Women ski jumpers shut out of Vancouver Games

Sports Columnist

July 10, 2009 11:45 AM PT

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A bid by female ski jumpers to be included in the next Winter Olympics was rejected by a judge in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

Fifteen jumpers had sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) over their exclusion from the Games, saying that it violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Judge Lauri Ann Fenlon agreed that the plaintiffs ‘will be denied this opportunity for no reason other than their sex,’ but said the International Olympic Committee -- which determines which sports are included in the Olympic program -- is not bound by Canada’s Charter.

‘There will be little solace to the plaintiffs in my finding that they have been discriminated against [but] there is no remedy available to them in this Court,’ she wrote in a decision released today.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog

Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.