Q| Women's ski jumping is being arbitrarily excluded from the 2010 Games. The reasons the IOC states for excluding the sport have not been applied to other sports, most recently skiercross. What will it take to have the IOC reverse its decision and allow the women to compete in 2010?

A| If you believe women's ski jumping is being arbitrarily excluded from the Olympics, then you must also agree that men's synchronized swimming, men's rhythmic gymnastics and women's boxing is also "arbitrarily" being excluded. I'm not sure it's that simple.

It is true that the IOC sometimes bends its own rules, as seems to be the case in skier cross. It's my belief that one of the reasons skier cross was added (despite there not being a wide cross section of participation) is that it's a much more TV friendly, young and hip sport.

The Olympics has been trying to get hip for a long time (see the addition of snowboarding and BMX biking). As well, Canadian skier cross athletes are also some of the best in the world and there's nothing like a Canadian winning a gold medal in Canada to make the home country feel like the huge Olympic price tag is worth it.

In this same context Ski Jumping is a very Europe-centered "old" sport that doesn't have wide spectator appeal in Canada or perhaps more importantly, in the US.

Will the IOC reverse its decision about women's ski jumping? I think it's still possible if enough pressure is brought to bear.

Posted February 14, 2008 08:59 AM

Q| We've been told that there will be limited bus service during that 2010 period and much of our university will shut down classes, though we are expected to still work here with limited public transportation and heavy snow forecast.

Does the Olympics have a backup location in case of earthquake, weather disaster, civil unrest revolution, such as Colorado, Lake Placid etc. if Vancouver-Whistler
become impossible?

A| No there is no alternate location. One reason is the sheer size of the Games. It would be impossible to move them at the last second. Past Olympics have been moved for other reasons, but with a lot of advance warning.

One example is Denver. The city won the 1976 Winter Games but ended up bowing out after a grass roots coalition organized a vote to kick the games out.

Almost 60% of Colorado residents decided they didn't want to spend their tax money on the Olympics.

Those Games ended up in Innsbruck, Austria instead.

Posted February 12, 2008 11:40 AM