I am proud as punch to be the narrator of a powerful new documentary film, Ready to Fly.

This is the decades-long drama of the best women ski jumpers in the world, frustrated at being denied their rightful place as Olympians.

As have elite women distance runners, stock car drivers and all manner of competent, world-class athletes through the ages, the ski jumpers were told there was tremendous concern that they may never bear children because of the dangers of their sport. What is this, Victorian England?

The Winter Games, Sochi, 2014, marks the first time in history that these incredibly graceful, powerful, and brave athletes will fly off the mountain tops and chase Olympic gold.

They are Ready to Fly, for their own deserved glory, and in the name of all the women of previous generations who were kept from their dreams.

Since childhood, as a wide-eyed seven-year-old ski jumper with a dream of Olympic flight, Lindsey Van has been an outsider in a man’s world. For the last 18 years she’s been fighting the naysayers, the doubters, and those who would have her believe that it’s her place to accept second-class status. At 8, her male coaches tell her she isn’t built right, that ski jumpers are skinny and slight, not strong and womanly. Although Lindsey is far from fat, her coaches repeatedly tell her “fat don’t fly.” Damage to her body image notwithstanding, Lindsey Van can fly. And damn well. She’s stronger, has better technique, and can sail farther over snow-covered hills than any woman and most men on the planet. At 24 years old, she proves it by becoming the first Women’s World Ski Jumping Champion. But the sweetness of victory is fleeting. Even though she out-jumps the world’s best men at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic venue, she’s still denied the chance to perform on the highest stage, in the Olympics. Why? Because she’s a woman.