Post by Dee Williams on Feb 27, 2009 1:22:59 GMT -5
Ballem blasts IOC's Rogge on women's ski jumping
Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/opinion/story.html?id=14f271b9-5afd-4035-a6be-3b119ebdfc09
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge got more than that fish dish the city fed him when he and his buddies lunched at the Vancouver Club earlier this month.
Before he could get to the grub, he was in a private meeting along with VANOC's John Furlong, Mayor Gregor Robertson and some of Robertson's staff, including city manager Penny Ballem.
Ballem wasted no time in getting to her top-of-mind issue: the decision by the IOC to exclude women's ski jumping from the 2010 Winter Olympics.
It is, she explained in her usual direct manner, an embarrassment for the city, if not the province and the entire country. Never mind the minor black eye a few Olympic nay-sayers may deliver with their protests; this deliberate omission by the IOC was a blatant act of discrimination for all the world to see.
Aside from her feminist predilections, Ballem's interest in the issue is doubtless encouraged by her partner, Olympic medalist Marion Lay, one of the early driving forces in bringing the Olympics to this part of the world.
Rogge attempted, I'm told, to deflect Ballem's argument with charm and by turning to the world of boxing. There are, he said, many female boxers in the world, but it is not an Olympic sport for women. Ballem was not impressed. Boxing for any gender should be banned as an Olympic sport, she said, and then got back to the matter at hand.
Here's some history: Back in 2006, the international skiing federation voted 114 to 1 in favour of introducing women's ski jumping as an Olympic sport. That was the preliminary step required to get the IOC to consider it. Later that same year, Rogge and the rest turned the idea down flat.
The IOC and Rogge argue that this is, um, a slippery slope. There are just too few women involved in the sport. It would diminish the value of an Olympic medal to include it in the games.
As a point of fact, there are more women competing in ski jumping internationally than there are in two other women's winter sports allowed by the Olympics: snowboarding and bobsledding.
Meanwhile, female ski jumpers and their supporters began lobbying VANOC to reconsider. Nothing. VANOC said then and continues to say: We are just following orders--handed down by the IOC.
Last November, the women pressed forward and, led by Women's Ski Jumping USA and its president Deedee Corradini, hired a lawyer and got a court date before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
They made the announcement at the Vancouver Convention Centre in the midst of a tour by 250 members of the world's media here for a briefing on the 2010 Games. Not a bad strategy.
The women are taking VANOC and not the IOC to court April 20.
Their lawyer Ross Clark will argue that VANOC is essentially an arm of government and therefore is required to abide by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The refusal to allow women's ski jumping as an Olympic sport violated their rights under the Charter.
As evidence of VANOC's status, Clark will cite a number of things: VANOC is funded by both the province and Ottawa and has federal, provincial and municipal appointees on its board; VANOC is required to abide by the requirements of the Official Languages Act; and it is governed by federal procurement legislation.
Clark describes the situation as "absurd." And he points out the ski jump facility is only being used on five of the 17 days of the Games.
This week, he started exchanging materials with the defendant VANOC. He says "the facts are not in dispute" and no witnesses will be called. Rather, this will be handled as a "summary judgment application." Each side will file documents and the judge will decide.
Meanwhile back at the Vancouver Club, on leaving, Rogge said to Ballem, "I will not forget you," and he learned that this time, at any rate, there was no free lunch.
This makes me wonder if the some of the biggest fights over getting women's boxing into London 2012 may be the attitudes if OTHER women's sports groups to getting it into the schedule, and of men's amateur boxing to the idea that women's participation will come only by cutting back on their events --- Dee
Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/opinion/story.html?id=14f271b9-5afd-4035-a6be-3b119ebdfc09
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge got more than that fish dish the city fed him when he and his buddies lunched at the Vancouver Club earlier this month.
Before he could get to the grub, he was in a private meeting along with VANOC's John Furlong, Mayor Gregor Robertson and some of Robertson's staff, including city manager Penny Ballem.
Ballem wasted no time in getting to her top-of-mind issue: the decision by the IOC to exclude women's ski jumping from the 2010 Winter Olympics.
It is, she explained in her usual direct manner, an embarrassment for the city, if not the province and the entire country. Never mind the minor black eye a few Olympic nay-sayers may deliver with their protests; this deliberate omission by the IOC was a blatant act of discrimination for all the world to see.
Aside from her feminist predilections, Ballem's interest in the issue is doubtless encouraged by her partner, Olympic medalist Marion Lay, one of the early driving forces in bringing the Olympics to this part of the world.
Rogge attempted, I'm told, to deflect Ballem's argument with charm and by turning to the world of boxing. There are, he said, many female boxers in the world, but it is not an Olympic sport for women. Ballem was not impressed. Boxing for any gender should be banned as an Olympic sport, she said, and then got back to the matter at hand.
Here's some history: Back in 2006, the international skiing federation voted 114 to 1 in favour of introducing women's ski jumping as an Olympic sport. That was the preliminary step required to get the IOC to consider it. Later that same year, Rogge and the rest turned the idea down flat.
The IOC and Rogge argue that this is, um, a slippery slope. There are just too few women involved in the sport. It would diminish the value of an Olympic medal to include it in the games.
As a point of fact, there are more women competing in ski jumping internationally than there are in two other women's winter sports allowed by the Olympics: snowboarding and bobsledding.
Meanwhile, female ski jumpers and their supporters began lobbying VANOC to reconsider. Nothing. VANOC said then and continues to say: We are just following orders--handed down by the IOC.
Last November, the women pressed forward and, led by Women's Ski Jumping USA and its president Deedee Corradini, hired a lawyer and got a court date before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
They made the announcement at the Vancouver Convention Centre in the midst of a tour by 250 members of the world's media here for a briefing on the 2010 Games. Not a bad strategy.
The women are taking VANOC and not the IOC to court April 20.
Their lawyer Ross Clark will argue that VANOC is essentially an arm of government and therefore is required to abide by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The refusal to allow women's ski jumping as an Olympic sport violated their rights under the Charter.
As evidence of VANOC's status, Clark will cite a number of things: VANOC is funded by both the province and Ottawa and has federal, provincial and municipal appointees on its board; VANOC is required to abide by the requirements of the Official Languages Act; and it is governed by federal procurement legislation.
Clark describes the situation as "absurd." And he points out the ski jump facility is only being used on five of the 17 days of the Games.
This week, he started exchanging materials with the defendant VANOC. He says "the facts are not in dispute" and no witnesses will be called. Rather, this will be handled as a "summary judgment application." Each side will file documents and the judge will decide.
Meanwhile back at the Vancouver Club, on leaving, Rogge said to Ballem, "I will not forget you," and he learned that this time, at any rate, there was no free lunch.
This makes me wonder if the some of the biggest fights over getting women's boxing into London 2012 may be the attitudes if OTHER women's sports groups to getting it into the schedule, and of men's amateur boxing to the idea that women's participation will come only by cutting back on their events --- Dee