Climbing officially an Olympic sport

thebmc.co.uk/sport-climbing…

The International Olympic Committee has declared climbing an official sport starting in the 2020 Olympics.

This is a great, I only wish it wasn't the triathlon(Sport, Speed and Bouldering). Each discipline needs its own recognition.

Other sports added to the 2020 Olympics are,
Surfing
Skateboarding
Karate
Baseball/Softball
Five new sports confirmed for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Boooo! Climbing is popular enough, gear is already cheap enough.

Who gives a s**t.

Jim Corbett wrote:Who gives a s**t.

You might if it motivates hundreds of more climbers to show up at your local crag.

well phuk.

Climbing is boring.... except when I do it!

I really don't think this is going to effect our crags in any way - there isn't going to be a single real rock on TV, and they aren't going to be heavily televised like swimming or gymnastics. Sure, your local gym will probably be slightly more crowded on weekends for a couple months - but I doubt it'll be more than that.

In all reality, how many first time climbers ever come back to the gym or go beyond that? Most people buy a Groupon or find a deal and give it a shot, take some selfies for Facebook, and move on. The overwhelming majority of gym climbers have never been outside (and have no plans to) and have been climbing for less than 6 months (which seems to be when most get injured and quit or just get bored).

Ninja Warrior is probably a bigger threat to blowing up climbing into the main stream. Although I'd argue the secret may already be out. It's not exactly underground anymore.

The advantage I see is that this might lead to more and better gyms in small communities that typically don't have a gym. If you live in a place like that, it'd be pretty cool.

The disadvantages I see are everything else

-branding/endorsed gear
-fucking n00bs
-god damn speed climbing
-an increase in the "Ninja Warrior Effect"
-Crowds everywhere
-Climbing shoes in Walmart
-Having to fucking explain to people why I don't fucking speedclimb
-Even more stupid commercials featuring climbing
-How are world records even measurable?

Some stuff shouldn't grow. If fully half the climbers in the world quit tomorrow and turned their shoes into compost, it wouldn't hurt this sport. Efforts to "grow" climbing are self serving.

Climbing has exploded exponentially in the last decade. 300+ new gyms to North America in the last 10 years alone.
Will it continue to grow? Yes
Will the Olympics grow the sport? Marginally, we will see a spike in noobs mostly in the gym but should die down soon after.
Will the gym or the crag become more crowded? Probably the gym.

What should happen is interest spikes, people go out and buy tons of new gear, never use it or only a few times, and then post it for sale. Flooding the used equipment market for us.

Super Fluke wrote:Climbing has exploded exponentially in the last decade. 300+ new gyms to North America in the last 10 years alone. Will it continue to grow? Yes Will the Olympics grow the sport? Marginally, we will see a spike in noobs mostly in the gym but should die down soon after. Will the gym or the crag become more crowded? Probably the gym. What should happen is interest spikes, people go out and buy tons of new gear, never use it or only a few times, and then post it for sale. Flooding the used equipment market for us.

Yay, cheap Alpine Bods and clunky shoes.

There are some pros for exposure and growth in climbing. The more exposure climbing gets, the more people who may experience the outside and appreciate it. There may be more advocates for keeping our cliffs clean, and more money filtered into supporting areas by putting toilets/other accommodations. There will be more money into the outdoor industry to support R&D for technology in climbing. There will be more money into the outdoor industry that can be fed back into the community.

That may be the optimist in me. The pessimist sees busy and dirty crags, a lack of respect for nature, and more people getting hurt from lack of basic outdoor climbing skills.

Maybe out of this, the community will finally be forced to embrace a more structured education and culture around the subtle nuances and ethics that exists in climbing? We all were noobs at some point and slowly learned what is good form and bad in the eyes of our peers.

Why can't we embrace the fact that climbing can be for everyone? Everyone was new at some point. Cheers.

MarcYY wrote:The pessimist sees busy and dirty crags, a lack of respect for nature, and more people getting hurt from lack of basic outdoor climbing skills.

The pessimist in me sees pay to play climbing parks with strictly enforced rules about climbing off route or doing FA's.

The pessimist in me sees a mandatory safety card to buy gear.

The pessimist in me sees a safety ban on trad climbing, maybe lead climbing, and shutting entire areas down for my safety.

I wish I was only as pessimistic as you.

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote: The pessimist in me sees pay to play climbing parks with strictly enforced rules about climbing off route or doing FA's. The pessimist in me sees a mandatory safety card to buy gear. The pessimist in me sees a safety ban on trad climbing, maybe lead climbing, and shutting entire areas down for my safety. I wish I was only as pessimistic as you.

:) Guess we need to move to Europe. By then Trump will be in his second term and we won't have any public land anymore anyways.

I think this could get horrible.

How many?

If only 1.6% of Americans even tried climbing in 2012. By the Olympics in 2020, it could easily shoot up. 5%? 10%? More? Think about all the people out there who've never even thought about trying it... until now.

Say 4.6million tried it in 2012. What would happen if 46million tried it. Where will we be when 500,000 'active climbers' shoots up to 5million?

Who knows? We'll see.

Seth Jones wrote: Yep popularity can ruin sports or in this case, activities. I played ice hockey most of my life until the Blackhawks started winning cups and the popularity of hockey went nuts in Chicago. It got really tough to get good ice times that weren't overcrowded with all the new local interest in the sport. Now I rarely get on the ice.

Move to salt lake. It's almost as good for cheap and plentiful ice time as it is for rock climbing.
Edit (plentiful ice time due to the Olympics back in 2002. thanks)

--County rec league wannabe and rock climber
Edit: pm me first if you are any good my team is looking for a few ringers. . .

I think it will be fun to watch. Maybe they'll combine it with fencing in 2032. Good sport

They should combine weight lifting with climbing.

Lol. I was really excited until I saw that surfing was also added.

Anyways, I think growing the climbing community isn't a bad thing. Will easy access, gym-like crags become more crowded? Probably. Will people inspired by the olympics start clogging major trad destinations? Probably not. The biggest advantage that I see with greater exposure is a much stronger position for climbing advocacy groups like the Access Fund to keep climbing destinations open and not destroyed by mining and development. Ask yourself: would you rather your local crag be packed, or closed?

It just means more rapelling accidents

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