petsfed
Apr 5, 2012, 6:44 PM
Views: 2615
Registered: Sep 25, 2002
Posts: 8599
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Similarly, distance running was never a popular nor successful sport until the invention of the treadmill.
Competitive indoor climbing is a lot like competitive weight lifting: fascinating for practitioners and a few oddballs, utterly boring for everyone else.
Climbing walls are becoming more and more common in well-off high schools, and are an old standby at summer camps, church camps, and major urban areas. Climbing walls, and competitive climbing, has existed for nearly 30 years. Its not going away any time soon, and it certainly doesn't need to be in the Olympics to survive, especially since climbing is a lot like golf: better when not too competitive.
Put another way, what will keep competition climbing going is the existence of rec-center leagues, middle-school and high-school leagues, things that don't depend on a FOR-PROFIT organization (e.g. the climbing gym) to have a place to compete.
(This post was edited by petsfed on Apr 5, 2012, 6:48 PM)
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