pique reports that according to Pym, the ski jumping facilities will only be open two years before the Games and will shut down after the Games in 2010.
He said, “it goes against (VANOC)s operating principles and legacy promises. Quite frankly, it’s also foreign to any other organizing committee’s plans in recent years”.
Vancouver 2010 spokesman Sam Corea said the final decision on what to do with the ski jumping facilities will be made in the next few months, prior to construction. He said whether the Callaghan ski jumping facility will be permanent or temporary will ultimately decide how it is built, and that’s what needs to be decided before construction begins in the spring. Without long-term funding for the sport and the facility, it may be a temporary legacy.
According to Pym, ski jumping facilities in the past three Winter Olympic cities, Lillehammer, Nagano and Park City, are still in operation.
The CSSA is hoping to address the VANOC board of directors at their next meeting on January 19.
