A group of international athletes plan to sue Vancouver 2010, and there will be an increased security presence at the Games.
The Globe and Mail reports that a group of international athletes, including some of the top women ski jumpers in the world, is going to court in British Columbia to force women’s ski jumping into the program of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
According to the newspaper VANOC is being targeted even though the organizers have no decision-making authority over which events are on the Games agenda.
Deede Corradini, president of Women’s Ski Jumping USA and a former mayor of Salt Lake City, said Tuesday that the petitioners include four highly rated ski jumpers from Europe, three from the United States and a former Canadian champion in the event. She said Tuesday, “I expect their lawsuit will be filed in B.C. Supreme Court late tomorrow. It’s a major action”.
The petition alleges that banning women jumpers from the Games violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
If the case fails, Corradini said that she and other supporters intend to continue fighting to have women ski jumpers at the Winter Olympics until the Games begin in February 2010.
Meanwhile Canadian security agencies are planning to use planes, tanks, ships and thousands of military and police personnel to secure the Games and will consider their job a success if the public hardly notices their presence, reports the Ottawa Citizen.
Canadian forces are reportedly taking great pains not to “take over” planning for the Games and to ensure that during the Games, forces personnel and equipment will be visible only during ceremonial events. Military planners say it will be the largest security operation in Canadian history and if they do it right, Canadians will hardly notice.
Security agencies will be using an array of surveillance technologies, including closed-circuit cameras, electronic sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles flying high over the Olympic venues in Vancouver and Whistler. Although armed soldiers and helicopters will be present in Vancouver, military and police planners hope to keep them in the background. Nearly 13,000 RCMP, military and other security personnel are expected in Vancouver.
Hundreds of cameras will be installed throughout the venues by the RCMP, each camera using face-recognition technology to help officers check visitors to the Games.
