Climbing officially an Olympic sport

I'm on the fence... I don't really want crowds to get bigger out at my local crag... but I'm also all for our pro's getting better returns on the publicity they provide. When Honnold starts driving a Ferrari around the valley then maybe I'll reconsider my postion. For now, they aren't getting rich. Seems they're just supporting their habit.

Russ Keane wrote:Why make an Olympic competition of the "fake" version of the real sport? Other examples: - gold medal for treadmill running - gold medal for NBA2K - gold medal for roller hockey etc.

Almost all "sports" are a "fake" version of some real thing.

You thinking running on a carefully groomed oval track is much more real than running on a treadmill? Rather than over the African grasslands, with a tiger chasing you, to make it real?

David Gibbs wrote: Almost all "sports" are a "fake" version of some real thing. You thinking running on a carefully groomed oval track is much more real than running on a treadmill? Rather than over the African grasslands, with a tiger chasing you, to make it real?

No, because tigers don't live in Africa.

s.price wrote:Hopefully they will make it a DWS event. They could use the same pool as the diving events. At least the DWS events aren't boring to watch.

Yasss! More Psico Bloc events!

s.price wrote:Hopefully they will make it a DWS event. They could use the same pool as the diving events. At least the DWS events aren't boring to watch.

That would really only make sense for the bouldering part of the three events.
If I had to guess, the format likely won't be too different than what already exists on the world cup sport climbing circuit:
ifsc-climbing.org/index.php…

Em Cos wrote:How is surfing supposed to work? Only a select few coastal cities can host the summer olympics?

In an effort to allow cities more flexibility starting in 2020 the host city gets to basically propose five sports for their Olympics. All five could be gone in 2024, or all five could still be there.
Besides which... There has always been some rotation of sports. Baseball has come and gone and come again. The martial arts that show up seem to rotate pretty constantly. Etc.

Adam Stackhouse wrote: ....and to spend billions on facilities that will be rarely used much less capitalize on the "investment."

It's basically an international scam and the only people that make money are the elite few.

Rick Blair wrote:From what I see at the crags, anti doping and climbing are incompatible.

This

1924 Everest Expedition was awarded an Olympic Gold medal in the 1924 Winter Olympics. Pulling plastic is a far cry from this.

The Olympics are not very motivating to Americans. We tend to be spectators, not participants. I expect the impact on the popularity of climbing will be indistinguishable from zero.

Does this mean I'm an athlete now?

Noah Yetter wrote:The Olympics are not very motivating to Americans. We tend to be spectators, not participants. I expect the impact on the popularity of climbing will be indistinguishable from zero.

........really? The impact won't be huge but it'll certianly more than indistinguishable. More so, why do you think the Olympics are not very motivating to Americans? How do you think we walk away in the top 3 in total meals every time, just by phoning it in. For a bunch of those sports, the Olympics is their only chance for "glory", they can't all make millions playing soccer, baseball, hockey, basketball, or football, yet the still train for years and years for a chance at Olympic glory. I'm hoping that climbing takes off in the Olympics and quickly transitions to the Paraolympics, so I can I have a shot at it.

Jack Stephenson wrote:Does this mean I'm an athlete now?

No, because neither.

I spend a good portion of my time outdoors. Gym memberships for me are hard to come by since I work service industry. Now from what I've noticed about this topic and from outsiders looking in is climbers have money. It seems like a lot of climbers are just flat out proper. I come from a rough area. I grew up with pimps and prostitutes in front of my house. I grew up with gangs, violence, and drugs. Ive been tied up, robbed, and shot at. I grew up skateboarding and getting into trouble.
Hearing this news is exciting. Maybe training and going for something like this proves that some tattooed scumbag who makes minimum wage cooking food for rock climbers, has a chance at maybe even getting into the olympics. Something like that would be major for my community.

Diego Gamez wrote:I spend a good portion of my time outdoors. Gym memberships for me are hard to come by since I work service industry. Now from what I've noticed about this topic and from outsiders looking in is climbers have money. It seems like a lot of climbers are just flat out proper. I come from a rough area. I grew up with pimps and prostitutes in front of my house. I grew up with gangs, violence, and drugs. Ive been tied up, robbed, and shot at. I grew up skateboarding and getting into trouble. Hearing this news is exciting. Maybe training and going for something like this proves that some tattooed scumbag who makes minimum wage cooking food for rock climbers, has a chance at maybe even getting into the olympics. Something like that would be major for my community.

How did you get into climbing? I come from a similar background and not til I had a few bucks did I get into climbing. Most of the city or burbs folk I know get into climbing do come from middle class or higher backgrounds. The mold is broken when people that live local to the mountains start climbing,

bus driver wrote: How much they are used depends on how well organized and funded the organizing committee is. Salt Lake City spent the millions on facilities and most of them are used every day even now 14 years later. There are 9 sheets of ice where there once were 2 and ski jumpers and sliders come here to train and compete year round. I can go pay $6 and play pickup ice hockey any day of the week and have multiple rec leagues to choose from. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee planned for this though and left money from the games in a trust to run programs and maintain facilities along with some zoo arts and parks taxes. The investment all depends on how much money the organizers are willing to not take and run with. . . If there's any at all left over. I was a hater on the SLC Olympics. Now I'm stoked my kids and I get to use the facilities. And I've made a lot of good new friends with the "hordes" of people that saw how cool SLC is and moved here.

That's good to hear.

Bill Kirby wrote: How did you get into climbing? I come from a similar background and not til I had a few bucks did I get into climbing. Most of the city or burbs folk I know get into climbing do come from middle class or higher backgrounds. The mold is broken when people that live local to the mountains start climbing,

I knew a guy at the local skatepark I looked up to that got really into it. So I borrowed some shoes and he took me to the local crag. Kinda got hooked, took a while though to pick up steam though. Wasnt till I ended up in austin, texas that I randomly met a couple that pushed me to climb more. The scene in Austin is pretty small and welcoming and they just got 2 gyms this year so everyone was pretty much outside all the time.

Scott Baird wrote: ........really? The impact won't be huge but it'll certianly more than indistinguishable. More so, why do you think the Olympics are not very motivating to Americans? How do you think we walk away in the top 3 in total meals every time, just by phoning it in. For a bunch of those sports, the Olympics is their only chance for "glory", they can't all make millions playing soccer, baseball, hockey, basketball, or football, yet the still train for years and years for a chance at Olympic glory. I'm hoping that climbing takes off in the Olympics and quickly transitions to the Paraolympics, so I can I have a shot at it.

The US is a large, rich country. We send a lot of athletes and yes, we bring home a lot of medals. But for the most part they're in the sports that the US is traditionally good at and has well-developed pipelines for developing athletes in, like swimming and gymnastics. There's a huge number of Olympic sports that the US is terrible at, basically never medals in, and often the public doesn't even know exist.

For example the US has never, not once, won a medal in Biathlon. We're competitive, but far from dominant, in the summer shooting sports, despite having more recreational shooters than any nation on Earth. As someone active in other shooting sports, I can tell you that no one (that's the colloquial, not literal, "no one") gives a crap about the Olympic shooting sports. As another example the US is consistently terrible in Weightlifting, despite the fact that millions of Americans lift weights, and despite Crossfit's popularization of the Olympic lifts.

And it's no different for newly-introduced Olympic sports. BMX, Mountain Biking, Slopestyle, Skicross, etc. have made it into the games because of popular interest, but don't seem to have stimulated much further interest.

If the US dominates climbing in its debut year -- which we won't, it's not as if we dominate IFSC... -- then you might see a meaningful lift. Otherwise expect it to join the long list of Olympic sports that most Americans can't even name.

Well it's not a fun sport to watch, very boring so it will initially have a novelty factor and no doubt spread many climbing myths amongst the public - I'm sure we'll see an increase in gym memberships, and a bit of overflow to the sport crags, maybe even a few traditional areas. If we had our heads screwed on, as a community, we should prepare to take some metrics. MP seems like a great resource for this.

My concern is that the IOC starts dictating climbing ethics to the UIAA or other climbing associations, and that these ethics spread to the crag. Also, performance enhancing drugs is a major concern, as it would cause a break in the continuity of measuring our performance against the greats of the past.

It's going to be interesting.

If they use drugs that is aid climbing.

It may affect the top rope crags but I don't see it increasing people who climb in trad areas that much. Most people who go try it in a gym because of the olympics are not likely the type to go risk their life on a 200ft+ trad route without a single bolt.

You may get some auto belays installed on the single pitch crags though!