Rogge repeats IOC no to 2010 women's ski-jump

While sympathetic to the plight of female ski jumpers, IOC president Jacques Rogge, has reiterated the IOC's stance on the event that the standard of competition in the event is not high enough to warrant Olympic status.

However, Rogge did offer some hope for future acceptance of the event if put forward again by the International Ski Federation. He also states that women's ski-jump will be a part of the first Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in 2012 in Salzburg.

"The inclusion of women's boxing highlights the fact that the IOC is working hard to reach gender parity in winter and summer Games," wrote Rogge in a letter to 14 female ski-jumpers involved in a lawsuit against the Vancouver 2010 organisers.

"It also underlines that the reason why we took the decision not to include women's ski jumping was made strictly on a technical basis and absolutely not on gender grounds and was part of a process employed across all sports in the programme."

SOURCE: Inside the Games