Female jumpers face an anxious wait to learn their fate

FOR American ski jumper Jessica Jerome soaring through the skies on a pair of giant skis is a walk in the park - but it may all be for nothing.

NO WOMEN ALLOWED: Ski jumping is still the preserve of men only at the Olympic Winter Games

The cream of the female crop can break countless records this season but as things currently stand they will not be strutting their stuff at Vancouver 2010.

That is unless ten of the world's elite, including Jerome, are successful with their lawsuit filed against the Vancouver Organising Committee, scheduled to come to a head in April 20 with the Supreme Court of British Columbia.  

"People are getting your hopes up constantly. They tell you it's a sure thing, and then they break your heart because it's not," said Jerome.

"I just try to jump far and stay out of it."

The group is suing the Vanoc in an attempt to get around the International Olympic Committee's decision not to add the sport to the 2010 lineup.

The lawsuit alleges that excluding women from an event in which men have been competing in since the first Winter Games contravenes Canadian law against gender discrimination.

A court order would be a back door into the Olympics, but the top female jumpers in the world feel that is the only option they have left with the games just over a year away.

"I'm optimistic about it right now, but who knows what's going to happen? It's up to the courts now," said Lindsey Van, a U.S. teammate of Jerome's. "I try not to think about it. It's too stressful."

Women's ski jumping will be included at the World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic in February for the first time thanks to a vote in May 2006 by the International Ski Federation.

The ten jumpers had hoped getting such would convince the IOC to make an exception to its requirement that a sport must have been contested at at least two world championships before it can become an Olympic event.

The IOC's ruling came down in November 2006 -- no exception would be granted.

The 21-year-old Jerome is from Park City, home of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

She says it has been difficult to train next to U.S. Alpine and cross country skiers who can strive for the Olympics every four years.

"It's pretty disheartening," she said.

The IOC has maintained that the discrimination claim is misleading, saying women's ski jumping did not make the cut because it was not yet developed enough to be an Olympic sport.

But the jumpers aren't suing the Swiss-based IOC.

"Vanoc is hosting the games and they're the ones that are bound by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," said Ross Clark, the Vancouver-based attorney who is representing the jumpers.

For the time being Jerome and her nine fellow jumpers will be forced to hold their breath until their date with destiny in April.