Deedee returned to Salt Lake City in the 1970s, working as an assistant to the president of Snowbird Ski Resort, and that’s when her skiing improved to its current expert level. As mayor of Salt Lake City, she became part of the effort to bring the Olympics to Utah, losing the 1998 bid by only three votes, but winning the 2002 Olympic Winter Games on the first ballot, a rare and outstanding accomplishment. She is the only woman ever to hold the office of mayor and served for two four-year terms, from 1992-2000. She and her family now live in Park City, Utah.
As part of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOC) from 1995-2000, she was instrumental in helping to get women’s bobsled and skeleton into the Olympics. She now heads Women’s Ski Jumping USA (WSJ-USA), continuing her campaign to get women ski jumpers into the Olympics.
Travelgirl Publisher Renee Werbin spoke with this Olympic pioneer about her commitment to the Olympic cause, and what it means to women everywhere.
tg: How did you become involved in the Women’s Ski jump?
Deedee: I was taking a class about six years ago and several rows in front of me was a young woman wearing a hat who kept falling asleep in class. I wondered who she was. It turns out she was Lindsey Van who is now the first female world champion ski jumper. Six years ago she was one of the best ski jumpers in the world. We started talking and she was the one who told me women were not allowed to jump in the Olympics. Ski jumping has been in the Olympics since the modern day Olympics started back in 1924, but only for men. Six years ago it was the only event in the Winter Olympics that didn’t allow women. Today it is the only event in the Summer or Winter Olympics that doesn’t allow women. Boxing as an event for women was just added for London’s 2012 Olympics.
I was shocked as I had been the mayor of Salt Lake City and had gotten the 2002 Winter Games for Salt Lake City. We fought hard to get bob sleigh and skeleton (a sled ridden headfirst on the bob sleigh track) into the 2002 Winter Games. I thought those were the only two events in the Winter Games that didn’t allow women. I didn’t realize women couldn’t participate in ski jumping or I would have fought tooth and nail for it.
It has been a six-year effort. The first thing we had to do was to get these women into the world championship. In 2006 I went with three other people to the Fifth Congress (the International Ski Federation) that is our governing body. We managed to get a vote of 114 to 1 at the Fifth Congress to allow our women into the 2009 world championships, which were held in Liberec, Czech Republic, and to allow the women to be in the Olympics in Vancouver, 2010. Of note, Lindsey Van won the world championship here. Everyone told us that because our own Federation had taken this vote that the IOC would definitely allow the women to compete in Vancouver; however, several months later, the IOC executive board denied the request. We had a dilemma and had to figure out what to do next. The mothers of the Canadian jumpers decided to go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission complaining of discrimination. Although the Human Rights Commission agreed that this was a problem and that the federal government of Canada should go to the IOC and to try and get this reversed, the effort was to no avail.
tg: What is your overall mission and how is it important for women in general?
Deedee: Our mission is to increase and promote the sport for women internationally, to support the top women athletes in the United States and to help develop the sport with our younger athletes. If we don’t keep the pipeline full, as people retire we won’t have ski jumpers. We have little girls as young as five years old in our ski jumping programs here and around the country.
This is important for women in general because we realize today that sport is a critical thing for girls to get involved in. Girls and women who are involved in sport have higher self esteem, are less likely to drop out of school, have a better self image and are less apt to use drugs. This is a fabulous sport for women because the smaller you are and the lighter you are the further you fly. In many ways this sport gives women a bit of a competitive advantage.
tg: What example are you trying to set for these young girls?
Deedee: We want them to know they can do anything they want to do, once they set their minds to it. When girls start to ski jump as children they jump with boys and they grow up learning to jump together. They are used to competing together. What these little girls don’t know when they get into this sport is that they have a barrier in front of them; they can’t go on to the Olympics and the boys can.
tg: Why should other women care about this?
Deedee: This is about more than ski jumping. This is about women’s rights and human rights. The Olympics stand for equality; if you read the Olympic Charter there is a major section that goes on and on about equality for men and women. We have taken this case to court in Canada, and the Supreme Court in British Columbia has agreed that the International Olympic Committee is discriminating against these women. Women should care about this because this is blatant discrimination. We need to fight for these women because this has international implications. We are taking this case to the Supreme Court. This case has taken an international flair to it now because the real question for the courts to answer now is whether the IOC can go into any country and ignore that country’s Constitution. In Canada it’s their Charter of Rights and Freedom, which prohibits discrimination against women.
tg: Does the team have any specific mottos? Do they have a team slogan?
Deedee: They have no specific motto or slogan but I can tell you that if you were to use words to describe the attitude of these women it is: “Give it your all and never give up!”
tg: Do you have any special travel memories from this experience?
Deedee: Yes, two of them and they both happened in Vancouver. When we weren’t getting anywhere we had to figure out how to get this issue to the forefront of the IOC’s mind. The members of the IOC were ignoring the women, figuring we had asked to get the women into the 2010 games and we were told no in 2006. The question became what do we do next? We knew 99.9 percent of the people we talked to had no idea that women couldn’t participate in the ski jump — and we realized we had to start a grassroots effort to make the public aware that this was an issue. As soon as we accomplished this, people became shocked and angry and thought it was wrong. We went to Whistler where the ski jumps are built and where the event is taking place for the Olympics. I held a press conference on opening day at the base of ski jump; the media was there for the opening of the ski jump anyway, and my press conference made national news in Canada. We asked the people that were there for the grand opening if they knew women couldn’t jump and not a single person knew — so the travel experience was hosting a press conference on opening day.
My second special memory is from a competition held here in Vancouver, when both men and women were jumping on the jump that was going to be used in the Olympics. Lindsey Van won the competition for men and women that day. She still holds the record on that ski jump and Lindsey is not going to be allowed to jump on that jump in the Olympics.
t.g. What will you take away from this experience?
Deedee: I have had this experience many times before in my several careers. This is a David and Goliath story. We are a bunch of volunteers and our organization is a 501C3. We all have our own full-time jobs. We are the David and have taken on the Goliath of the all-powerful IOC with all of the money behind them and all of their public relations. We have been very successful in getting their attention and getting a court to agree that the IOC is discriminating against these women. We sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) on three issues: we won the first two, i.e. that the IOC is discriminating against these women athletes, and that VANOC is subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that prohibits discrimination. However, our third issue, that VANOC therefore cannot host a men-only event, was not addressed. Instead the court said that the IOC is not subject to the charter. I am feeling cautiously optimistic that the IOC is going to vote to allow the women into the 2014 Olympics. This has become an international issue and has embarrassed the IOC.
t.g. What’s next after the 2010 Olympics?
Deedee: We are going to keep pushing. We don’t know what the outcome will be for 2010 but we will keep working until these women are in the Olympics. We’ve already got plans under way; we are starting to work and make contacts on the Sochi 2014 games in Russia. We will continue to support these women. They used to be part of the USSA, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, which is headquartered here in Park City. USSA was paying for their coach, their training; they even had a nutritionist on staff. Through this tough economy, USSA dropped these girls, cut all of their funding and fired their coach. This occurred about five or six months ago and we had a decision to make. With very little money, we decided we had to keep these girls going. Our organization is called Women’s Ski Jumping USA; we took on the risk and we decided somehow or other we would make this happen. We rehired the coach and have enough money to get us through February. We are in the driver’s seat now and we have to keep up the funding. We have gone to foundations, we have had fundraisers here in Park City; we have somehow had enough money to get us through this season and that is where we are right now.
t.g. How can the public get involved?
Deedee: Please let people know they can go to our website, which is www.wsjusa.com. We have a petition that we would love to have people sign. We have a Facebook page, and we are also on Twitter. Tax deductable donations can be made on the website. We want to make people aware that this is an issue. We haven’t gotten as much press attention in the United States as we have in Canada. We are making national news weekly in Canada. The media is all on our side in Canada. We need additional attention for this issue in the United States.
Interview by Renee Werbin