Girl in Flight

November 2009

Lindsey Van is one of the few people in the world who knows what it feels like to fly! This daredevil is a member of the first US Women’s Ski Jumping team and the third woman ever to go ski-flying. “It’s a 185 meter jump—it’s the biggest in the world, bigger than any Olympic-size jump,” she explains. “The first time I did it I was definitely in the zone. I just did the exact same thing I had been doing on smaller jumps and hoped it worked out.”   It’s this matter-of-fact approach that has taken Lindsey from her first jump as a seven year old in Park City, Utah to a thirteen-time National Champion, who currently holds the North American women’s distance record in ski flying. But despite her success and all her titles, one goal eludes her—an Olympic gold. To this day, ski jumping is the only event in the Winter Olympic Games that doesn’t allow women to compete—an unfair predicament that Lindsey is daring to change.

Van, who also won gold at the 2009 Nordic World Ski Championships, certainly has the qualities of an Olympic athlete. So, why isn’t she competing in the 2010 Games? It’s a puzzling question and an opportunity that the athlete and her teammates have been fighting for since 1998. “It’s extremely frustrating because it seems so logical that we would be there. But ski jumping is traditionally a very male-dominated sport, so I think the people running the Olympics want to keep it that way. They say there aren’t enough women from enough countries to qualify, but we have more women from more countries competing in ski jumping than skeleton, luge, skier-cross and bobsled — all of which are Olympic sports.”

After years of playing nice, Lindsey got serious. In April 2009, Van and 14 other elite women ski jumpers from around the world sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee for inclusion in the 2010 winter games. However, in a shocking decision the judge did not rule in their favor. Although the court found that the International Olympic Committee was indeed discriminating against the women, it could not force the IOC and VANOC to comply with Canada’s laws on equality. “When I heard the verdict, I was really surprised because I thought we were going to win. We’ve since filed an appeal and that hearing is set for November. I think we’ll have a much stronger case this time around, but there’s not much more we can do beyond so hopefully this is it.”

News of the controversy has spread quickly and Hollywood has taken notice. Two documentaries, Fighting Gravity and View From the Tower, are in the making and each one features Lindsey in action on and off the slope. “We’ve had quite a lot of support, and I think it’s good that someone will have documented our fight. I think the sport is definitely going in the right direction—we just need to be included in the Olympics so it can continue to grow and thrive,” Van explains.

To stay positive, Lindsey keeps her eye on the prize and not on the process, which allows her to never back down on this cause she feels so strongly about. “This whole experience has been very intense and I felt like giving up almost every other day. It’s always scary when someone else is controlling your future. But, I try to focus on jumping since it’s the only thing I can change myself, and I try not to think about the rest. You have to keep going, keep fighting no matter if you hit walls or get turned around. Just keep going, because eventually, with enough people fighting, something is bound to happen.”