Ski Jumping: Discrimination at the Olympics?

published 28 January 2010

You won't see any women ski jumpers at the Winter Olympics. Why? It's a boys club. But Lindsey Van, 25, a ski jumper from Utah, is out to change that. She and others began lobbying Olympic officials in 2006 to include women, to no avail. The reason: nebulous "technical merits." Recently, the ski jumpers took the case to court in Vancouver (home to the 2010 Winter Games), with no luck again. But Van's not giving up. At press time, she was planning an appeal. Indeed, women are allowed to punch each other in the face in Olympic boxing, so why can't they jump off a hill?