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Tom Ross' column appears Tuesdays and Saturdays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com.

Can you distinguish between world champion skiers Lindsey Vonn and Lindsey Van? If you consider yourself a follower of the U.S. Ski Team, it's high time you got the two women sorted out.

Both American skiers won gold medals at the World Championships this month. However, one of them is a sure bet to go to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and one of them is a long shot.

Lindsey Vonn, of Vail, won the World Championship downhill and Super G races in Val d'Isere, France. She leads the overall women's Alpine World Cup and will be the focus of hundreds of media reports in the buildup to the next Winter Games, just a year away.

Van, who isn't as well known as the other Lindsey and lives in Park City, Utah, made history in Liberec, Czech Republic, on Feb. 20 when she became the first and only woman of any nationality to win a World Championship gold medal in ski jumping. This year's Nordic World Championships are the first to include women's ski jumping.

But unless a lawsuit in a Canadian court compels the Vancouver Organizing Committee to include the sport, Van and other women ski jumpers from 11 other countries won't get the shot they deserve at Olympic glory. She and nine jumpers from six countries are parties to the legal action.

I participated in a teleconference for the news media last week after Van won her gold medal. It was clear from the tone of her voice that she would much rather focus on her ski jumping performance than on the politics of international skiing.

"It's frustrating every day, dealing with this sport," she said in response to one question. "I'm trying to be optimistic about it, but it's hard when there's pessimism. I'm trying to be positive about the future of the sport."

Steamboat's Erin Bentley said this week she never had to deal with the challenges Van faces during a relatively brief journey into the male world of ski jumping that took place 25 years ago.

Bentley was ski jumping with future U.S. Nordic Combined Coach Chris Gilbertson and the rest of the boys back in the mid-1980s.

Now 35, Bentley was a fifth-grader in the winter of 1984-85 when she learned to ride the 30-meter ski jump at Howelsen Hill.

"The coach, Walter Steiner, was thrilled to have a girl on the team," Bentley recalled this week. "All of the guys were good to me, too. There was only one coach in Winter Park who said, 'Girls don't ski jump.'"

After a couple of years of intense competition, Bentley decided to step back from ski jumping in order to have enough time for flute lessons and other activities that were important in her life. But she has followed Van's career closely and was thrilled at her gold medal performance.

"I couldn't help but think what might have happened if I'd stayed with it," Bentley said.

Women's ski jumping has become more complicated in the modern era. To be accurate, it is the International Olympic Committee that has ruled women's ski jumping isn't ready for the Olympics. The women and their attorney have chosen to sue the Vancouver Organizing Committee because they believe a Canadian equal opportunity law gives them their best chance to prevail.

IOC President Jacques Rogge says the rules require more international competitors than women's ski jumping has now. Further, he says the rules specify that the sport must have conducted at least two World Championship games before it can be considered.

It's difficult to believe that in 2009, the IOC still is putting up barriers for women in an Olympic sport that goes back to 1924.

Ironically, the International Olympic Committee has been very consistent in providing equal opportunity for men and women every time it admits a new sport such as bordercross or skiercross to the Winter Games. It's seemingly only because ski jumping is a longstanding part of the games that has been the sole domain of men that is making it harder on young women, who are pioneers in their sport, to be fully acknowledged.

When I logged on to Steamboatpilot.com this weekend and read about the newly named Nordic combined Junior Olympic team at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sport Club, it was great to see that Mary O'Connell, Madison Keefe and Emily Hannah all are on the squad. They represent the next generation of women ski jumpers from the Rocky Mountain region.

Here's hoping that the young women on the Winter Sports Club Nordic combined team are able to dream of the Olympics as their passion for the sport unfolds. And here's hoping that Lindsey Van and her teammates stay with it until the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

- To reach Tom Ross, call 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com