This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The locally-made documentary "Ready to Fly" has a great story to tell, but doesn't tell it as well as it could.
That story is of the U.S. Women's Ski Jumping team, which trains in Park City and is led by one of that city's own, Lindsay Van — who is not only one of the best ski jumpers in the world (male or female) but also a reluctant spokeswoman for her sport. Director William A. Kerig profiles Van and, to a lesser extent, her teammates, then shifts gears to detail the bureaucratic and legal battle to get the International Olympic Committee to make women's ski jumping a medal sport at the Winter Olympics.
And, yes, the IOC, represented here by former board vice-president Dick Pound, is just as arrogant and self-important as you remember it being 10 years ago.
After being rejected for Torino in 2006 and losing a lawsuit in Vancouver in 2010 (though the British Columbia Supreme Court did rule the Vancouver games were being discriminatory), the team soldiers on to compete in the world championships in Oslo, while hoping the IOC will let them into the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
Kerig stalls getting through this part of the story, and relies too much on an intrusive narrator (former Olympic swimmer and radio journalist Diana Nyad) to fill in where the press-averse Van won't talk. What's compelling are the montages of the ski-jump competitions, which serve as a great reminder of those fun days in 2002 when every Salt Laker knew what a Nordic Combined was. —
HHhj
'Ready to Fly'
Opens Friday, Feb. 10, at Utah theaters; not rated, but probably PG for mild language; 95 minutes.