ARE, Sweden (AP) – A women’s group criticized Italy’s ski team Friday for excluding Daniela Ceccarelli from the world championships less than three months after she gave birth to her first child.

The Italy-based group Telefono Rosa said the exclusion was “an attack on a woman for only one reason – maternity.”

Ceccarelli, who won the super-G at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, had a baby girl on Nov. 16 and returned to the World Cup ski circuit in mid-January. She has entered four World Cup races this season, with her best finish 17th on Jan. 19.

Riccardo Agabio, the interim commissioner of the Italian Winter Sports Federation, said he spoke with Ceccarelli for a half-hour on Thursday to explain the decision.

“I repeatedly explained that the decisions made by the team director Flavio Roda were exclusively based on technical criteria,” Agabio said.