Gotta keep the women out somehow.

The disqualification of five ski jumpers at the Winter Olympics because of the suits they wore didn’t just result in an unexpected podium for the inaugural mixed team event. The abrupt ouster of those participants — all women — also resulted in howls of protest and outrage directed at the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Oh I don’t know, howls of protest and outrage sound awfully manly. I expect it was more whining.

“They destroyed women’s ski jumping,” said Germany’s Katharina Althaus.

Althaus, who helped Germany win the mixed team event three times at the ski jumping world championships, was among the women disqualified on Monday when FIS ruled that their suits were “too big and offered an aerodynamic advantage.” Bigger suits could increase the time ski jumpers are able to stay aloft, given the possibility of increased wind resistance.

Are we sure they looked this closely at the men’s suits?

None of the disqualified athletes’ teams made the medals podium, despite the fact that Germany, Austria, Norway and Japan entered Monday as the favorites, along with Slovenia, which took gold.

…

“I have been checked so many times in 11 years of ski jumping, and I have never been disqualified once, I know my suit was compliant,” the German star [Althaus] said, via Agence France-Presse.

…

Adding a layer to the expressions of disappointment and anger Monday was the history of sexism in ski jumping. The sport is among the eight that go back to the original Winter Olympics program in 1924, but women weren’t allowed to participate until 2014, after a group of athletes filed a lawsuit in 2009, ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Ok so it totally makes sense that women have to be intensely monitored and checked up on and wherever possible disqualified.

At this year’s Games in Beijing, the Nordic combined event remains the lone men-only holdout, mixing ski jumping with cross-country skiing. Male ski jumpers also have two medal events not available to women: large hill and a single-gender team competition. The mixed team event reflected an effort by Olympic organizers to be more inclusive, but its debut was marred by the disqualifications.

Hey, they’re being more inclusive, ok? Cut them some slack. More inclusive doesn’t mean totally inclusive. Women just aren’t good enough for that.

NPR adds an interesting detail:

As several of the athletes and coaches acknowledged, this is far from the first time women’s jumpsuits have been at the center of controversy.

“For years, every female ski jumper around the world was required to have extra panels sewn in around her hips,” Emily Russell of North Country Public Radio reported last week. “The International Ski Federation (FIS), which sets competition standards for the sport, said the additional hip panels were meant to fit a woman’s body better.”

But some athletes said the extra panels mainly seemed to emphasize the curves of women’s bodies. The FIS changed the rules about those panels in its 2020 specifications — but now women’s suits are again making headlines, on winter sports’ biggest stage.

Why would extra panels make women’s suits fit better but not men’s suits?

It sounds all too much like the “rules” that make it necessary for women who compete in beach volleyball to wear tiny bikini underpants and bras while the men…don’t.

H/t Sackbut