Female ski jumpers frustrated with IOC

DENVER — One of the female ski jumpers suing to get into the 2010 Vancouver Olympics said Thursday she's been asked to e-mail the women's arguments to the International Olympic Committee because its president, Jacques Rogge, was too busy to meet with them.

"I'll just tell him that making the 2010 Games gender-equal would be good for the Olympic movement and allow it to live up to its charter," world champion Lindsey Van of Park City told The Associated Press. "And that it would be good for the IOC and the (Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee) to show things are equal."

Ski jumping is the only winter Olympic sport not open to men and women.

Van said she would send the e-mail to the IOC today.

She is among 15 ski jumpers who are suing the Vancouver Games organizers because only male jumpers are allowed to compete in the 2010 Olympics.

She and Canadian team member Katie Willis had sought an audience with Rogge in Denver on Wednesday but left the city without a response from him. The IOC said the request for a meeting, sent via fax Friday to IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, didn't reach Rogge in time for him to meet with them.

Van spoke with IOC sports director Christophe Dubi on Thursday. She said Dubi told her Rogge couldn't fit her into his schedule in Denver, where he's attending the SportAccord conference of global sports leaders and the IOC executive board meetings.

IOC spokeswoman Sandrine Tonge confirmed the conversation between Dubi and Van and said Dubi "told her that he will report the conversation to the IOC president." She had no further comment on the matter.

Van said she still feels the IOC is being dismissive of the female jumpers' concerns.

"It is positive that there's some communication, that they didn't blow us off entirely, but we still didn't get what we wanted, a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Rogge," Van said. "I think they're trying to push us aside while also trying to appease us a little bit."

She said the IOC has told the jumpers that there's not enough female competitors at the elite level. She said that argument doesn't fly because there are more elite jumpers from more countries than there were women and nations who competed in snowboard cross, which was added to the Turin Games in 2006 and also more than competed in ski cross, which was added for 2010.

She said she didn't expect a response to her e-mail from the IOC anytime soon.

"I really don't expect to hear anything back from the IOC or (the Vancouver organizers) until we go to court next month," Van said.

A lawsuit filed last May against Vancouver organizers citing gender discrimination will be heard April 20 before a single judge in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver.

The plaintiffs represent 160 elite female ski jumpers from 18 countries who compete at the sport's highest level. They are asking for a single event on the normal hill in 2010.

"I don't think they'll reconsider their decision at all," Van said. "But at least it's good to get our side out there, so they can see it and see where we're coming from."