Olympic flame for Vancouver Games lit in Greece

With only 113 days until the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, the Olympic torch was lit today in a ceremony at the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece. A relay will take the torch 28,000 miles around Canada before the start of the Winter Games on Feb. 12.

Just as it was in ancient times, the torch was lit by the sun’s rays. Bad weather disrupted the ceremony for the last three Winter Olympics —Torino, Salt Lake City and Nagano— and officials had to use  back-up flames from the rehearsals.

In addition to good weather, Thursday’s ceremony also benefited from a lack of protesters this time, even though Vancouver relay officials had been worried that activists would be on hand to protest against seal hunting in Canada.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said the Olympic torch conveyed a global message “of friendship and respect.”

“The Olympic torch and flame are symbols of the values and ideals which lie at the heart of the Olympic Games,” Rogge said, as hundreds of spectators looked on from the stadium’s grassy banks.

Greek giant slalom skier Vassilis Dimitriadis, dressed in full winter gear, was the first torchbearer to run out of the ancient stadium after accepting the flame from actress Maria Nafpliotou who played a High Priestess calling on sun God Apollo . Dimitriadis briefly stopped at a marble memorial where the heart of the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, is buried.

After an eight-day journey across Greece, including the country’s ski resorts, the torch will be handed over to Canadian officials at the restored ancient Panathenaean Stadium in Athens on Oct. 29.

Although cauldrons were lit during the ancient games, held in Olympia from 776 B.C. to 394 A.D, the torch relay is a modern addition to the Olympics. It made its first appearance during the1936 Berlin Games, and its Winter Games debut was at the Innsbruck Olympics in 1964.

The torch will reach Canada on Oct. 30 for what organizers say will be the largest ever national relay, starting in Victoria, British Columbia, and involving 12,000 torchbearers.

Over 106 days, the relay will span Canada, being flown as far north as the Alert forestry station in Nunavut, which at some 500 miles from the North Pole is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world.

One of the runners will be fifteen-year-old ski jumper Charlotte Mitchell who has been part of an ongoing court battle to get a women’s ski jump event in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

While Charlotte has been told by the courts that can’t jump during the Games,  she is being allowed to run.  Selected in a draw, she will accompany the torch for 300 metres on Day One of the relay.

Deedee Corradini, the president of Ski Jumping USA who has put up billboards to protest what she calls a sexist Olympic policy against women ski jumping, said it is ironic that Charlotte will get to run the torch relay.

But she and other athletes promise to put politics aside for the relay, and save arguments about gender equality for the courtroom.

The court case is in the appeal stage. It will be heard on Nov. 12 and 13.

The countdown is on…

No clear answer from IOC for women ski jumpers

The fight to include women’s ski jumping has been going on for a while.

After all the controversy, it seems the IOC has a responsibility to help this sport grow and with minimal effort and cost they can do it. Many sports have been added to the Olympic program over the years of lesser stature but for this sport at this time there seems to be a definitive bias. Power can be used for both good and bad and unfortunately IOC President Jacques Rogge is the one who has it right now. Here’s his response to the athletes most recent missive:

Dear Ladies,

Thank you for your letter dated 4 September 2009.

You have clearly made important strides to develop women’s ski jumping since our decision in 2006 – and in coming years we are open to considering women’s ski jumping for inclusion in future Olympic Winter Games. However, we remain convinced that our decision in 2006 was the correct one, based on the analysis of the event done at that time, and our position for the 2010 Games is unchanged.

I am sure that with your passion for your sport and with the continued support of the International Ski Federation (FIS), your efforts to improve and develop women’s ski jumping globally will create a very compelling argument for the Olympic Programme Commission, when the winter programme is reviewed in the future.

I am pleased that you agree that the inclusion of women’s ski jumping in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is a wonderful initiative and hopefully, with your help, the YOG can play a part in encouraging the next generation of young female athletes to take-up this exciting event.

We continue to work, as Justice Fenlon noted, for “the inclusion of women in the Olympics and in amateur sports”, as well as in the fields of sports leadership and administration, and your commitment to your sport and its development will greatly assist in this domain. I wish you good luck during your competitions this up-coming season and thank you for your continued engagement to sport.

Yours sincerely,
Jacques Rogge

The 15  female ski jumpers who have filed suit are (understandably)  disappointed Rogge’s letter does not address their specific query about the technical requirements they allegedly fail to meet. As they’ve stated repeatedly, they’re confident they do indeed meet all the universality and technical requirements needed to participate fully at the Olympics.

They’ll now  concentrate their efforts on the appeal of their legal case to be heard in the BC Court of Appeal Nov. 12 & 13. That’s just three months before the Olympics begin on Feb 2010. Time is  running out and a  split decision in the Appeal Court would likely prompt a bid to put the issue to the Supreme Court of Canada.

How high must these women jump to get on the Olympic programme? If you want to help out, sign the petition to let the ladies jump now.

Against the odds: Girls in urban areas face unique challenges in playing sports

.Katie Thomas has written two parts of a series for the New York Times looking at the unique challenges facing urban girls who want to play sports

Her first piece, about a middle school basketball team in Brooklyn, highlights challenges facing the girls who want to play. Thomas writes:

The Cougars of Middle School 61 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn have few of the basics that suburban public school girls have, including free transportation, uniforms and full seasons of regularly scheduled games. At M.S. 61 each road game is a logistical puzzle for Mr. Mariner, the dean of students who doubles (sans pay) as the coach of the school’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams. Even when the Cougars arrive ready to play, games are sometimes canceled because the opponents – facing the same obstacles – cannot field a team. Parents rarely show up to watch. Mariner, by the way, won’t cut a girl from the team regardless of ability… and he has to clean the gym after he’s done, despite being the Dean of Students.

The other problem lies in how many girls can overcome the barriers to participation. In the suburbs, girls play sports at rates roughly equal to boys. A 2007 survey by Harris Interactive of more than 2,000 schoolchildren nationwide showed that 54 percent of boys and 50 percent of girls in the suburbs described themselves as “moderately involved” athletes.

Urban areas revealed a much greater discrepancy. Only 36 percent of city girls in the survey described themselves as moderately involved athletes, compared with 56 percent of city boys. This hints at the idea that class and economic circumstances weigh heavily on girls when it comes to sports. Marj Snyder, Chief Program Officer for the Women’s Sports Foundation, points out in the above clip, that studies show girls’ participation in sports can help them build career-critical team-building skills, help combat obesity and improve their academics.

In Brooklyn, Thomas tracked one immigrant girl named Soledad who, while a star on the team, was assigned by her family to pick up a cousin each afternoon from kindergarten and another from daycare instead of going to practice or participating in games. Child care responsibilities of teenagers – particularly girls, is a major obstacle to participation.

In most cases, boys in the family share no such responsibilities. So in more ways that one, traditional views of women’s roles continue to shape girls’ lives in ways that are unhealthy for them.

Thomas demonstrates that school athletics in suburban areas have come pretty close to gender parity and private leagues that require fees are common and parents take time off to attend games — but none of those structures or opportunities are available in urban areas, particularly to girls because of a mixture of time, sexist ideas about the role of girls in extended families and the view of sports as a male activity, and money.

Coaches and organizers of youth sports in cities say that while many immigrant and lower-income parents see the benefit of sports for sons, they often lean on daughters to fill needs in their own hectic lives, like tending to siblings or cleaning the house.

Although boys in the city also have fewer opportunities in sports, other factors work in their favor. Lean athletic budgets leave a gap that is filled by a blend of volunteers and private groups that have traditionally served more boys than girls.

“The needs of boys just have always been, and to a large extent remain, the unspoken, often unrecognized priority,” a professor said.

In part two of her series, Using Teamwork to Bring Girls Into the Game, Thomas profiles the situation in Boston where a number of non-profit groups are working to try to encourage girls to participate more in sports. One group is even helping adults learn to break down barriers in gender-specific play.

Employees at Sports4Kids, a nonprofit group that oversees recess at public schools, have been devising ways to shake up gender roles and increase options for girls. Tes Siarnacki, a recess coordinator at a school in East Boston, regularly encourages older girls to referee boy-dominated soccer games, and assigns older boys to monitor double Dutch jump rope, which is played mostly by girls. One day this spring, Siarnacki encouraged the girls to begin doing sit-ups and jumping jacks. “They wanted to play ‘teacher,’ so I told them to play ‘gym teacher,’ ” she said. “It was a pretty easy sell.”

Like the kids profiled in the Brooklyn story, Boston kids also struggle with familial obligations. In Boston, one sports program attempted to create an program to watch the charges of their participants. In most cases, boys in the family share no such responsibilities. So in more ways that one, traditional views of women’s roles continue to shape girls’ lives in ways that are unhealthy for them.

It’s interesting to note that in many urban schools, basically no tax dollars are spent on sports programs (for boys or girls) and that, given historic interest in keeping boys off the streets and busy, girls athletics have been ignored by the many private groups trying to address the situation, despite the proven benefits for girls.

The whole series, which is well written and researched, is basically an analysis of the role that class and to some extent race play in girls’ participation in athletics. And it’s disheartening to learn that girls with the least opportunity are the ones that might benefit the most from such activities.

Any ideas on how to better bring the girls into the game?

Stand with women ski jumpers today

Did you know that ski jumping is the only event in the Olympic Winter Games that does not allow women to participate?

The International Olympic Committee won’t let these international elite athletes jump in the upcoming Vancouver Games because the IOC believes the women aren’t ready.

Fifteen women ski jumpers from six nations are plaintiffs in a gender-discrimination lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The women want an injunction saying they should be included. If not, then men shouldn’t be allowed to jump either. The hearing is set for today – April 20, 2009.

Find out just how READY these women are AND sign a petition (more than 10,000 signatures so far) demanding that the IOC upholds the true spirit of the Olympic Games by letting the women compete in 2010.

SIGN THE PETITION at http://wsj2010.com

Follow the group on Twitter: Twitter.com/LetWomenJump

Join the Facebook group: Let Women Jump

Website: Let Women Jump in 2010

Check out this early trailer of a documentary following the female ski jumper’s court case against the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.

Virginia Madsen teams up for female ski jumper doc

Actress Virginia Madsen (Sideways, Prairie Home Companion, The Haunting) and Title IX Productions, the film company she formed last year,  are taking on a good fight – the right for women ski jumpers to compete in the Olympic games.

Titled “Fighting Gravity,” the documentary film follows 15 athletes challenging the International Olympic Committee’s decision to bar them from the upcoming Games in Vancouver. The IOC has rejected a decade-long effort to include women jumpers in the Games, making ski jumping the only Olympic sport exclusively for men. The case is currently making its way through the Canadian court system. Here’s what Madsen had to say:

“To think that in 2009, in a celebrated, international event like the Olympics, women are still dealing with discrimination is pretty shocking. We knew instantly we wanted to throw our support behind this project and get the word out there.”

With ski jumping the only winter Olympic sport that doesn’t include both genders, the female ski jumpers featured in the doc say their rights have been violated. The IOC says women’s ski jumping doesn’t have enough international competitions to merit inclusion.

The most infuriating thing to the ski jumpers isn’t just that they won’t be in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s who will be.

Sliders, skiers and shredders of all sorts — bobsled, skeleton, luge, snowboard. And don’t forget the butt of every winter sports joke ever invented: curling.

But women’s ski jumping? As it currently stands, not gonna happen.

American Lindsay Van increased the pressure by winning the first women’s ski jumping World Cup, which was held in the Czech Republic last month.

Men, of course, have been jumping since the mid-1800s. The first World Championships were in 1936. But women have been denied. Though they have been competing for a decade, their first championships were just held.

The argument is always the same. Officials insist the interest and talent isn’t there for women’s ski jumping, even though it apparently is for men. IOC media relations manager Emmanuelle Moreau told The Canadian Press last year, “Any reference to the fact that this is a matter about gender equality is totally inappropriate and misleading.”

World champion Van and Canadian national team member Katie Willis wrote to IOC chief Jacques Rogge last month requesting a meeting while he was in Denver attending the SportAccord convention and IOC executive board meetings.  The meeting didn’t happen and the IOC claims they didn’t get the request in time.

If the IOC doesn’t reconsider its stance, the lawsuit filed last May against Vancouver organizers citing gender discrimination will be heard April 20 before a single judge in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver. Both sides will have two days to make their case. The judge’s ruling is subject to appeal.

“With ski jumping, you can’t just walk out and be top level. It takes years and years,” Van said. “There’s a high level of frustration. It’s frustrating to see people in bobsled and skeleton able to pick it up and the next year they’re in the Olympics. There’s no way that happens in ski jumping. It’s all a little backward.”

Besides being totally not right.

Madsen’s production shingle, which is named after the 1972 law giving women equal opportunity to participate in activities that receive federal funding, seems like the perfect outfit to document this story.

Source: Women and Hollywood and Variety

Peer sees no place for politics in tennis

Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer, refused a visa into the United Arab Emirates for the WTA Dubai Open, insists there is no place for politics in sport while recognizing it would not have been right to stop the tournament going ahead.

“While this is a very difficult moment for me personally and professionally, and the fact that the visa denial was issued at the last moment, I firmly believe that my fellow competitors should not be harmed the way I was,” Peer said in a statement released through the WTA Tour.

“They were in or on their way to Dubai and denying them the right to play in this year’s tournament at the last moment would not make the wrong right. In fact, it troubles me greatly that my doubles partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld from Germany will not be able to compete as we had planned,” Peer added.

Peer praised her fellow players and fans for a “tremendous outpouring of support and empathy over the UAE decision to deny me a visa” while stressing she wanted to see politics and sport kept strictly apart.

“There should be no place for politics or discrimination in professional tennis or indeed any sport,” she insisted.

“Going forward, I am confident that the Tour will take appropriate actions to ensure that this injustice is not allowed to occur in the future, and that the Tour will make sure I will not be further harmed in the short and long term.”

The WTA has said they may end the 17-year-old two million dollar event next year if the situation does not change.

Peer insisted on Thursday she wants to play in Dubai in 2010 despite the controversy stirred up by the UAE’s decision to deny her a visa for this year’s event.

In a dramatic development on Thursday, the UAE attempted to cool the controversy by announcing that Israeli doubles specialist Andy Ram would be granted a visa to play in the ATP event in Dubai next week.

Asked how she felt about Ram’s ability to play in Dubai, Peer said:

I welcome the decision just announced by the United Arab Emirates and the Dubai tournament to reverse a stance that until now has prevented Israeli athletes from competing in the UAE.

This is a great victory for the principle that all athletes should be treated equally and without discrimination, regardless of gender, religion, race or nationality. It is also a victory for sport as a whole, and the power of sport to bring people together.

Too bad organizers couldn’t come to their senses in time for Peer to compete.

It seems the whole incident is getting wrapped up in a neat bow with the WTA announcing that the Dubai event will receive a slap on the wrist for booting Peer from the draw.  But dig a little deeper and it seems a similar thing may have actually first happened last year with Ram. Did the ATP manage to hush up what this year became a PR nightmare on the women’s side?

Female ski-jumpers can’t compete in 2010 Olympics

Jan. 9, 2008 -It may come as a surprise that female ski-jumpers are not currently allowed to participate in the Olympics.  Well, maybe not that big a surprise. Despite pressure from the Canadian government to end this discrimination, female athletes have lost the battle to gain the right to compete.

A group of ski jumpers lodged a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the construction of a $120 million Olympic Park in Vancouver for the 2010 winter games, arguing that it would break the law to spend public money on a building that discriminates.

Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee remains unconvinced. The IOC claims the female side of the sport still needs development and falls short of basic standards for inclusion at the Games.  Huh?  The International Ski Federation’s approved women’s jumping for international competition by a 114 to 1 margin in 2006.

In a statement issued Wednesday morning, the IOC said the women’s sport will still not be allowed and does not meet the committee’s technical requirements. They will however be closely following the development of Women’s Ski Jumping with a view to its possible inclusion in future Olympic Games. Uh…thanks guys.