Why Are Women Barred from this Olympic Sport?

The IOC does not control who participates in any given athletic event.

There are sports federations world wide that are organized for that.

List of International sports Federations.

The one in question is this one.

International Ski Federation

Blame them.

reply to post by Violater1


If I may... there was once a general belief that the female bone structure, allowing for a birth canal, created a weakness in the bones of the hips. Due to their necessarily expanded structure, there was (and perhaps, still is) a fear that the inner load-bearing capabilities do not support top-down, weight bearing features that the male structure does.

On a side note, my daughter played fast-pitch softball for a number of years and discovered this by her own research while recovering from a sports related injury.

Best

Originally posted by Carseller4
reply to post by woodwardjnr

 

Anyway, I wonder how many Muslims sit on the Olympic Committee? That could be the source of the problem.

Or Jews or Christians or Sikh or Hindu. Every religion has it's extremist form.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by December_Rain]

Originally posted by Snarf

Originally posted by bigspud
there should be no discrimination at olympics.
men, women, and handicaps should compete at the same event.
no separate events or medals for women or handicapped.

...uhhh you do realize that if handicaps competed against able bodied athletes....there would always be an unfair advantage.....right? [/quote



most handicaps are caused by negligence. how about an olympics for fat people who are negligent about their diet?

olympics are for the best athletes at designated sports.

Personally I don't care for the Olympics, among other reasons why I hate the Olympics, it's a two-week party for the wealthy and elite at the expense of the taxpayers.

Here in BC the Olympics won over health care and we spent millions on the Olympics instead of our struggling health care system, which should have been a better investment.

I don't care for the Olympics, or the Nazi games as I call it. We, the poor, who paid for this, will never see any benefit from the Olympics.

Die, Olympics. I curse you, Olympics.

The only olympic sport that has from the start allowed women to compete against men has been the equestrian sports.
There has always been a bias.

reply to post by Snarf


Really? Where are you from, the moon?

Whenever I decide to read the paper I have to wade through pages and pages of national sports announcements, victories, losses and 'drama'. Not to mention local sports. If anything happens, anything at all, you know.. like heaven forbid a team in a league makes it to the playoffs (omg! no way!) then it will be all over the news. As if the Gods hath spoken and all ye present shall bear holy witness.

I'm tired of going to any news site and being told that I should feel sorry for some athlete or I should be concerned about whatever drama is unfolding within the NFL or MLB. All this steaming pile of crap on top of a still warm pile of nonsense about Dancing With the Stars or whatever the hell the idiot rage is now.

I used to care about sports, specifically baseball, when I was younger. Then I grew up, got out of school and witnessed first hand what a joke it really is, and how much of a fake sideshow and corporate scandal it has always been. Money, money, money.

So there you have it, this is my little personal statement on why I think it's shoved down my throat. You can't not avoid sports, you can't just avoid it. I'll continue to just pass it over and throw the crap away, but boy oh boy do I get sick of hearing about sports.

I live in the Czech Republic. We were very proud to host the first Women's Ski Jumping World Championship event here in Liberec last winter. Even at that time, there was discussion about the "fact" that very few women were able to compete at a high standard, and for this reason the women's event had not yet been added to the Olympic list of sports.

Frankly I don't buy this argument with its weak platitudes about "standards". For many athletes, the supreme motivation to train and sacrifice day in and day out, is the chance to represent their country at an Olympic Games. If women ski jumpers are given the right to compete in the Olympics then it will attract more of them to the sport, the various federations will get more funding, and the standards will soar.

Lindsey Van is not actually the overall world record holder (for both women and men). I need to clarify this, though, so please don't take my comment as a negative. Ski jumping world records are hard to quantify as absolutes because every competition hill is different. (This is similar to trying to establish the relative value of a "Marathon" world record, because every marathon course is different.) True, records are still claimed, but what is more significant is the actual record for all competitions on a particular hill.

This is what the jumpers themselves and their coaches look at. It doesn't matter if someone did a 120 meter jump on another hill last week (the men and women travel to various countries' venues almost every week in the season), what they are interested in, is what competitors have previously done on the same hill that they have to jump today.

Lindsey Van holds the hill record for the place where the events are to be held in the 2010 Olympics. That in itself is a heck of an achievement and to me it's more important than any "world record", and I guarantee you that she has tremendous respect from her male colleagues for doing it. It takes a lot of courage to launch yourself down a ski slope at around 90 -- 100 km/hr and hurtle out into empty space, knowing that you only get one chance to get your landing right and if you don't you could be in a very bad way.

I have to say also that there is no physical reason at all why a woman cannot achieve the longest flight of all time. Lindsey Van or another woman with her incredible talent (and guts) is quite capable of doing it. The current "ski flying" absolute World Record of 239 meters (780 ft) is held by Bjørn Einar Romøren, who did it on the huge hill at Planica (in Slovenia) in 2005. Ski flying is similar to ski jumping but it's from a much bigger hill.

Picture this: the jumper goes down a lonnng ramp and then launches into space and covers the length of two football fields in a six-second flight. Then they have to land on their skis and try to stop without falling over.

It's not for the faint-hearted. But I repeat: there is no reason why a woman can't beat that record. Just give them the chance!

The key elements to making a good jump are absolute self-belief, a light body frame with a high power-to-weight ratio, superb "takeoff" timing and very fast reaction times to correct your flight and set up your landing, excellent balance and spatial awareness -- and the courage to not "pull out" of the jump too early. Lindsey Van has all of that and she showed it in Liberec. Many of the other women who competed also demonstrated these qualities. They just need more training, funding and (perhaps) stronger motivation.

I say let them compete! Sooner or later they will be in the Olympics, and I think sooner is far better than later.

Sorry for the long rave, but I said to my daughter years ago, "You can do anything you want, you can be anything you dream of. Don't let anyone try to tell you that you can't!"

It angers me that some people's daughters are being told: "No. You can't compete in the Olympics. You can't achieve your dream. You're not good enough."

Maybe some of these close-minded, outdated, prejudiced decision-makers in the world of sport need to wake up a bit and stop destroying the dreams of young people!

Mike


[edit on 14/11/09 by JustMike]