Fireside Chat, Interview
Women's Ski Jumping USA: Talks at GS Session Highlights
- DeeDee O'Donnell, former Mayor of Salt Lake City (elected 1992), discovered in 2004 that women's ski jumping had never been included in the Winter Olympics, despite women having competed in the sport since the late 1800s.
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) originally excluded women based on the false claim that there were not enough elite female competitors from sufficient nations to constitute a viable Olympic sport.
- U.S. ski jumping officials and athletes argued that women ski jumpers actually exceeded the participation numbers of other female Olympic sports like bobsleigh and luge at the time they were admitted.
- DeeDee and the team initiated a two-year battle with the International Ski Federation, successfully securing women's inclusion in the 2009 World Championships.
- Lindsay Vann served as the primary face of the movement, overcoming significant professional risk to become the first athlete to sign a lawsuit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) in 2010.
- The lawsuit, which sought to challenge discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, was brought by 15 athletes from around the world.
- In a 2010 decision, the Canadian court ruled that while the exclusion was discriminatory, the court lacked jurisdiction to control the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
- Despite the legal loss, the litigation garnered significant international media support and reframed the issue from a niche sporting dispute into a broader women's rights and human rights struggle.
- The IOC announced the inclusion of women's ski jumping in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in April 2011, citing sufficient international participation levels.
- Lindsey Vann and Sarah Hansen became the first women to compete in Olympic ski jumping at the 2014 Games in Sochi.
- Lindsey Vann, who began ski jumping at age 13 after the 1998 Park City Olympic bid construction, has accumulated over 20,000 jumps in her career.
- Sarah Hansen began skiing at age 7 and ski jumping at age 8, citing her older brother and mentor Lindsey Vann as primary inspirations for her entry into the sport.
- The sport is characterized by high speeds (up to 65 mph) and flight distances exceeding one football field, requiring athletes to treat skis as wings and manage extreme aerodynamic sensitivity.
- Athletes report that the sensation of flight feels like holding a hand out of a moving car, where minor body movements result in significant trajectory changes due to air pressure on the skis.
- DeeDee notes that European ski jumping culture is traditionally male-dominated ("macho") and views women's potential participation as threatening to the sport's established power structure.
- The primary objective of the advocacy group was to establish a standalone women's Olympic event rather than competing directly against men.