Climbing Making Its Bid to Enter The Olympics
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Recently the representatives of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) were in a meeting in Switzerland with the International Olympic Committee Program Commission to discuss the case of climbing being in the Olympic Games, this to start from the 2020 Olympic Games.
Climbing will be competing with six other short listed sports which include baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, squash, wakeboarding, and wushu, and therefore the IOC Program Commission need to make a decision as to which sports to cut and add to the Summer Olympics.
The president of the IFSC, Marco Scolaris, made the pitch to the IOC Program Commission along with four other people which include two North Americans: Debbie Gawrych, the vice president of the IFSC and former president of USA Climbing; Sean McColl, the president of the IFSC Athletes Commission and Canadian gold medalist at the 2012 World Championships; Jérôme Meyer, the IFSC Sport Manager and former European champion in bouldering; and Evgeniya Malamid from Russia who is a member of the IFSC Athletes Commission.
The IFSC have decided to focus on lead climbing only for its pitch, therefore bouldering and speed climbing will not be considered. It has been reported that the IOC’s final decision will be announced in September this year (2013).
Many people in the climbing community find it excellent that this consideration is in progress, but some feel that bouldering should also have been considered. We’ll be holding thumbs and hoping for a positive decision in September.
9 Comments
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notapplicable    2013-01-10 |
It seems odd to me that bouldering was not the first choice. I'd think it would be the most "watchable" for a nonclimber. |
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granite_grrl 2013-01-11 |
Let's remember that ice climbing will be a demonstraition sport at next year's winter olympics in Russia. 2013's Ice Climbing World Cup starts this weekend in Korea! |
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mikebee 2013-01-13 |
Fingers crossed climbing doesn't make the Olympics. If it does the crags will be inundated with clueless dicks who have no real appreciation of the natural world or the ethics or history associated with climbing. The rock is busy enough already, keep climbing on the fringe! |
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oldgray 2013-01-14 |
What mikebee said ! ! ! ! IMHO it would be a FARCE. Gray |
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sirdrinksalot 2013-01-16 |
mikebee, Isn't that already the case? |
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myhmedic 2013-01-23 |
climbing needs to be included in the olympics. sport or bouldering. take your pick. outside or inside. It would help pave the way to develop more crags around the world with that kind of internatinal attention. dont be negative. think about the upside. if you dont see the upside, you are the clueless dick. |
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stagg54 2013-02-19 |
why would anyone think this is a good idea? climbing seems to have been overrun by a bunch of morons. |
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sowr 2013-03-12 |
Alpinism used to be a sport in the Winter Olympics, Mallory (posthumously in his and Irvine's case) and company were awarded a Gold for their 1924 Everest attempt. I'm for it, I don't take the elitist attitude that some of the posters have taken -- things change and we need to change with them. It's all about educating the aspiring climbers. I would venture to say that there'll be more people at the gyms than the crags/mountains. Good for the gyms. There are plenty of place where the majority of people will never go - I'll go there, just like I always have, and offer guidance and support to anyone who is interested at any level. Think about some of our current climber athletes...which one of them wouldn't want the moniker "Olympic Gold Medalist"? |
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leahabis 2013-08-22 |
Hope climbing becomes an Olympic sport. It would be amazing to see some friends in television compiting for the title of “Olympic Golden Medalist". But also Bouldering it’s important, why dont they think so? Bouldering it's a different type of climbing, not such as known as the one they have considered, but it still being part of it. By other way, Im just 15 years old and im dreaming about having my favorite sport in the Olympics and maybe some day being there compiting. Every day people come’s to me asking which sport I like, I answer that Climbing, but no one’s know about it, just a few people. I would love to see how people all around the world talks about it. But also, it’s amazing to be part of it. |
