This is a stupid reason to have a court case. I am for complete equality, but not at the expense of common sense.
First, why the hell are they suing Vanoc? What can Vanoc do about it? Defy the IOC? Fine! No olympics for you!
Second, the IOC has said that the sport is not developed enough for the Olympics. What that probably means is that in Canada there are a bunch of female jumpers and perhaps there’s a small contingent of them in some Nordic countries, but internationally, there just isn’t a large enough pool of athletes to make it a worthwhile competition. What good is highlighting the best in the world when only four people are competing (hyperbole, I know). So you’re the best of four. So what? Kind of defeats the purpose of a global competition like the Olympics.
The women say that either they should be allowed their sport or the men’s sport should be canceled, which feels like fantastically poor sportsmanship to me.
Instead, why not roll the women into the men’s competition? Why is this not a solution? Perhaps there’s some physical reason why the women would beat the men or vice-versa, but in the article some of the women claim they beat some of the men, so the footing seems pretty equal to me. Why hasn’t anyone considered this solution?
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Often I find that the best woman can defeat a good man but not necessarily the best man. I suspect little things like weight as related to inertia will make men more likely to win.
I see no reason a sport that is big in a host country could not be a trial sport. Arguing that there aren’t many countries capable of winning an event is poppycock. How many different countries really have a chance at a gold in any really big sport, especially team sports? Chinese dominate diving and…well, lots of stuff. How many different countries have won men’s ski jump gold? Hockey gold? Curling gold?
IOC should at least calendar the sport to allow other countries to build programs for the future. Would that appease those filing the lawsuit? Not likely, but it could demonstrate sympathy to their cause.
Their lawsuit does seem mis-targeted.
I thought that inertia might be the case, except that the article specifically mentions the women beating the men.
If it’s inertia alone, you’d think you’d see couch potatoes doing the sport instead of lithe, athletics types. Maybe women are more aerodynamic then men?
It’s not whether or not countries have a chance to win gold. Rather, can they field athletes?
Finally, I think your suggestion about allowing it as an exhibition sport is a good one, but you’re right that it wouldn’t appease these women. Anybody that demands the cancellation of a different event (in effect peeing on someone else’s cake) isn’t especially good at reconciliation.