Liberec, Czech Republic - Women will throw themselves off a ski-jumping hill for world championship gold on Friday in another big leap for gender equality in sport. "All the women ski jumpers are excited about the season and the world championship," says American jumper Lindsey Van.
Germany's Anna Haefele agreed: "The world championships are a big
step for us. We fought very hard for this and now it is happening."
The inaugural big event at the Nordic skiing world championships in the Czech town of Liberec is to complete the acceptance of women's ski-jumping which was rejected for a long time by the ruling body FIS.
Medical concerns ranged from possible damage to the female spine to the female womb when landing were put forward as reasons why it was rejected. FIS also said that too few nations were involved in the sport.
"It is still a long way," FIS boss Gian-Franco Kasper told this reporter eight years ago at the worlds in Lahti, Finland. Pierre Heinrich from ski makers Rossignal predicted on the same day that "It will take at least 10 years to set up a series."
The FIS eventually needed 88 years since the first recorded jump (of 22 metres) from Countess Paula Lamberg in Austria to recognize women's jumping in 1999.
The top-level Continental Cup in its current form started in 2004. The women don't compete on a World Cup level (yet), but FIS decided in 2006 to crown a world champion in Liberec and also recommended women's jumpers for the 2010 Olympics.
But that was vetoed by Olympians who said the sport needed to be more international. A legal challenge citing Canadian discrimination laws is pending, but even Norwegian star Anette Sagen admitted: "I hope that we can jump in Vancouver. But I don't really expect it."
The hill record on the Olympic normal hill in Whistler in fact belongs to Van who has soared further than any man there. The women's world record now stands at 200m (the men's is 239m) from Austrian Daniela Iraschko.
Van and Iraschko are among the top favourites along with Haefele and others, but the woman to beat is Sagen. The Norwegian has won almost 40 competitions and lifted the Continental Cup trophy all four seasons it has been held so far.
Friday's winner will go down in history, but all competitors will be able to see themselves as pioneers to make the sport popular.
"You don't really feel accepted, but that's because our sport is still little known. Many people don't even know that women do ski-jumping," said Haefele.
