Ski Jumping

A women's ski jump advocate says ski jumpers and their lawyers will begin discussions on Monday over whether they will appeal a B.C. Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the lawsuit that many had hoped would end in a women's ski jump event at 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"It's not over until it's over and we still have to discuss whether we will appeal or not," said Deedee Corradini, president of Women's Ski Jumping USA. "Lawyers think it is worth considering."

Men have been participating in Olympic ski jump since 1924, but the women's event has never been included. After a proposal to add women's ski jump to the 2010 Olympics was denied by the 2006 executive board of the IOC on the grounds that not enough athletes compete in the event, the women took their case to the courts.

The plaintiffs were left dismayed on Friday when Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon ruled that although women ski jumpers had been discriminated against by the International Olympic Committee's decision not to include a women's ski jump event at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, the Switzerland-based organization was well outside the reach of the Canadian Charts of Rights and Freedoms.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee, the target of the ski jumpers' high-profile lawsuit, is subject to the Charter, but in the case of carrying out and planning the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Justice Fenlon found the decisions to rest with the IOC - out of VANOC's control.

Since then, Corradini said that she and the other advocates of women's ski jumping have just been trying to wrap their minds around the ruling. "We literally are still absorbing the decision," she said.

While an appeal is only one of the paths that Corradini said the plaintiffs are considering, she still feels the ski jumpers have a case.

"I don't think we'd be discussing it unless we thought there was some validity to having that discussion," Corradini said. "All options are on the table and (an appeal) is one of them."

Corradini said it will take some time to decide on a course of action. With just over six months to the Opening Ceremony of the Games, she still thinks that there is enough time for women's ski jump to be included.

"Since VANOC knew there was a possibility that (inclusion) was going to happen, there was a contingency plan somewhere. And since it's the same venue and all we're asking for is one event, we still have time," Corradini said.

"We're not ready to give up on 2010 yet."