Van fights for women's ski jumping

At the same time, Moreau wrote that the decision is based "on technical merit and with a global perspective. ... With too few athletes competing in this event, and no world championships until one year before the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, women's ski jumping does not reach the necessary technical criteria and as such does not yet warrant a place alongside other Olympic events."

Fine, said the jumpers.

They'd sue their luge-loving pants off.

Van and nine others have filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to get the sport admitted to next year's Games. An April 20 hearing is set.

"There are no really good explanations," said Van. "They say there are not enough women from enough countries — that's totally not right. There are a lot more women and countries (with ski jumping) than bobsled, skeleton, luge, snowboarding and skicross. So that's totally not right."

She has a point. Before 2002, some women's sledders went from novices to being the best in the world in two years. And yes, they were in the Olympics.

"With ski jumping, you can't just walk out and be top level. It takes years and years," she said. "There's a high level of frustration. It's frustrating to see people in bobsled and skeleton able to pick it up and the next year they're in the Olympics. There's no way that happens in ski jumping. It's all a little backward."

Besides being totally not right.

E-mail: rock@desnews.com