Jade Edwards will be at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. But much to her chagrin, she’ll be there as a spectator rather than a participant.
Edwards, 19, said participating in the 2010 Olympics as a ski jumper was a realistic goal for her. But with the recent International Olympics Committee (IOC) ruling that women’s ski jumping will not be included in the Games, Edwards is left wondering what could have been.
“It would have been so much fun,” Edwards said, via phone from her home in Cochrane, Alta. “It just would have been great. That was everyone’s goal and now they’re telling us we can’t achieve our goals.”
Last March, Edwards joined a lawsuit with 14 other elite women’s ski jumpers from around the world, petitioning to get the sport into the 2010 Olympics.
“When I heard that they needed more Canadians, I thought, ‘heck yes, I’d join,’” she said.
In her written decision, Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon of the B.C. Supreme Court acknowledged that the women were being discriminated against. But she also said this matter was out of the court’s reach because the IOC, who ultimately determines which sports are included in the Olympics, is not bound by Canadian law.
The women, led by their lawyer Ross Clark, then took their case to the B.C. Court of Appeal and after a two-day hearing, which Edwards attended last November, the case was dismissed. The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case in December.
“It’s so frustrating,” Edwards said, without hesitation. “They’re basically saying that the IOC is above everything. What if the IOC said they didn’t want religion in the Olympics? Then what would we do? It’s kind of scary that they can do whatever they want.”
To prevent the IOC from doing whatever they want in the future, Clark said that the government could insist that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the IOC by writing it into **their contracts**. However, he also said he doesn’t see this as being a realistic outcome. As a result, he said he predicts that more Olympics will start being held in third-world countries.
Clark said he took on the case without compensation because he “felt [the women] were being discriminated against, and it’s wrong.”
“It’s very discouraging,” Clark added. “Discrimination is a bad thing. It’s very hard to defeat.”
Although the IOC continues to claim that the decision to not include women’s ski jumping in the Games was based on technical merit rather than gender discrimination, Clark said this “technical merit” has never actually been defined.
“The women have written to them and asked to have that clarified, so that we can understand what they’re talking about,” he said. “There has never been an answer, because there is no answer. There’s no statistic, or number, or anything that they can point to, to justify their decision that I’m aware of.”
The IOC did not respond to a request for clarification on this issue. However, it did issue a statement in July 2009, suggesting that when sports were being considered for inclusion in the 2010 games, “there were not enough elite athletes from enough countries” participating in women’s ski jumping.
According to the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) communications manager, Riikka Rakic, the acceptance for sports in the Olympics occurs several years prior to the Games. For example, the IOC accepted women’s ski cross for the 2010 Games in December 2006.
Rakic said there were 32 women from 11 nations competing at the elite level of ski cross. At the same time, Rakic said there were 82 women from 14 nations competing at the elite level of ski jumping.
The only difference: the highest level of competition for ski jumping was a continental championship rather than a world championship.
To be considered for inclusion in the Games, it is a requirement for the sport to have been included in at least two world championships, according to an IOC statement. A requirement, however, that has been waived in the past.
Edwards started ski jumping as an eight-year-old. She said she was originally attracted to the sport when her Brownies group had a sleepover at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. Since then, she has grown to love it.
“It’s hard to describe; there’s nothing like it,” Edwards said. “It’s like no other feeling.”
More than 10 years, several concussions, a broken foot, and a torn meniscus or strained MCL – depending on which doctor you believe – after taking her first jump, Edwards is ready to call it quits.
“Maybe if it was guaranteed that women’s ski jumping would be in the 2014 Olympics, I would continue,” Edwards said, who now hopes to attend medical school. “But I can’t put my life on hold for another five years.”
And quite frankly, many believe she shouldn’t have to.