If the 2010 Olympic Games doesn't hold a women's ski jumping competition, it shouldn't be allowed to have a men's competition either, says a group of female ski jumpers in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

A court injunction may be the only way to fix what the jumpers say is discrimination in the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver, said the jumpers' lawyer, Ross Clark, adding that a lack of a women's competition is a violation of Canada's equality rights.

"[Local organizers] VANOC...still has to comply with the laws of Canada," said Clark, who is representing six European and American ski jumpers. "And I think the laws of Canada should come first."

The International Olympic Committee says it's holding a men's only competition in 2010 because the women's sport is not developed enough.

And VANOC says it has no say in the matter.

"We've always said that if the IOC made a decision to include women's ski jumping we would be able to accommodate it. So our position hasn't changed," spokeswoman Cathy Priestner said Wednesday.

Canadian jumpers filed a human rights complaint last year, arguing that governments in Canada shouldn't spend $580 million on facilities for games that discriminate.

The jumpers later settled the complaint several months ago, when the Canadian government promised to press the issue with the IOC.

But on Wednesday, foreign jumpers took the complaint to the B.C. Supreme Court, arguing that the lack of competition was "a violation of every woman's right to equal benefit under the law," which is guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights.

The jumpers are asking for an injunction to "include a women's ski jumping event in the schedule of events for the Games... or, in the alternative, an injunction preventing VANOC from staging any men's ski jumping events at the Callaghan Jumps (in Whistler) or elsewhere in Canada as part of the Games unless a women's ski jumping event is also held during and as part of the Games."

The Charter normally regulates only government actions, but the suit claims that the Olympics are operating because of and through a set of policies from various levels of Canadian governments.

For example, in addition to the money spent on the Games, VANOC is subject to regular governmental review, and has government positions on its board of directors, the suit claims.

"Our argument is that VANOC is implementing federal, provincial, and municipal government policy and because it is doing that it is subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. And that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender," said Clark.

The jumpers included in the suit are Anette Sagen from Norway, Daniela Iraschko from Austria, Jenna Mohr from Germany, Karla Keck from Wisconsin, Ulrike Grassler from Germany, Lindsey Van and Jessica Jerome from Utah, and Monika Planinc from Slovenia.

The only Canadian jumper on the suit is Marie-Pierre Morin.

The lack of female competitors in Olympic ski jumping is an accident of history. Any new Olympic event added since 1991 must include a competition for men and women.

But ski jumping has been an Olympic sport since the 1924 Olympics, excluding the sport from the gender-equality requirement.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Sarah Galashan