"pioneer" woman athlete opens ski jump

[lph]

Oh, "#¤%&/1@£$!! I just spent half an hour writing up a long account of how we went to see the opening of the new Holmenkollen ski jump above Oslo, mostly because of a most inspiring woman ski jumper named Anette Sagen - but I just managed to delete it all.

My point was basically: women are still not allowed to compete in ski jumping in the Winter Olympics, for some bizarre reason:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...963447,00.html

Anette Sagen, Norways best female ski jumper and one of the best women jumpers of all time, just yesterday did the honour of opening Oslo's new ski jump:
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/03/...-new-ski-jump/

and we got to see it all and she is cute as a button, is most friendly, has the bearing of a queen, and is just a wonderful role model for young women everywhere: this snap my son took after her 106 m long jump:

(ok, I'll stop, I'm gushing )

[lph]

On this site you can actually see a whole jump - from a helmet cam on one of the jumpers:

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/sp...cle3548132.ece

[Tri Girl]

Good for her!!! I read that the reason the IOC won't allow women ski jumpers is because they say they don't have a big enough numbers of competitors and don't have international competitions and world championships (which is not true). I hope it's in the next Olympics- it NEEDS to be!


and holy cow- I think I peed my pants when I watched that video. HOLY CRAP!
BTW- how do they make the initial tracks in the ski jump (the tracks that the skis follow when going down the ramp?). I've always wondered that.

[Bike Chick]

I didn't even realize there was no women's competition in the ski jump. Maybe with pioneering women like Anette Sagen it will be in the next olympics. Good for her!

You are right, that was an awesome video. Good question, Tri Girl, how do they make those tracks? And how on earth do they get on that little bitty bench with skis on? I would get the tip hung on a step and be sliding down the ramp head first

[solobiker]

You are right, that was an awesome video. Good question, Tri Girl, how do they make those tracks? And how on earth do they get on that little bitty bench with skis on? I would get the tip hung on a step and be sliding down the ramp head first

Yup, that would be me too. There is no way I could ever do that. She is awesome!

[shootingstar]

I didn't pay attention in great detail about the court case that the Canadian women's ski jumping group took to the British Columbia Supreme Court where they tried to establish the legitimacy of having women's ski jumping in 2010 Winter Olympics.

Court decision was made about 1-2 months before start of 2010 Olympics. In the court judgement is was felt that regardless of what the B.C. court decided, the provincial court had no power / authority/jurisdiction to force the IOC to comply since it is an international body outside of Canada.

On a related point, Jacques Rogge, President of IOC, wierdly asserted that the calibre of women's hockey teams had to improve and not be dominated by strong teams ie. Canada, U.S. etc. winning a medal every Winter Olympics. Otherwide women's hockey should be eliminated from the Olympics! His comment was made after the Canadian women's hockey team won the gold.

Just short-sighted. Would the same be said for a men's sport dominated by ie. Russia, etc.?

[shootingstar]

Ski jumping decision

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2...760/story.html B.C. Supreme Court decision explained

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/skijumpin...omen-scoc.html Apparently the women wanted to take their case to Supreme Court of Canada, but court refused to hear their case.

[Bike Chick]

I hate to see that politics are playing such a big part in the Olympic games. I guess they always have and I just didn't realize it. I preferred it when I was ignorant of the fact. It ruins the spirit of the games for me. It's beginning to sound like the Tour de France. Whining and complaining.

Tell the Jamaican Bobsled Team they shouldn't compete because they wouldn't stand a chance at winning a medal. Many people did and they did it anyway. I will remain naive and believe that's what the Olympic games and competition is all about.

[lph]

I don't know about the tracks, but since one can jump on/from a synthetic/composite surface I'm guessing they're a permanent fixture, and just covered with a thin layer of artificial snow.

I'm not afraid of heights, but looking up, and down this jump made my head spin! And this jump is built to be "jumperfriendly", in the sense that the slope follows the jumpers most likely trajectory so that he or she is rarely that high above the surface. But it's amazingly steep.

I've seen on other events that there's a kind of bar in front of the jumpers as they move onto the bench, that is lifted once they're ready to go.

[malkin]

I remember feeling incredulous and queasy looking up at the old Holmenkollen ski jump! It also had a bit of that rickety look that old roller coasters have.

[sfa]

Aaack! My stomach dropped just watching that video. I always wonder, watching these things, who thought to do that the *first* time?

Count me among the people who didn't realize that women's ski jumping wasn't in the Olympics. I assumed it was. And it sounds like they're going to be running out of excuses for keeping it out (numbers participating, established world championship, etc.) in the future.

It bugs the crap out of me when they eliminate sports because they are dominated by just a couple of countries. How do they expect other countries to start to participate in the sports if they remove them from that level of competition? I'd think the IOC would instead want to spend their time doing outreach and education for those sports in countries that are trying to start or strengthen programs.

Sarah

[beccaB]

I believe a female actress who's fairly well known, can't remember the name, and don't know where I saw the information- is making a documentary about women's ski jumping being left out of the Olympics.