On Saturday 18 March 2023, Maren Lundby jumped 212.5 meters in ski flying, while Novak Djokovic was refused entry to the USA. Of course he did. We’ll come back to why it’s important. On Sunday 19 March 2023, the first official women’s ski flying competition ever takes place. Of course it does. The 19 years that have passed since Anette Sagen cheered wildly with her teammates after jumping 174 meters as a trial jumper in Vikersund to Maren Lundby and the other 14 women having their first official training round on the same hill, is the last, long chapter in a shameful long fight. Which, by and large, has been about men who can only relate to men. Why it has been like that, each one of them has to answer. In any case, the female jumpers have continuously felt the effects. Has anyone really doubted that the best female jumpers in the world should also master ski flying? This is the day to raise your hand. Sunday is the first day when someone wakes up to the realization that ski flying is a completely natural part of the women’s jumping competitions. Ski flying for women is something completely ordinary. Of course, it should have been like this for a long time. STARTED THE MATCH: Anette Sagen. Photo: Anders Engeland / news Tande’s apt thoughts 15 women qualified for the historic race. One doubted and withdrew. Not because she is a woman, but because she did not feel prepared. Many men have done the same. Even more people should have done it, simply because it has occasionally gone wrong. One of those who has had one of the most grotesque experiences of falling on a ski-flying slope is Daniel André Tande. His fall in Planica was so brutal that his heart stopped for three minutes. Fortunately, Tande survived. FELL BAD: Daniel André Tande had a bad fall in Planica. Photo: AP And could continue to deal with questions like the one he got again on Women’s Day on March 8 – that if his fall wasn’t proof that ski flying is too dangerous for women. The answer to Tande was as simple as it was ingenious: “Most of all, my fall showed that we are no better equipped than the ladies to jump ski flying” When the ladies finally got off in an official context in Vikersund, Tande was once again right. The leading star herself, Maren Lundby, was given the honor of moving the world record to 212.5 metres. It did not stand for many minutes, before the Canadian unique Alexandria Loutitt moved it another almost 10 metres. The next day, the record was moved again. The only thing that mattered was that history had been written anyway. The one that should have been long ago. And then it was also time to move new boundaries as soon as possible. The way sport should be. The way women’s jumping has not been allowed to be. Because the men who decide have said no. Much has been said about the former head of the jumping committee in FIS, Torbjørn Yggeseth, and his co-conspirators. Much could have been said about former ski president Sverre Seeberg and others with him in the context. FIRST ATTEMPT: This is what it looked like on Maren Lundby’s first jump in Vikersund. Photo: Geir Olsen / NTB The resistance has been strong, untimely and most of all unfounded. Whether it has been about a lack of quality, breadth or skills as jumpers. But perhaps the opposition has been deeply rooted in a fear that the women would show a little too quickly that they also master this at least as well as men. On the same slopes, female jumpers can suddenly set records that can compete with the male ones. And surpass them. Despite less genetic innate strength. After the first weekend of official women’s ski flying, they were only 10.8% behind the men’s world record. Men have been ski-jumping for around 90 years. The next natural goal for the women must be to get their own WC in ski flying. And that quickly. I look forward to hearing the man who still feels he has relevant counter-arguments. For those who still wonder where Novak Djokovic became, we are getting closer to talking about him. But right now the men will have to wait anyway. A women’s boxing match For this Sunday, which gives the world the first official ski flying race for women, it means more than one time difference. This is also the last day in the commentary box for Norway’s and possibly the world’s first female jumping commentator. Ingrid Sørli Glomnes has fought a parallel battle for recognition in a world as dominated by men as in jumping itself. But she has shown a steadfastness and belief in her own abilities that has finally earned her the recognition she deserves. The symbolism is therefore extra strong in that her last day as news commentator is also the first where the women are fully equal to the men. The world’s most equal sport Game, set and match, as it would probably be called at Ingrid Sørli Glomnes’ new employer, the Norwegian Tennis Association. And tennis actually has a completely natural place in this narrative. Because it is a sport that took equality seriously early on. Or maybe had to, more than anything else. For a group of female tennis pioneers, led by the legendary Billie Jean King, 50 years ago, in 1973, managed to push for equal prizes for both sexes in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, when it happened in the US Open. Since 2007, it has been like this for all the Grand Slam tournaments. And despite the fact that women overall still earn 32% less than men, tennis is the world’s most equal sport. Nevertheless, it is not without debate. For the world’s current number 1 among the men, Serbian Novak Djokovic, is one of those who has previously advocated that male tennis stars should be paid more than the women, because he believed that the men attract more attention and more TV viewers. What Djokovic thinks about this today is a bit unclear. Because he has other controversial positions that have received more attention in the last three years. Djokovic is a vaccine opponent. NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY IN THE USA: Novak Djokovic. Photo: Aaron Favila / AP And this historic ski flying Saturday sprinkled the magic dust of justice over Djokovic, who was denied entry to the United States to participate in the Miami Open, because he is not vaccinated. No one who does not want to be vaccinated against Covid gets an exception. The same should apply to anyone who believes that men should be paid more than women for the same achievements. Or get to jump on different slopes than the women. The womb’s high protector The battle to fly has been won for female ski jumpers anyway. As recently as 2005, the then president of the International Ski Federation, Swiss Gian Franco Kasper, was heard to state that “ski jumping does not seem suitable for women from a medical point of view”. – NOT APPROPRIATE: This is what Gian Franco Kasper said about women’s ski jumping. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB scanpix So nothing less than an outdated male sports pamp as the high protector of the womb. This historic weekend in Vikersund has been, more than anything else, a well-directed kick against the reproductive organs of an entire generation of male sports leaders.
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