Dick Pound is confused. Canada's senior Olympic official, responding to the call for the Canadian government to look closely at the gender bias barring women ski jumpers from competing in the Olympics, told CTV, "It's not the Canadian government that is hosting the event, it's the International Olympic Committee. They have rules that are technical in nature and that's what's been applied here. It's not a human rights issue, no matter how you dress it up."
Sorry, but I don't buy it. The IOC is claiming that they're only following the rules, which state that an event has to be practiced by 25 countries on three continents to be adopted by the Games. And yet when the IOC voted to exclude the women ski jumpers on these grounds, they also voted to include ski cross, which only lists 30 women from 11 nations. In the case of women's bobsleigh, there were only 26 women from 13 nations, according to the ISF. Hypocrisy, much?
No matter how you dress it up, Mr. Pound, the IOC is not playing fair. Don't insult our intelligence by throwing your guidelines in our face when you don't play by the rules yourselves.
