Female ski jump decision details released
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 7:47 PM ET
The Canadian Press
A tearful world women's ski jump champ Lindsay Van reacts to the B.C. Court of Appeal decision Nov. 13. (CBC)Vancouver Olympic organizers have no power to include women's ski jumping in the 2010 Olympics, says British Columbia's highest court.
Therefore, they can't be found to be violating the athletes' rights because no women's event will take place during the Games next February, the court said in written reasons released Friday for its decision last week to dismiss a case filed by female jumpers.
The women claimed the Vancouver organizing committee, known as VANOC, was violating their rights by staging ski jumping events for men but not women.
The B.C. Supreme Court had already rejected their case, concluding that while their exclusion was discriminatory, it was a decision that rested solely with the International Olympic Committee and VANOC could not be held accountable.
The three-member appeal panel was unanimous in its decision to dismiss the appeal.
'IOC determines the programme'
The appeal court justices agreed that the IOC is the only body that can decide which events to include in the Olympics, and neither VANOC nor any Canadian government has the legal or practical power to depart from those decisions.
'VANOC simply does not have the power.'—B.C. Court of Appeal
"It is a case in which a non-governmental body (VANOC) is brought before the court as a result of policies which neither it nor any Canadian authority has the power to change," says the ruling.
"VANOC simply does not have the power to determine what events are included in the 2010 Olympic programme."
The appeal court ruling largely stays away from the issue of whether excluding the women is, in fact, discriminatory.
But it does disagree with how the trial judge applied the relevant section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms dealing with gender equality.
The ruling says that section of the Charter can't apply in this case because there is no law or government contract related to the Games that gives anyone in Canada control over the selection of Olympic events.
Both VANOC and the jumpers' lawyer declined to comment on Friday.
Little time for appeal
The women could seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, but that process could take months. And with the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremonies less than three months away, their lawyer, Ross Clark, acknowledged last week that it's "very late" to have the case heard in time.
VANOC has stressed that they've worked hard to support the sport of women's ski jumping but have long insisted their hands are tied.
The appeal court decision acknowledges VANOC had unsuccessfully pushed for the event's inclusion.
Ski jumping is the only sport at the Winter Games without events for both men and women.
At the Summer Games, the IOC voted this year to include women's boxing beginning in London in 2012, however events such as synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics include women but not men.
The IOC voted in 2006 not to include women's ski jumping at the Games, saying the sport had not met the required technical criteria.
It will be on the program for the upcoming 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the international body that governs ski jumping has said it will press for its inclusion for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
