Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Women ski jumpers are appealing a British Columbia Supreme Court's decision denying them participation in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
They are now taking their case to the British Columbia Court of Appeals.
The B.C. Supreme Court made it's decision last week.
"It's not over," Deedee Corradini, president of Women's Ski Jump-USA and spokesperson for the group, said today. "We took a few days for our lawyers to review last week's judgment and to canvass our plaintiffs to see what everyone thought and now we're ready to continue our fight to get the women into 2010."
The Supreme Court did find discrimination by the International Olympic Committee, but said it had no authority to force the IOC to change its decision.
According to lawyer Ross Clark, Q.C., the appeal will be based on the argument that VANOC must host the Games in accordance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "It cannot host events on Canadian soil that implement discrimination," Clark pointed out.
Clark represents the group of women ski jumpers from Norway, Germany, Slovenia, Austria and Utah, who are suing the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.
"We believe with an expedited ruling in September that still leaves plenty of time for VANOC to plan and host a single women's ski jumping event next February," Corradini said. "When we hosted the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, we had contingency plans for everything. I'm sure they can accommodate us, especially given all the supportive comments they've made about the women ski jumpers' situation."
