The Associated Press reports a group of 14 women ski jumpers are appealing a court decision made Tuesday that prevents them from competing at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
The women have filed their argument in the British Columbia Court of Appeal, claiming that Vancouver 2010 organizers must abide by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Their appeal will be heard by a three-judge panel in Vancouver November 12 and 13.
Ross Clark, a lawyer who represents the ski jumpers, issued a statement Tuesday saying, “we are not asking the court to determine which sports are to be included in the Olympics. That is not its role. It is for the court to see that the hosting of the Games, and in particular the ski jumping events, comply with the charter”.
Ski jumping and Nordic combined, including both ski jumping and cross-country skiing, are the only winter Olympic sports that exclude women.
The British Columbia Supreme Court ruled in July that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is discriminating against the ski jumpers by keeping them from the Games. But Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon said the court does not have the power to order the sport be part of the program, reports the Associated Press.
Following an IOC vote in 2006 that women’s ski jumping should be excluded from the 2010 Games because it wasn’t developed enough to meet the criteria for inclusion in the Olympics, the women claimed Vancouver 2010 should hold women’s ski jumping in 2010 or cancel all ski jumping events.
Clark said, “our position has always been that since the charter prohibits VANOC from hosting an unconstitutional ski jumping event, VANOC must refuse to do so”.
