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By John McCrank TORONTO (Reuters) - Women ski jumpers may take their case for Olympic gold to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, arguing that the Olympic movement is discriminating against them because it only opens their sport to men. "We deserve to be there and we should be there because it's the 21st century and women and men should have equal rights," said teenager Katie Willis, who is Canada's top female ski jumper, and who ranks 6th in the world. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted in November against letting women compete in the sport at the 2010 Winter Games, which will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia. It said there were not enough women ski jumpers and, with an inaugural women's ski jumping championship due only in 2009, the sport did not meet IOC inclusion rules. A spokeswoman told the Globe and Mail newspaper on Friday that the committee would not revisit that decision. But Willis dismissed that argument. "There are women from 14 countries, competing on three continents and it's a very competitive field," she said. "I don't see how they're saying that there are not enough women." Willis, now 15, started ski jumping when she was eight. She lives and trains in Calgary, Alberta, site of the 1988 Winter Games. "I want to be able to represent my country and win a gold medal, that's my ultimate dream," she said. "I want to be standing on the podium and hear my national anthem." Under the IOC charter, men's and women's competitions are automatically included for new winter sports events. But ski jumping and the Nordic Combined -- an event that includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing -- are grandfathered in as men-only Olympic sports, said Nina Reid, a lawyer from Calgary who sits on the board of Altius Nordic Ski Club. Reid wants the Vancouver Olympic Committee to pressure the IOC to change its mind, and she may file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission if that lobbying fails.
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