The Case of the Women Ski Jumpers

Today I heard a news story about womens ski jumping. I learned that the International Olympic Committee allows mens ski jumping but not womens. Apparently there are quite a few female ski jumpers out there, and they want a chance to win a gold medal, too.



The link to the story is here, but I'll summarize it for you. The IOC's official position is that there aren't enough quality female ski jumpers to merit adding the sport to the Olympics (even though there are more of them in the world than lugers or bobsledders ), but the side conversations about the issue indicate that the decision may have come "from a medical point of view."



So either the women aren't as good at ski jumping as the men or the sport is just too dangerous for little ol' girls.



Suck it, IOC.



In a world that continues to move forward in equality for all people, the Olympics are keeping women from doing something that they're happy to let men do. This leads to a bigger question about women's sports. What professional womens sports are there, anyway? Basketball? Mention that to a crowd and invariably one person will say "Does the WNBA still exists?" while another will make a snide comment about those being "some manly girls."



Are there any other professional women's sports out there? If so, someone please enlighten me because I can't think of any.



Our "equal" society still has the perception of women athletes as being unfeminine, unattractive, and somehow less than their male counterparts. What causes this prejudice? Could part of the problem be that the media portrays "beautiful" women to be waifish, helpless little creatures? This poster of the Aggie Women's basketball team shows the georgeous women athletes, but it drew criticism for being "too sexy." Isn't it possible for women to be bad asses and sexy, too. Yes, friends, it is.

Maybe the IOC is worried about poor little women getting injured (hence the "medical point of view"). Well, welcome to 2010, Olympic committee. Women are firefighters, police officers, military personnel, even high school teachers, for goodness sakes. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about our safety. We'll be just fine.

Don't get me wrong here. I am in no way in favor of emasculating the men of the world. Most of the supportive, empowering people in my life have been men, my husband and father included. But it's time we stop assuming that women athletes must be either poor little girls trying to do something they clearly can't do as well as men or manly, butch women who are trying to be men.



Whatever their reasoning, the International Olympic Committee made a grievous error in the case of the women ski jumpers. At the very least, they should have let the women compete alongside the men in a unisex ski jump competition. Maybe the men would have blown the women away, but at least the women would have been afforded an opportunity for the Olympic experience.



Or maybe in the 2010 Olympics, a guy would get beaten by a girl. I'd be okay with that, too.