May 28, 2024

A Jamaican bobsledder filed an appeal over the women’s qualifying process.

Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian, a bobsledder who served as one of Jamaica’s flag-bearers during Friday’s opening ceremony, filed an appeal Saturday morning with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing that a ranking decision by her sport’s governing body favored European athletes to compete at the Olympics and discriminated against athletes from smaller countries elsewhere.

The filing centers on a two-woman Europa Cup bobsled competition in December in Winterberg, Germany, which had been set to count in the rankings as separate races over two days. Inclement weather caused the cancellation of the race scheduled for Dec. 4. Fenlator-Victorian’s appeal says that the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation instead counted the Dec. 5 competition twice. The decision allowed a sled piloted by France’s Margot Boch to qualify for the final spot in the two-woman bobsled competition at the Olympics.

Travel restrictions during the past two years and burdensome costs have made it difficult for athletes from smaller nations to earn additional points by competing on tours outside their regions, Fenlator-Victorian said.

“We fight so hard on a consistent basis to be heard, and oftentimes, we’re looked down upon because of our resources, potentially because of the color of our skin or because we’re not able to trail blaze dominance from the get-up because of the lack of resources,” Fenlator-Victorian said. “But nonetheless, we fight very hard to represent ourselves at the best of our abilities and we’re competitors competing at the world’s highest stage.”

Fenlator-Victorian, a New Jersey native who is a dual citizen, represented the United States at the 2014 Sochi Olympics before participating with Jamaica’s first Olympic women’s bobsled team at the Pyeongchang Games. She qualified for the monobob event in Beijing and is still hoping to race in the two-woman bobsled competition with the brake person Audra Segree.

The appeal also cites the disparity in the two-person bobsled events. The men’s field includes 30 sleds, while the women will have 20. Fenlator-Victorian wants a ruling that will allow both her and Boch to compete.

“If we’re pushing for gender equality and equity and fair play, why do we have 10 less slots in the same event?” Fenlator-Victorian said.

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