Park City, UT – The U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team and its supporting foundation, Women’s Ski Jumping USA (WSJ-USA), are hosting a second-annual fundraiser July 14 at the SKI Magazine Dream Home at Deer Valley Resort in Park City.nDespite being ranked second in the world and boasting the current reigning World Champion and Junior World Championship bronze medalist, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association cut all funding to the
team in May 2009 and WSJ-USA, a 501(c)3 nonprofit foundation, stepped up to assume all financial and administrative duties for the team.

WSJ-USA is a volunteer organization that provides the necessary financial support to pay for the women’s coach, travel expenses, training, equipment and junior developmental programs for young girls. The foundation raises money to help these women continue to represent the U.S. in international competitions. Without the necessary funds, the U.S. women’s ski jumping program is in jeopardy of dissolving.

The fundraiser takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, July 14, in the exclusive community of Deer Crest at Deer Valley and will feature Vancouver 2010 Olympians and past Olympians, members of the Women’s Ski Jumping Team, musical entertainment, gourmet food, wine, beer and drinks, and silent and live auctions. Tickets cost $200 per person and may be purchased online at www.wsjusa.com.

Money raised will help the team continue to train and compete in preparation for the 2011 World Championships in Oslo, Norway and the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, where they hope to have women’s ski jumping added as a medal event.

Ski jumping is the only event in the Summer and Winter Games in which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not allow women to compete. The IOC justifies that decision with reasons ranging from “ski jumping is bad for women’s bodies from a medical point of view,” to women’s ski jumping “lacks universality.”

Last year 15 women ski jumpers from around the world led a legal battle in Canada that resulted in the British Columbia Supreme Court declaring that the IOC exhibited gender discrimination and therefore violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms by excluding women’s ski jumping from the Vancouver 2010 Games, but ruled that the Canadian government lacked jurisdiction over the IOC, an international body. The IOC still refused to let them jump, but WJS-USA hopes that public attention resulting from the legal battle resulted in progress toward women’s ski jumping being added to the Sochi 2014 Games.