Ski Jumping

VANCOUVER - Women ski jumpers believe their battle to be included in the Vancouver Winter Olympics played a factor in the International Olympic Committee's decision Thursday to add women's boxing to the 2012 London Summer Games.

"I'd like to think maybe the IOC is starting to smarten up here a little bit and see there is some discrimination going on,'' Jan Willis, the mother of one of the women jumpers, said in a telephone interview from Calgary.

Her daughter Katie Willis, who is competing at an event in Germany, called the IOC's decision "wonderful.''

"I think it's great for promoting women in sport, especially in high levels such as the Olympics,'' Katie Willis said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press. "It is hopefully a good thing, maybe showing they are softening their stance for women.''

The IOC also selected golf and rugby sevens - a faster-paced version of the traditional 15-a-side game - for proposed inclusion in the 2016 Summer Games. The IOC rejected bids from baseball, softball, karate, roller sports and squash.

Mary Spencer, a two-time world champion, said the nod to women's boxing should be a boost for the female jumpers.

"It's going to give them some hope,'' the Windsor, Ont., native told a Toronto news conference. "It's going to let them know that their efforts aren't going to go unnoticed, that there is a going to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

"They have been fighting for this, they want it bad. A lot of times you think the IOC is against you, or the sport community, but this will show them their day is going to come soon. Hopefully sooner than later.''

Spencer said a major hurdle for the women boxers was meeting the IOC's criteria to be included at a Games.

"We tried to have it in other Olympic Games, but we didn't meet the criteria,'' she said. "Now we meet the criteria and they've told us yes.

"Hopefully, when the ski jumpers meet that same criteria, they will be in as well.''

Chris Rudge, chief executive officer with the Canadian Olympic Committee, said including women's boxing shows the IOC's commitment to gender equality in sport.

But he doubted it would open the door for the female jumpers to compete at the Vancouver Games.

"They (the IOC) made it quite clear the decision will not change for 2010 and I don't believe it will,'' said Rudge.

"Beyond 2010 though, as the sport progresses and as it starts to hold its world championships and as there are more qualified participants around the world, I think there is every reason to believe it will be reassessed and probably be there in Sochi in 2014.''

Jan Willis agreed time is ticking away for the Vancouver Games.

"We've been in this battle for quite a few years now,'' she said. "I'd like to think that maybe it is possible (but) 2012 is a lot different than 2010.

"We only have a few months left, so I'm not sure how quickly the IOC will move on that.''

A group of 14 current and former women ski jumpers have gone to court to argue that being excluded from the Vancouver Games violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

They are appealing a B.C. Supreme Court decision that said the IOC is discriminating against women ski jumpers by keeping them out of the Games. But Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon said the court lacks the power to order the sport to be included at the Vancouver Olympics.

The IOC voted in 2006 to keep women's ski jumping off the 2010 program, saying it wasn't developed enough to meet the criteria for inclusion at an Olympics.

At the time of the 2006 vote, a sport needed at least two world championships to be considered for inclusion. The first women's ski jumping world championship was held this year in Liberec, Czech Republic.

The Olympic charter also won't allow new sports to be added within four years of a Games.

The plight of the women ski jumpers has drawn international attention. Prior to Thursday's vote, an article in the Irish Times suggested the Canadian court decision brought pressure on the IOC to have a gender balance.

Adding women's boxing means all 26 sports at the Summer Games have both female and male competitors.

Ski jumping and Nordic combined - which includes both ski jumping and cross-country skiing - are the only Winter Olympic sports that do not include women.

"Wouldn't it have been a lot simpler if the IOC had just done the right thing and put the women in as they did the boxers,'' said Jan Willis. "Then we would have a completely gender equal Olympic Games.

"They (the IOC) would have appeared much more modern in their thinking.''