Women bring Olympic equity bid to Vt.
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By Kevin O'Connor Staff Writer - Published: February 14, 2010
The nation's best female ski jumpers still can't believe the Olympics won't let them compete in Vancouver. That's why they leapt at the chance to air their case — and demonstrate their competence — before several thousand spectators this weekend in Vermont.
Three members of the U.S. women's team joined 21 male counterparts from six states and two European countries Saturday for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's SuperTour finals at the state's only Olympic-size ski jump, Brattleboro's Harris Hill.
"I'm still thinking, 'Wait, why am I not there?'" said Abby Hughes, 20, of Park City, Utah, receiving cell phone reports from Canada before catapulting above the Vermont crowd. "But I'm grateful to be here."
Ski jumping, a founding sport at the first Winter Olympics in 1924, is the only event at the games still closed to women. A group of elite female jumpers recently filed a discrimination lawsuit with Canada's Supreme Court, only to be rebuffed because of questions of jurisdiction over an international entity.
The women now are aiming for the 2014 Winter Olympics. But with this weekend free as the men's team competes in British Columbia, Hughes and her peers traveled to southeastern Vermont to fly off Brattleboro's 90-meter jump — the only one of its height in New England and one of just six of its size in the nation — at speeds of 60 mph.
Vermont native Elisabeth von Trapp, granddaughter of "The Sound of Music" inspirations Maria and Baron von Trapp, kicked off Saturday's event by singing the national anthem.
The Alps went on to echo throughout the competition. U.S. Nordic combined team member Willy Graves, 23, of Putney, and Junior Olympian Spencer Knickerbocker, 17, of Brattleboro jumped alongside peers from Austria and Slovenia.
The U.S. women saw their field shrink when Karin Friberg, 20, of Minnesota broke her arm during a practice jump Friday. But that didn't stop Hughes and sisters Danielle and Nina Lussi of Lake Placid, N.Y., from enjoying the historic hill covered in manmade snow.
Since its creation in 1922, the jump has hosted nine national championships, starting in 1924 with the first finals held in the eastern half of the country and continuing up to the U.S. qualifiers for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. But because it's run by volunteers, it opens only one weekend each February.
"It's cool you can only jump it once a year," said Nina Lussi, 15.
"I'm glad everyone did what it takes to get it prepared," added Danielle Lussi, 17. "It's in great shape."
The one Vermonter on the U.S. women's team — Tara Geraghty-Moats, 16, of Fairlee — isn't competing this weekend. She's recuperating from a knee injury sustained last summer but hopes to return next month at the U.S. Junior Olympics in Colorado.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's SuperTour finals come five years after it forced Harris Hill to close due to safety concerns. After an aging wooden takeoff was effectively condemned in 2005, a small group of volunteers raised more than $500,000 to install a new steel launch ramp, required safety features, and water and electrical fixtures for snowmaking.
The U.S. women's team is aiming for an equally triumphant turnaround. Its members hope the International Olympic Committee will allow the 160 women from 18 countries who now jump at elite events to compete in the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.
"A lot of people don't know about this, and when they hear, they're shocked," Hughes said. "But with or without the Olympics, they can't take the sport away from us."
kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com
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