(From AIPS Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images)

The International Ski Federation (FIS) has given a boost to the campaign for women’s ski jumping events to be included on the Olympic programme by re-proposing to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it includes ladies’ Ski Jumping as well as the Alpine Team Event on the program of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi 2014.

“FIS also welcomes the plan of the IOC to include ladies’ Ski Jumping as part of the first edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012, in order to support its development and to contribute to bringing more participants into the sport,” commented FIS President Gian Franco Kasper, head of the IOC’s Coordination Commission for Innsbruck 2012.

The first FIS World Championships in ladies’ Ski Jumping were held last season in Liberec (CZE) whilst the FIS Junior World Championships have been taking place since 2006 and the ladies’ Continental Cup in Ski Jumping exists since the 2004/05 season.

The competition program for ladies Ski Jumping at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2012 in Innsbruck will feature both an individual competition as well as a three person team event with a male ski jumper and a Nordic Combined athlete. The highly youth-oriented program for the inaugural Winter YOG 2012 was confirmed by the IOC Executive Board at its recent meeting in Berlin and includes the following FIS competitions:

Cross-Country Skiing: individual distance & sprint, team event with Biathlon (1 girl, 1 boy each)

Ski Jumping: individual (girls and boys), team event (girl, boy & Nordic Combined)

Nordic Combined: individual, team event (see above)

Alpine Skiing: slalom, giant slalom, super-G, super combined, team parallel

Freestyle Skiing: ski cross, half-pipe

Snowboarding: half-pipe, slopestyle