Norway's Anette Sagen, America's Lindsey Van and Austria's Daniela Iraschko are bidding to become the first women's ski-jumping world champion in history.

All three are dreaming of the title, but all three know too that just being able to compete is a victory in itself.

For a long time it seemed that the discipline would forever be closed to the fairer sex, with some officials claiming that the shock felt upon landing would irreparably damage their reproductive organs.

The hypothesis was never backed up by medical reasoning and failed to discourage female enthusiasts.

After the first semi-official competitions took place in 1998, the number of participants today runs into the thousands.

Even more encouragingly, the International Ski Federation (FIS) has, since 2005, organised an international circuit comprising 12 stages known as the Continental Cup.

"I've never been scared when I've found myself at the top of a jump and I can look after myself very well," smiles Sagan, who leads the Continental Cup standings and is something of a celebrity in her native Norway.

Today's crop of jumpers owe much to Iraschko, who became the first woman to pass the symbolic 200 metres mark in January 2003 on a jump where the male record was 215m.

"I've never had to put up with teasing from the boys, because I do ski jump," says Iraschko, who occasionally trains with her teenage compatriot Gregor Schlierenzauer, the prodigy of international ski jumping.

"I think that we'll be part of the Olympic programme in 2014," the 25-year-old insists.

Olympic recognition is the last obstacle to overcome. President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, said at the beginning of 2008 that the discipline still lacked international representation.

In Liberec there will be 39 competitors drawn from 13 nations, including French 13-year-old Coline Mattel, who recently finished in third place in the World Junior Championships.

They have already launched a discrimination claim against the organisers of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but with the IOC set to make its judgement on 2014 in April, the World Championships here present them with the perfect opportunity to state their case.

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