Senior IOC Member Backs Women’s Ski Jumping

OSLO, Norway A senior IOC member says he supports including women’s ski jumping at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Gerhard Heiberg, who serves on the International Olympic Committee’s executive board, tells The Associated Press that he will recommend the addition of the sport to IOC President Jacques Rogge.

The Norwegian, who returned to work Wednesday after suffering a mild heart attack last week, watched the women ski jumpers compete at the Nordic world skiing championships from his hospital bed. Heiberg says the women’s discipline has made major strides since the IOC decided against introducing the sport at last year’s Vancouver Games.

Rogge will decide in April whether to add the sport to the Sochi
program.