One would think flinging yourself off a mountain at an outrageous speed would be the greatest challenge in Lindsey Van's life.
Unfortunately it isn't. Earning the right to participate in the daredevil sport in the Olympics is.
Van, the world champion who makes her home in Park City with other American ski jumpers, traveled to Denver this week with Canadian jumper Katie Willis hoping for a face-to-face meeting with International Olympics Committee president Jacques Rogge, who was in town for several days of meetings.
Willis and Van are among 15 female jumpers who are suing the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee for its decision to keep them out of the 2010 Olympic Games.
The group has a court date set for April 20, but hopes to solve things before then.
They didn't get their meeting with Rogge, only an email from the IOC that inquired about their availability for a meeting in the future.
They still don't know if that meeting will be Rogge or someone of lesser importance.
Rogge has made his feelings known on the matter in the past, saying there weren't enough competitors or wold championships to be included in the Olympics.
However, the women believe the decision is more about good old-fashioned discrimination than opportunity, particularly since a new event, called ski cross, was added to the 2010 Games.
Furthermore, ski jumping is the only event in the Winter Olympics that doesn't allow women to compete, despite the backing it has from the International Ski Federation, which voted 114-1 in 2006 to include it.
Getting into the politics of sports isn't something that Van wants to do.
"It's the last thing she wants to do," corrected her dad, Barry Van, who noted his daughter ought to be able to focus on her sport and not a court battle.
But politicking is something the jumpers know they have to do to participate in the event that is seen as the pinnacle for sports like ski jumping. World championships are great, but it's the Olympics that capture the world's attention and the women deserve as much exposure as the men.
The women know, because the Olympic charter says so. It states that part of the mission of it IOC is to "encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women." It also states that gender discrimination is "incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement."
Listen to them Rogge, then let them jump.
