Ski bib includes campaign against abuse
The message in red capital letters — “STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS” — was printed on the bottom of skiers’ bibs for a recent women’s World Cup downhill in Cortina.
It was so small, though, that initially many racers did not even notice it.
In the hours and days after, and simultaneously with the sex abuse trial against disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, the Cortina organizers’ campaign prompted some serious reflection from the most successful athletes on the U.S. Ski Team.
“This is the time for women to stand up and this is an opportunity for us to change our system and how women are treated in the world — not just the workplace,” said Lindsey Vonn, the most successful female skier of all time with 79 World Cup wins.
“Thankfully I haven’t experienced any of that in ski racing,” Vonn added, referring to the Nassar case.
“I find that extremely disturbing and I hope that now we can all stand together and make things better.”
Not that there haven’t been cases of sexual abuse in skiing.
Bertrand Charest, a former coach with Canada’s national development team, was convicted of 37 charges related to the sexual assault of young athletes and sentenced in December to 12 years in prison. His crimes took place more than 20 years ago.
In Austria, 1976 Olympian Nicola Werdenigg told the daily Der Standard in November that she was sexually assaulted when she was 16 by a male teammate and alluded to other, similar incidents.
The powerful Austrian ski federation said it can’t investigate the case, however, as long as Werdenigg refrains from providing names and more details.
The bib campaign in Cortina was promoted by an Italian women’s association, D.i.Re, an acronym that translates to “Women united against violence.”