VANCOUVER - A 17-year-old female ski jumper has become the first active Canadian athlete to join a lawsuit over the sport's exclusion from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Zoya Lynch is among 10 female athletes -- most from the United States and Europe -- suing Vancouver Olympic organizers because female ski jumping isn't on the lineup for the 2010 Games.
Lynch, who has been ski jumping since she was a young girl and is now a member of the Canadian national team, says the case is about fighting for women's equality.
The only other Canadian connection has been Marie-Pierre Morin, a 26-year-old retired ski jumper who was among the first to join the lawsuit.
The International Olympic Committee voted in 2006 not to include women's ski jumping in 2010, saying the sport has not yet developed enough and that it didn't meet basic criteria for inclusion. Local organizers in Vancouver say they are simply following that decision.
The plaintiffs argue that allowing men's ski jumping but not women's violates their equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
