Climbing was not included in the 2020 Olympics. Therefore, it would be at least 2024 before it could be included. My guess is that the Olympics won’t make it to 2024 in its current form. It pretty much bankrupts the smaller countries that host it and it is a huge terrorist target for the larger countries that host it.
Instead I hope that we see more online coverage of climbing. LT11 and IFSC do a great job covering the events. I would rather watch their broadcasts than sit through an ESPN broadcast where they show 1 minute of climbing and 29 minutes of commercials and behind the scenes back story.
Climbing will never be a mainstream sport. They tried that with the X-Games and it failed miserably. It was a television disaster because it was only lead and speed climbing on some pretty boring walls.
Bouldering, Deep water soloing, and Speed lead climbing would work well in today’s x-games but they won’t give it a second chance.
Nov 18, 2013, 11:02 PM
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Re: [JasonsDrivingForce] Future Olympics...and Climbing!
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JasonsDrivingForce wrote:
Climbing was not included in the 2020 Olympics. Therefore, it would be at least 2024 before it could be included. My guess is that the Olympics won’t make it to 2024 in its current form. It pretty much bankrupts the smaller countries that host it and it is a huge terrorist target for the larger countries that host it.
I think you're going to have to wait an enormous amount of time longer than the Olympics to cease existing in their current form by 2024. They may give smaller countries lots of problems after the games are over, but there are plenty of countries willing to step up and take that risk.
I bet the games don't change more than any normal evolution in our lifetimes.
Climbing will get in at some point, though. Under which format is another thing, but the sport has a strong global appeal to it with many countries have a strong presence in the overall community.
This is a bit of a dead discussion, as we all know climbing was not selected for the Olympics, so it will be several years until the next serious try.
Overall, climbing would fit well into the olympics: * reasonably interesting to watch * pretty much only natural sport not yet in the olympics (i.e. running, jumping, throwing, shooting, swimming, ball games, riding, rowing, fighting etc etc are already in, but not climbing!) * climbing is a global sport, only Africa and South America do not have high profile climbers and infrastructure * climbing as an organised competition sport is well developed
In my opinion, the only important reason talking against climbing, is that the Olympics are bloated as they are, so any new sport will pretty much have to kick out some other sport. Which, as we know, it didn't succeed to do in this latest bid.
I think you're going to have to wait an enormous amount of time longer than the Olympics to cease existing in their current form by 2024. They may give smaller countries lots of problems after the games are over, but there are plenty of countries willing to step up and take that risk.
I bet the games don't change more than any normal evolution in our lifetimes.
Climbing will get in at some point, though. Under which format is another thing, but the sport has a strong global appeal to it with many countries have a strong presence in the overall community.
Honestly, I think the change in the Olympics will be that they start drastically reducing the number of sports that require building their own unique venues. Things like Ski jumps and bob-sled runs are rarely if ever used after the Olympics are over.
Now they would never take those two sports out of the Olympics but it certainly could be why Rock Climbing isn’t in it. Golf is a good example of a sport that will stay with the Olympics because its venue can generate revenue even after the Olympics has rolled through town.
The Olympics is not about Amateur athletes anymore. It is purely about money. The Olympic committee only does what maximizes profit. They couldn’t care less about sports that don’t generate large revenue and in their mind Climbing does not have huge revenue potential.
You have to remember that they removed wrestling simply because it didn’t generate enough revenue. However, enough people complained so they put it back. If they hadn’t done that then other sports that do generate money would have lost spectators. That didn’t stop them from trying to axe wrestling though.
This is a bit of a dead discussion, as we all know climbing was not selected for the Olympics, so it will be several years until the next serious try.
Overall, climbing would fit well into the olympics: * reasonably interesting to watch * pretty much only natural sport not yet in the olympics (i.e. running, jumping, throwing, shooting, swimming, ball games, riding, rowing, fighting etc etc are already in, but not climbing!) * climbing is a global sport, only Africa and South America do not have high profile climbers and infrastructure * climbing as an organised competition sport is well developed
In my opinion, the only important reason talking against climbing, is that the Olympics are bloated as they are, so any new sport will pretty much have to kick out some other sport. Which, as we know, it didn't succeed to do in this latest bid.
Actually, climbing is organized quite well in South America. It's just that the culture is relatively new and developing still. But there are strong national and continental championships here just as there are in the U.S. and Canada.
Nov 19, 2013, 2:24 PM
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Re: [JasonsDrivingForce] Future Olympics...and Climbing!
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JasonsDrivingForce wrote:
Gmburns2000 wrote:
I think you're going to have to wait an enormous amount of time longer than the Olympics to cease existing in their current form by 2024. They may give smaller countries lots of problems after the games are over, but there are plenty of countries willing to step up and take that risk.
I bet the games don't change more than any normal evolution in our lifetimes.
Climbing will get in at some point, though. Under which format is another thing, but the sport has a strong global appeal to it with many countries have a strong presence in the overall community.
Honestly, I think the change in the Olympics will be that they start drastically reducing the number of sports that require building their own unique venues. Things like Ski jumps and bob-sled runs are rarely if ever used after the Olympics are over.
Now they would never take those two sports out of the Olympics but it certainly could be why Rock Climbing isn’t in it. Golf is a good example of a sport that will stay with the Olympics because its venue can generate revenue even after the Olympics has rolled through town.
The Olympics is not about Amateur athletes anymore. It is purely about money. The Olympic committee only does what maximizes profit. They couldn’t care less about sports that don’t generate large revenue and in their mind Climbing does not have huge revenue potential.
You have to remember that they removed wrestling simply because it didn’t generate enough revenue. However, enough people complained so they put it back. If they hadn’t done that then other sports that do generate money would have lost spectators. That didn’t stop them from trying to axe wrestling though.
I don't disagree about Olympics being about money and pro athletes now, and I agree that the Committee will make future decisions based on intl appeal and money (and that wrestling was a controversial part of that), but I don't think this will change how the Olympics are handled in the future. There are very, very few sports that are completely intl that generate cash after the Olympics are hosted in all countries. In fact, I'd wager there are no sports that could do this except soccer, and soccer is intentionally tempered to not interfere with the World Cup. Maybe tennis has strong intl appeal across the board. Golf is definitely a culture thing. Not popular at all in South America, for example.
In short, what makes the Olympics so appealing is the idea that sports that aren't that common are played out at the Olympics.
The Winter Olympics are a different ballgame because of the overall lack of participation by about half the planet.
Is this some play on words about ice/mixed climbing and it being a demonstration sport at the Sochi Olympics this year?
Honestly, if you're ever going to make comp climbing popular to watch you should stick with bouldering and ice climbing. Both have big dynamic moves that even the non climber will say “crap, I can't believe they just made that move".
Last year I followed the Ice Climbing World Cup pretty closely. One of the biggest surprises for me was how big comp climbing was overseas compared to NA. Climbing in general is taken a lot more seriously over there than it is in NA too. We have a long way to go here in Canada and the United States.
Sports like gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling can all use venues that are built for the more lucrative sports(Football/Soccer, Baseball, Basketball). The problem with climbing(Specifically Sport climbing and Speed) is that it needs a venue that is pretty much only good for climbing comps.
Bouldering can be done in an arena. The youth and Adult national championships is a fantastic spectator event. However, they seem reluctant to do just bouldering.
I think climbing has a better chance of returning to the X-games than making it into the Olympics and that chance is just slightly above zero.
Personally I don’t care anymore. I think the Olympics are a sham. All of the judged events are fixed. I would much rather watch a National championship than watch the Olympics.
Nov 19, 2013, 10:13 PM
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Re: [JasonsDrivingForce] Future Olympics...and Climbing!
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JasonsDrivingForce wrote:
Sports like gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling can all use venues that are built for the more lucrative sports(Football/Soccer, Baseball, Basketball). The problem with climbing(Specifically Sport climbing and Speed) is that it needs a venue that is pretty much only good for climbing comps.
Bouldering can be done in an arena. The youth and Adult national championships is a fantastic spectator event. However, they seem reluctant to do just bouldering.
I think climbing has a better chance of returning to the X-games than making it into the Olympics and that chance is just slightly above zero.
Personally I don’t care anymore. I think the Olympics are a sham. All of the judged events are fixed. I would much rather watch a National championship than watch the Olympics.
artificial climbing walls are easy to build and don't need a separate arena. Just use the basketball of gymnastics arenas and add a little extra space.
Sports like gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling can all use venues that are built for the more lucrative sports(Football/Soccer, Baseball, Basketball). The problem with climbing(Specifically Sport climbing and Speed) is that it needs a venue that is pretty much only good for climbing comps.
Bouldering can be done in an arena. The youth and Adult national championships is a fantastic spectator event. However, they seem reluctant to do just bouldering.
I think climbing has a better chance of returning to the X-games than making it into the Olympics and that chance is just slightly above zero.
Personally I don’t care anymore. I think the Olympics are a sham. All of the judged events are fixed. I would much rather watch a National championship than watch the Olympics.
artificial climbing walls are easy to build and don't need a separate arena. Just use the basketball of gymnastics arenas and add a little extra space.
I think that the problem is that the Olympic committee doesn't realize that. I wonder if they think "rock climbing" should be done outdoors even if it is on artificial walls? I wonder if they realize how easy it is to build artificial walls indoors especially for Bouldering?
Nov 20, 2013, 4:25 PM
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Re: [JasonsDrivingForce] Future Olympics...and Climbing!
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JasonsDrivingForce wrote:
Gmburns2000 wrote:
JasonsDrivingForce wrote:
Sports like gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling can all use venues that are built for the more lucrative sports(Football/Soccer, Baseball, Basketball). The problem with climbing(Specifically Sport climbing and Speed) is that it needs a venue that is pretty much only good for climbing comps.
Bouldering can be done in an arena. The youth and Adult national championships is a fantastic spectator event. However, they seem reluctant to do just bouldering.
I think climbing has a better chance of returning to the X-games than making it into the Olympics and that chance is just slightly above zero.
Personally I don’t care anymore. I think the Olympics are a sham. All of the judged events are fixed. I would much rather watch a National championship than watch the Olympics.
artificial climbing walls are easy to build and don't need a separate arena. Just use the basketball of gymnastics arenas and add a little extra space.
I think that the problem is that the Olympic committee doesn't realize that. I wonder if they think "rock climbing" should be done outdoors even if it is on artificial walls? I wonder if they realize how easy it is to build artificial walls indoors especially for Bouldering?
I'm 100% positive they know this. Anyone who is pitching the sport to the IOC has undoubtedly added this part to the presentation.
We are going on close to 30 years of people trying to get climbing into the big O. The arguments pro and con are well known at this point. Regardless if it does happen I think it won't be until either the climbing industry gets a lot richer and/or the number of climbers in the world goes up by several million.
Sports like gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling can all use venues that are built for the more lucrative sports(Football/Soccer, Baseball, Basketball). The problem with climbing(Specifically Sport climbing and Speed) is that it needs a venue that is pretty much only good for climbing comps.
Bouldering can be done in an arena. The youth and Adult national championships is a fantastic spectator event. However, they seem reluctant to do just bouldering.
I think climbing has a better chance of returning to the X-games than making it into the Olympics and that chance is just slightly above zero.
Personally I don’t care anymore. I think the Olympics are a sham. All of the judged events are fixed. I would much rather watch a National championship than watch the Olympics.
artificial climbing walls are easy to build and don't need a separate arena. Just use the basketball of gymnastics arenas and add a little extra space.
I think that the problem is that the Olympic committee doesn't realize that. I wonder if they think "rock climbing" should be done outdoors even if it is on artificial walls? I wonder if they realize how easy it is to build artificial walls indoors especially for Bouldering?
I'm 100% positive they know this. Anyone who is pitching the sport to the IOC has undoubtedly added this part to the presentation.
Knowing it and accepting it are two totally different things.
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