Sexism at the Olympics

In the powerful 1999 HBO documentary, Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports, one of the recurring themes is "We cannot allow women to (fill in the blank with a sport) because they could be physically harmed from it." The physical harm mentioned most often is "lose the ability to have children." Women and girls had to fight to be able to participate in every sport they participate in, and some events were closed to women even twenty years ago.

Imagine my disgust when I discovered that the Winter Olympics continues to bar women from participating in ski jumping. Why? Wait for it...

Ski jumping is just too dangerous for women. Don't forget, [the landing] it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters to the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.

No kidding. That from Gian-Franco Kasper, head of the International Ski Federation.

Eighteen-year-old American ski jumper Alyssa Johnson is ranked 141 places above her brother, Anders, but he is the one who gets to participate in the Olympic games. Johnson says that she has heard every excuse in the book for not allowing women to enter either the ski jumping competitition or the Nordic combined:

That it's too "dangerous" for girls. That there aren't enough of us. That we're not good enough. That it would damage our ovaries and uterus and we won't be able to have children, even though that's not true.

It may be the 21st Century, but you couldn't tell it from the International Ski Federation's rules.

Thanks to feministing for this story.