Gender Equality of Olympic Proportions

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi marks the first time in Olympic history that women are permitted to compete in ski jumping.

For many years, the International Olympics Committee (IOC), has given excuses as to why the sport for women is not recognized in the Olympic Games. One reason they gave was that the sport had few female participants, and it would not be an equal playing field amongst countries, seeing that some countries don't participate in women's ski jumping at all.

However, many female athletes believed that this was more of an equality and discriminatory issue, than merely a lack of competitors. Since the Victorian Era, there was a stigma against female athletes, particularly those in this sport. It was a common theory during that time in history that the impact of landing on skis would actually damage a woman's reproductive organs, since according to medical doctrine of that time, women were very fragile and could not sustain the impact as well as men. Even in 2005 the President of the International Ski Foundation, Gian Franco Kasper, stated: 

"Don't forget, it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view". 

Lindsay Van, an outspoken female ski jumper responded to Kasper in a very creative and colorful way:

"It just makes me nauseous. Like, I kind of want to vomit. Like, really? Like, I'm sorry, but my baby-making organs are on the inside. Men have an organ on the outside. So if it's not safe for me jumping down, then my uterus is going to fall out, what about the organ on the outside of the body?"

Very true, Lindsay! Both she and fellow female ski jumper, Jessica Jerome sought to gain equality for the sport of ski jumping for many years. They took the IOC to court and sued for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics in Vancouver, but lost the lawsuit. Finally after many years, the IOC announced in 2011 that women's ski jumping would be a sport featured in the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Jessica Jerome, who is also the 2009 world champion in ski jumping was overjoyed when she heard the news that she would finally be able to compete in the Olympics and fulfill her athletic dreams. She told The Rappler: "I can't really put it into words, it just feels great and it feels like we belong".

It is magnificent that women's ski jumping has finally, after 90 years, been accepted into the Olympic Games. It is no doubt due to the persistence of the female jumpers themselves, who fought for years for equality and the opportunity to compete in the games. Needless to say, this is one giant step--or jump--for women everywhere.