SESTRIERE, Italy - The world knows much more about ski jumping being the only Winter Olympic sport in which women are not allowed to compete thanks to a Park City-based organization's lobbying efforts at the Turin Games. Women Ski Jumpers USA (WSJ USA) made a concerted effort to call this inequity to the attention of the public the past two weeks, and the news media ate it up.

Part of the success can be attributed to the appeal of the young women most victimized by the exclusion, those raised in Park City and trained to jump at Utah Olympic Park. There's Alissa Johnson, 18, whose younger brother Anders, 16, made the U.S. Olympic team, but she had no chance despite being ranked 12th in the world. And Lindsey Van, who has two national ski jumping titles. And Jessica Jerome, the world's No. 3 women's jumper. And 17-year-old Brenna Ellis, who has jumped for 11 years. "This is not right," said Vic Method, a Park City father of two boys and marketing and media director for WSJ USA. "Look into the eyes of Lindsey, Jessica, Alissa and you will see a competitive spirit, you will see hurt, you will see them realizing this is not fair. But they go out every day, 11 months a year, training and competing because they have dreams. In the free world, people should be allowed to chase their dreams."

Method has worked closely with former Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, a long-time advocate of opening ski jumping to women, to tell these women's stories to the world. Results poured in. A story by The Associated Press caught considerable attention in papers across the country. Television networks covered the story, too. Alissa Johnson appeared in an ABC News segment in which she argued that "seeing a man jump is great but seeing a women jump is so much better . . . because it is unexpected." With all of this publicity, WSJ USA is trying to convince the International Ski Federation to set aside its sometimes stodgy ways and let women in - just as the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation opened its competitions to women seven years ago.

Once federation approval is intact, approval is likely to come from the International Olympic Committee, which for years has been advocating more opportunities for women. An important decision-making period is at hand. The FIS Congress meets in Portugal in May. On its agenda are two proposals to allow women to participate in ski jumping.

One comes from Norway, which more than a year ago requested that women's ski jumping be included in the 2007 World Championships in Sapporo, Japan. The second was submitted by Canadian officials, who want women ski jumpers at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Method said there is precedent for such an addition, pointing to Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney's ardent support for adding women's bobsled and skeleton to the 2002 schedule. In order to gain entry, world championships must be held regularly. Regional championships, too. A minimum number of nations must participate in the sport (one of baseball's problems with the IOC). Each nation must have its own federation that complies with the international federation's requirements. Corradini said women's ski jumping advocates are making inroads on all of those fronts.

(c) 2006 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.