'Skierinas' in the Olympics: Gender Justice and Gender Politics at the Local, National and International Level over the Challenge of Women's Ski Jumping (Report‪)‬

Ski jumping is one of the last Olympic events to exclude women. The IOC says its 2006 decision not to include a women's ski jump event at the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympics Games in Vancouver/Whistler had nothing to do with gender discrimination. The ruling was based, it claims, on a lack of 'technical merit.' However, if one looks at the issue from an historical perspective, it becomes evident that gender discrimination is precisely the reason why women are not jumping at the Games. Barred from serious competition for decades because jumping was not deemed appropriate for females, women ski jumpers have not been able to establish the required paraphernalia around international level training and competition and gain the 'technical merit' required by a Eurocentric organization largely controlled by men. (1) The IOC's ruling, noted a Vancouver Sun editorial in 2008, was particularly galling given that it was the very organization that welcomed to competition Eddie (The Eagle) Edwards, the "affable short sighted overweight plasterer from Cheltenham who earned a last place finish for Great Britain at the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games in the men's ski jumping competition." (2) A comment posted on the Now Public blog recalls The Eagle's infamous Olympic experience: Although sport historians have mostly neglected women's experience in skiing, (4) ski historian John Allen points out that the sport is instructive for studying changing cultural values and the relationship between modernity and tradition, given that traditional values around gender have lingered on, sometimes tenaciously clutched to, but rarely disregarded. (5) Ski jumping, in particular, offers an illuminating discourse in gender stereotypes and expectations since on the one hand, women have been prevented from taking part in ski jumping competitions until relatively recently while at the same time they have long demonstrated that they can participate at equal or better levels with men. (6) Furthermore, as Matti Goksoyr observes, the more recent inclusion of women into high level competition has led to a transformation of ski jumping from a male-dominated sport to one focused on weight, body shape, skill and technique. Given the decline in the number of male competitive ski jumpers, he points out that the inclusion of women may well be needed to revitalize the sport. On the other hand, the continued androcentrism