Park City, Utah – It was one of those sleepovers kids have where there isn’t much actual sleeping, but the reason wasn’t to stay up late and watch DVDs.
For five young women who love to fly, that night last May was one they’ll never forget.
The phone call came at 4:30 a.m., with word the International Ski Federation had added women’s ski jumping to the 2009 world championships, with the expectation that the International Olympic Committee will include it in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.
At the sleepover in Jessica Jerome’s basement in Park City – the hotbed of women’s jumping in the United States – there was instant ecstasy.
“We got the phone call, and it felt like something inside me just kind of woke up,” said Jerome, 19. “We were all hugging each other and smiling. The other girls were like, ‘All right, this is it, I’m going to bed.’ I was wired. I was like, ‘I can’t sleep.”‘
The U.S. Ski Team was delighted as well. The U.S. has the world’s deepest talent pool in women’s jumping, and if the IOC approves it for Vancouver, Jerome and her teammates will be medal contenders.
Ski jumping is one of the last men’s-only Olympic events. Women’s bobsled debuted in 2002 on the mountain here where Jerome began ski jumping when she was in the second grade. Nordic combined, which involves jumping and cross country, also is male-only.
“It’s frustrating to sit there and go, ‘Ski jumping is one of the six original sports, and it’s the only Winter Olympic sport without a women’s field, yet they are adding all these new sports,”‘ Jerome said.
“It’s like, what are they going to do next (for new events), hook up an inner tube to the back of a car?”
Jerome and teammate Lindsey Van, 21, were forejumpers at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics in front of 60,000 spectators, although they had to fight for the right.
“When a lot of these old FIS guys found out there were two girls, they freaked,” Jerome said. “They basically said, ‘All right, there’s nothing in the rules (against women), so we can’t not let you ski, but we’re going to watch you, and if you slip up, you’re done.”‘
They did fine. Had they failed, they could have set their cause back decades.
“It’s definitely overdue,” said Van, also from Park City. “This is 2006. It should have happened a while ago. But better now than never.”
Women’s jumping was a demonstration sport at the 1995 and 1997 world championships, and the FIS approved a women’s Continental Cup circuit in 2004. The 2006-07 Continental Cup began here with competitions Friday and Saturday on jumps with plastic landing surfaces.
“It’s been a pretty hard road for these girls for a number of years now,” said U.S. Ski Team nordic director Luke Bodensteiner. “They’ve been responsible themselves to build the sport and to help each other. … People see it as something new, something fresh. It’s always been a guys sport, and it’s fun to see another group take part.”
Germany’s Juliane Seyfahrt won both competitions here. Jerome finished fourth in both competitions and was the top American.
Van finished fifth Friday night and 10th Saturday night. Alissa Johnson of Park City finished fifth Saturday night, ninth Friday night.
The summer tour moves next weekend to Calgary, Alberta, followed by four European stops in August before resuming in December.
“When I was about 12 years old,” Jerome said, “my coaches sat me down and said, ‘Look, you’re getting kind of good at this. You need to jump on board and do this full time, 100 percent, or it’s just going to be a hobby for the rest of your life.’ I don’t know if I thought it through as much as I probably should have, but I loved, it so I kept going.”
Van said her motivation has always been the love of flying and seeing how far she can soar, not the Olympics.
“It’s a unique feeling you can’t get anywhere else, so you have to keep coming back to do it,” Van said. “I wish I could describe it, but I can’t. That’s why I have to keep doing it.”
