April 25, 2009 (Vancouver, BC) – Here’s the latest news on the Women Ski Jumpers vs VANOC which has now become a matter for the B.C. Supreme Court to rule on as neither side has budged on the issues. The proceedings began on Monday and wrapped up on Friday, April 24.

On Monday the The Vancouver Sun reported that the B.C. Supreme Court was told that the Vancouver Organizing Committee must either put on a ski-jumping event for women or remove the three men-only events being planned for the 2010 Winter Games. Ross Clark, acting for the women, told Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon that VANOC’s refusal means that “simply because of their sex, the (women) have been told they cannot participate in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.” Read the Vancouver Sun article here.

The Globe and Mail reported “This is a very historic day,” declared Deedee Corradini, president of Women’s Ski Jumping USA and the jumpers’ leading advocate and former long-time mayor of Salt Lake City, host of the 2002 Winter Olympics. There’s no question in anyone’s mind that this is blatant discrimination … and this may finally bring us to some kind of parity and equality in the Olympics for the first time in history.” Read the Globe and Mail article here.

Following the week’s hearings the Associated Press reported in USA Today that the a lawyer representing female ski jumpers suing to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics summed up his case on Friday by arguing that contracts the games’ organizers signed with the International Olympic Committee are subject to Canadian law. Read the complete story in USA Today.

The Toronto Star headline on Friday read Ski Jumping Case Wraps with Decision in One or Two Months. What if black athletes were being held back from competition in the 2010 Winter Olympics? It’s an extreme example of how the case of women ski jumpers suing for their sport’s inclusion into the Olympics could be seen as a simple rights issue. But the questions now facing a B.C. Supreme Court justice go much deeper than that. Complicated legal arguments over Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and whether it applies to the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, are the legal crux of the case that wrapped up Friday. For the complete Canadian Press report in the Toronto Star.

Women’s Ski Jumping USA video here.