The Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table brought together women’s Olympic Ski Jumping, Title IX legislation and Jenny Schatzle on Monday. It was a Tour de Force for the annual Women in Sports Luncheon at Earl Warren Showgrounds.
Hundreds of local female student-athletes were at the annual WISL, created by the Round Table to celebrate the legacy of Title IX, a law enacted in 1972 that helped establish more opportunities for women in athletics. Professional ski jumper Alissa Johnson was flown in from Park City, Utah as an example of women continuing the fight for equal opportunity in sport.
Johnson and her U.S. Ski Team teammates successfully campaigned to have women’s ski jumping become an Olympic sport in 2014. But it took 10 years and there was remarkable resistance from the male establishment during the process. The movement was made into a documentary film called “Ready to Fly,” available on Netflix.
Johnson, 27, said it’s made her very conscious of the not-so-distant past.
“We really have a strong group of women that left that for us, and I think it’s something that I hope none of you have to experience in your life because it’s a hard struggle when you’re told you can’t do some things simply based on the fact that you look different anatomically,” Johnson said.
“We have a lot to thank for that generation that brought NCAA sports and the fact that we can now go out and get athletic scholarships.”
But for Johnson, it was the adrenaline of the ski jump ramp descent followed by a soaring flight lasting hundreds of feet that captivated her spirit. She was a promising swimmer but dropped it at age 14 to focus on ski jumping.
“I knew I could go to college if I just kept with swimming but I just didn’t love it the same way I loved ski jumping,” said Johnson, who encouraged the young athletes in the audience to pursue athletics if that was their dream.
Her jumping took her to 26 countries and she recorded 16 top-30 finishes on the World Cup circuit in 2012 and 2013. One time in Norway, Johnson competed in front of 100,000 people.
But never the Olympics. She just missed qualifying in 2014 and isn’t sure about another try in 2018.
Johnson sat on stage with Catherine Remak and told her story through a Q&A format.
Just before, local fitness personality Jenny Schatzle perked up the crowd with a quick session of “quick feet.” The entire room was asked to stand up and do the exercise in order to keep the blood flowing during the lunch hour.
Round Table President Laurie Leighty and WISL Committee Chair Catharine Manset also spoke, thanking sponsors and committee members for organizing the event.
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