海角大神

Even on this, admittedly most satisfying night of her ski jumping career, Lindsey Van is still looking uphill 鈥� to the next challenge, to something bigger.

鈥淚 want to jump on that hill,鈥� she says, nodding.

鈥淭hat hill鈥� is the large, 120-meter hill that only the boys get to jump off in this Olympics. She and 29 other girls have just finished the first ever Olympic competition for women on the normal, 90-meter hill right next to it.

Truth be told, the large hill is a monster. Viewed from below, it looks like something you wouldn鈥檛 throw your worst enemy off, much less your teenage daughter strapped to a pair of skis.

But Van and her band of sparkly-suited sisters have just provided the best possible argument for why they should get to jump off pretty much anything they want with cameras rolling. After Tuesday night, it doesn鈥檛 seem impossible that they could turn jumping off their own garage roofs into gripping drama.

This was one of those nights, when something subtle but perceptible shifts 鈥� when those in the stadium recognize they are witnessing something remarkable.

It was a wonderful athletic moment. For a sport that was once denied participation in the Olympics because of a perceived lack of depth of talent, it provided an upset at the very first opportunity. The best jumper of the past two years failed to even medal, and it was hardly an implosion. Others simply jumped better, more beautifully, more thrillingly.

So take that, International Olympic Committee.

But this wasn鈥檛 a night for that. And it was more than just an athletic moment. When a pre-event press conference can with some justification utter the words 鈥渉uman rights鈥� 鈥� and then provide the goods to back it up 鈥� it is an Olympic moment in the purest sense of the concept.

It was a night when the German girl who placed 23rd (out of 30) was acting like it was her birthday; she simply could not stop smiling. It was a night when you watched with equal parts awe and terror as her 15-year-old teammate sped toward the precipice, and then, as she later talked to the press, braces flashing, asked: Would I want someone to tell my daughter she couldn鈥檛 do this?

And it was a night when both of them dog-piled on teammate Carina Vogt in disbelief when the judges confirmed that her last jump had indeed been as lovely as it looked to the rest of us, and she was the first-ever Olympic champion in women鈥檚 ski jumping.

Now, if we just got to watch them again on the large hill, maybe we鈥檇 be satisfied.

In truth, Tuesday night was not about the battle ahead for Van, though she offered her help in the cause, if needed. Tuesday night was about Tuesday night and the fact that every woman who took a flying leap into the Russian night was, at last, an Olympian after a nearly decade-long fight to get the sport accepted.

Van did not win a medal. Her best jumping days came when the Olympic movement did not want her 鈥� in fact, actively sought to keep her out of the Olympic club. Back when the women鈥檚 ski jumping circuit she helped pioneer once involved staying overnight in a barn. But that hardly mattered.

For her entire professional career, Van was something more than an athlete because circumstances and her conscience demanded that she be so. She wanted to jump, and she didn鈥檛 think it was right that people told her she couldn鈥檛 鈥� in the Olympics, on large hills, on the even larger 鈥渟ki flying鈥� hills.

So she fought back. She sued. She protested at the Vancouver Olympics. She hated doing it all. But someone had to do it, and that someone happened to be her. She was Lindsey Van the ski jumper/activist.

On Tuesday night, for perhaps the first time in her career, she was Lindsey Van the ski jumper. Period.

鈥淚 feel way better now than I ever have in my career,鈥� said the 2009 world champion of her 15th-place finish Tuesday night. 鈥淔or the first time in my career I鈥檓 living now, not talking about what I鈥檓 going to do.鈥�

Only a few months before, appearing at a US Olympic team media summit, she appeared almost dour.

Are you glad that women鈥檚 ski jumping is finally in the Olympics?

鈥淚t鈥檚 a step.鈥�

Why do you think the IOC relented?

鈥淚 think they just got sick of us.鈥�

Are you optimistic about the possibility of having large hill and team events added in future Olympics?

鈥淭here鈥檚 a part of ski jumping that said, 鈥榃e gave you this, now be happy and go away.鈥� 鈥�

She spoke as though she was waiting for the Olympics to pull the football away just as she was about to kick it. A conditioned response after years of experience, it seemed 鈥� expect the worst.

Then Tuesday night happened, and she was as giddy as the grinning 15-year-old in braces. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 make up these feelings,鈥� she said, struggling to explain them.

At one point in the opening ceremony, teammate Jessica Jerome said, Van was bawling.

There is work to be done ahead. Jerome鈥檚 parents started a nonprofit, Women鈥檚 Ski Jumping USA (WSJ-USA), precisely because they didn鈥檛 think too much of people telling their daughter she couldn鈥檛 jump. They still don鈥檛 think much of them telling her to be content on the small hills or with no team event.

The woman they鈥檝e put in charge of WSJ-USA, President Deedee Corradini, said in a pre-event press conference: 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be a scrappy organization for a long time to come. Where we鈥檙e lacking funding is in our development program, and one of our worries is what will happen to funding after the Olympics.鈥�

Jessica鈥檚 father, Peter, said it could be years before women ski jumpers will be treated as equals in the Olympic program and on the hills themselves, where many women say they still feel unwelcome.

But on Tuesday night, they did the only possible thing they could. They put on a show.

鈥淓veryone who watched will love women鈥檚 ski jumping,鈥� said silver medalist Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria, who has been jumping with Van since 1998.

Maybe, just maybe, that might include Olympic officials themselves.

Looking up at the large hill, with its inviting white apron sticking out at her like a taunting tongue, Van says: 鈥淚 think the sport deserves to be there.鈥�