Jessica Jerome: Female ski jumping has "elegance and beauty"

Jessica Jerome believes that the time was right for female ski jumping to be made an Olympic sport.

The Sochi Games will be the first Winter Olympics in which the sport will be featured.

"There is an elegance and beauty to the sport," the Japan Times quotes the 27-year-old American as saying. "We have a foot in the door. I am glad that the extreme sports got into the Games, but they didn't have the struggles we have. It's all about baby steps."

Jerome, Lindsey Van and Sarah Hendrickson are the three female members of Team USA competing in ski jumping.