Women still can't endanger themselves in sports

Do you notice anything unusual about these girls? The picture below is published through the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten (Scanpix).

The image shows the American World Champion in ski jumping, Lindsey Van, and the livelier bronze winner from Norway, Anette Sagen. In the world championship in Liberec, we witnessed the first major ski jumping competition for women. As we can see, they look happy! But when we look back to the 1930s, female ski jumpers were used as interval entertainment. People were amazed over seeing girls jump. Old prejudice has survived for a very long time since then.

A few years ago, I saw Anette Sagen in Holmenkollen for the first time. She was interval entertainment because she flew down the K120 hill without a problem. She landed on the 131 meter spot! Amazing! The hill record is 136 meters...

Surprisingly, women can't compete in K120 hills today. The old prejudices still live on. In the world championship in Liberec, Van and Sagen were only allowed to compete in the K90 hill. What a shame! Even the K90 hill competition for men remains from the past.

There is not a single reason to keep women from jumping, except that there should be more female competitors on a higher level first. But the reason for this must be obvious. The prejudice from the past is based on that females will hurt themselves in sports. If a boy is sent to the hospital, no one thinks that he is foolhardy. Just unlucky!