Posted by Dave on 02/17/06 at 11:06:54 am
Categories: Sports Ravings, Feminism

While we celebrate the athletic abilities of the best athletes in the world (contrary to what Bryant Gumbel believes), it is sad the in some sports the best are still not allowed to compete [hat tip Feministing]:

It was late in the evening and the van she had been riding in through mountains in Germany with four U.S. teammates and their coach was nearing their hotel as 18-year-old Alissa Johnson spoke on her cell phone. But at that moment her younger brother, Anders, was where she really yearned to be.

Both Johnsons are among the best ski jumpers in the world. Alissa is ranked ninth among the top women who compete, about 141 spots higher than her brother sits in the men's rankings. But only 16-year-old Anders is preparing to compete for the U.S. Winter Olympic team this week in the Alps north of Turin. Not because Alissa can't fly far. But because women ski jumpers aren't allowed in the Olympics, for reasons older than the hills.

Unbelievable. Gian-Franco Kasper, head of the International Ski Federation, gives the "justification":

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.

Alissa gives some more detail to the reasoning:

So far, we've been told every excuse in the book. 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 It's so outdated, it's kind of funny in a way. And then it's not.

Damage their ovaries? Their uterus? You have to be kidding me. Of course this goes back to those who think that the primary role of a woman is to produce babies, not gold medals.

It amazes me that our society still believes that women are inferior to men. And it is sad that so many people still see women in such a distorted way.

So taking dangerous jumps is too dangerous for women, but not for men who do the same jumps? How is it more dangerous?

There is no scientific evidence that asserts that it is more dangerous for women to ski jump then men. Yet the International Olympic Committee and the International Ski Federation stand by outdated, archaic, and antiquated beliefs and ideas regarding women. One would think that in 2006 we would have a society that sees that women are just as capable of men, yet sadly we are not at that point.

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