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Sport Climbing won't be an "Olympic Sport"

Original Post
jeffozozo · · santa clara, utah · Joined Oct 2009 · Points: 536
bleacherreport.com/articles…

"The committee has dropped wushu, wakeboarding, roller sports, karate and sport climbing from consideration, according to BBC Sport. "

I'm not particularly sad about this.
Tim Stich · · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 1,520

It's good that they let wrestling back in. I mean, it was only one of the original sports from the get go.

pfwein Weinberg · · Boulder, CO · Joined May 2006 · Points: 71
Stich wrote:It's good that they let wrestling back in. I mean, it was only one of the original sports from the get go.
They have not yet wrestling back in--it's just on the shortlist along with baseball and squash. I'd guess wrestling will be let back in, but what do I know. Taking wrestling out in the first place made me lose a lot of respect for the Olympics.
NC Rock Climber · · The Oven, AKA Phoenix · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 60
pfwein wrote: They have not yet wrestling back in--it's just on the shortlist along with baseball and squash. I'd guess wrestling will be let back in, but what do I know. Taking wrestling out in the first place made me lose a lot of respect for the Olympics.
+100

I love the idea of the Olympics, but feel that in reality it has been severely corrupted. That they are considering dropping wrestling is indicative of how screwed up the IOC has become.

As far as climbing being in or out... meh. I appreciate and greatly respect the skill of the folks who compete. What they do has little to do with my climbing and love of the lifestyle. One argument is that more exposure leads to more climbers and more access issues. The other argument is that more exposure leads to more "credibility," a better understanding of climbing by the general public and less access issues... I lean towards the former being the case but it could go either way.
Brendan Blanchard · · Boulder, CO · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 590
NC Rock Climber wrote: +100 I love the idea of the Olympics, but feel that in reality it has been severely corrupted. That they are considering dropping wrestling is indicative of how screwed up the IOC has become. As far as climbing being in or out... meh. I appreciate and greatly respect the skill of the folks who compete. What they do has little to do with my climbing and love of the lifestyle. One argument is that more exposure leads to more climbers and more access issues. The other argument is that more exposure leads to more "credibility," a better understanding of climbing by the general public and less access issues... I lean towards the former being the case but it could go either way.
Agreed, awareness of sport or speed climbing in a gym doesn't really enhance the understanding of outdoor sport climbing or bouldering, forget trad and bigwalling, or the climbing lifestyle overall. I'm pretty happy that it's not in the Olympics, not that it would have a big effect on my outdoor climbing.
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

The decision on climbing not making it into the 2020 Olympics has been confirmed by several sources.

I guess the down-side is that we won't see a larger boom in constructing indoor gyms (but that's increasing anyway).

The up-side might be that the disconnecting of indoor route styles from my preferred outdoor rock route styles will not accelerate.

Ken

Sam B. · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 35

A little dramatic but being a former wrestler this gets me all fired up.

Save Olympic Wrestling

Rohan de Launey · · South Lake Tahoe · Joined May 2012 · Points: 15

I thought the host country gets to add a sport... how did x country ski racing and rifle marksmans ( I think biathlon) get in? surely there's only a handful of countries where that is applicable or practiced..?

Woodchuck ATC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 3,280

The Olympics are ruled and run now by Television Profits and all the network rights to stuff, and they desperately need new viewership since the older traditional Olympic games fans are dying off at the turn of the century. So in a youth grab, they've already screwed up the Winter games and are headed so with the Summer games too. They are ruining the tradition of the games with all these nonsense ideas of adding new sports. IF you can't bring yourself to enjoy and partake of the traditional sports, if your life is so spoiled by non stop ESPN sports of your choice and you can't see any worth in the tradition of the old Olympics, then you just have no clue about history , sports, society and national traditions. It's sad, but I will never vote for some alternative sport to be added to what should remain the historic traditional athletic attempts and spirit of the Olympics.

Colonel Mustard · · Sacramento, CA · Joined Sep 2005 · Points: 1,241

Either way, I don't really care. This post belies that statement, but televised sports are masturbation. Enjoyable as that pursuit may be, it is not the real thing.

Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0

Climbing isn't a sport. Personally, I feel like competition, especially indoor, is poison to climbing. It does bring money in though. So many kids will never get to experience the true aspect of what makes climbing so special because they are brought up in the gym competition atmosphere and get burnt out and are taught to compare themselves against others and strive to be better than others. That is part of what competition is all about. The Olympics would only further support that mentality. But maybe I have it all wrong.

RockinOut · · NY, NY · Joined May 2010 · Points: 100

I dont understand why they have to cut sports to bring others in? As it is they dont televise all the sports. Its not like a runner or a swimmer will be playing baseball or climbing, so there wouldnt be a conflict in that regard. So if baseball or softball arent being played on those field what will be using the diamonds? If sport climbing isnt going to be done in a gym or at a sport crag are they going to host fencing or wrestling in that space? Adding more sports just adds another interest group to drop money on the Olympics... isnt that a win win?

After that Badminton debacle how is that not cut out of the olympics? Purposely throwing matches to better your odds of getting a medal...any medal. How did badminton get there in the first place?

Rob D · · Queens, NY · Joined May 2011 · Points: 30

instantly thought of this:

I find that rock climbing is the finest, most healthiest sport in the whole world. It is much healthier than most; look at baseball, where 10 000 sit and watch a handful of players

RockinOut · · NY, NY · Joined May 2010 · Points: 100
"There are only three true sports - mountain climbing, bullfighting and motor racing - all the rest being games." -Hemingway
The Pheonix · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2013 · Points: 60
RockinOut wrote:"There are only three true sports - mountain climbing, bullfighting and motor racing - all the rest being games." -Hemingway
+1!
Darren S · · Minneapolis, MN · Joined Feb 2006 · Points: 3,388
RockinOut wrote:"There are only three true sports - mountain climbing, bullfighting and motor racing - all the rest being games." -Hemingway
I would bet that if Hemingway saw people sport climbing, this list would be down to two sports.....
Colonel Mustard · · Sacramento, CA · Joined Sep 2005 · Points: 1,241
Darren in Vegas wrote: I would bet that if Hemingway saw people sport climbing, this list would be down to two sports.....
He'd probably blow his brains out in disgust if he saw sport climbing. Cuz it's neither, brah!
Nik Mirhashemi · · Telluride, CO · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 355

Well all I can say is thank god! I know we're only talking sport climbing here (Ew! and not even real sport climbing cause plastic doesn't count) but for one think climbing already has way too many competitive platforms as it is with world cup bouldering and sport "climbing" comps. Lets keep climbing where it should be. Not as a sport but as a way of life. Formal competition is a waste of space. Or at least up the stakes a bit. Where are the lava pits and dragons anyway?

Alex McIntyre · · Tucson, AZ · Joined Jan 2011 · Points: 546
Woodchuck ATC wrote:The Olympics are ruled and run now by Television Profits and all the network rights to stuff, and they desperately need new viewership since the older traditional Olympic games fans are dying off at the turn of the century. So in a youth grab, they've already screwed up the Winter games and are headed so with the Summer games too. They are ruining the tradition of the games with all these nonsense ideas of adding new sports. IF you can't bring yourself to enjoy and partake of the traditional sports, if your life is so spoiled by non stop ESPN sports of your choice and you can't see any worth in the tradition of the old Olympics, then you just have no clue about history , sports, society and national traditions. It's sad, but I will never vote for some alternative sport to be added to what should remain the historic traditional athletic attempts and spirit of the Olympics.
I read this as "Ping pong deserves to be an Olympic sport and climbing absolutely does not!"

DanP wrote:Climbing isn't a sport. Personally, I feel like competition, especially indoor, is poison to climbing. It does bring money in though. So many kids will never get to experience the true aspect of what makes climbing so special because they are brought up in the gym competition atmosphere and get burnt out and are taught to compare themselves against others and strive to be better than others. That is part of what competition is all about. The Olympics would only further support that mentality. But maybe I have it all wrong.
I started as a youth competition climber and it set me up extremely well to transition to outdoor climbing when I was able to do so. I wouldn't trade anything for the fellow climbers I've met and made friends with while on the competition circuit. As far as I am aware, no one is competitive in the traditional sense (victory at any costs, "I hope he falls so I beat him," etc.) that I've seen. Every fellow competitor I've ever known has turned right around after finishing their routes or boulder problems and immediately started cheering for their direct competitors. I know I do so myself. It isn't the psycho, cutthroat culture you seem to think it is.

Youth climbing teams also derive a lot of their purpose and focus from competitions. I know that my team experiences mean the world to me; my team was essentially family. It was an amazing learning and growing experience that, again, I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. This isn't some isolated thing, either. As I've observed, most teams are the same way. It is truly a unique experience that I likely would not have had if competition climbing did not exist.
Ryan Williams · · London (sort of) · Joined May 2009 · Points: 1,245
RockinOut wrote:I dont understand why they have to cut sports to bring others in? As it is they dont televise all the sports. Its not like a runner or a swimmer will be playing baseball or climbing, so there wouldnt be a conflict in that regard. So if baseball or softball arent being played on those field what will be using the diamonds? If sport climbing isnt going to be done in a gym or at a sport crag are they going to host fencing or wrestling in that space? Adding more sports just adds another interest group to drop money on the Olympics... isnt that a win win? After that Badminton debacle how is that not cut out of the olympics? Purposely throwing matches to better your odds of getting a medal...any medal. How did badminton get there in the first place?
It doesn't really work like that. No one "drops money" on the Olympics accept for television networks and advertising agencies.

The city that hosts the Olympics is given the burden of organising the events, making the locations suitable and secure, beefing up public infrastructure to handle the amount of people traveling in the city, etc. It's interesting that you bring up baseball - the investment to create an Olympic worthy baseball venue in London would have been huge, not to mention that it would probably have immediately been turned into a football pitch after the games. The issue is getting it up to Olympic standard, making sure there is enough seating, securing the surrounding area, likely renovating and expanding the local train station, etc. In most cities, the different events take place all over the city, so the more events, the higher the infrastructure costs.

As someone who lives in London, I can honestly say that it is astounding how much preparation and investment go into the Olympics. They worked on the Underground every day for years to get it ready for 2012. There were new train lines built, new roads, new parks - an entirely new borough was constructed in SE London. It will be a decade before Londoners know if having the Olympics here really benefited us at all. Right now we just know that our taxes financed the world's largest party.

Just making the Olympics bigger for the sake of making it bigger is not really an option. At some point, the law of diminishing returns sets in and cities will no longer want to make the investment needed to host the Olympics.

I do think it's sad that wrestling may be dropped. I can't think of a more appropriate event for the Olympics. Like it says in that video, there is no "pro" wrestling. The Olympics are the sport's largest stage. For something like sport climbing to replace it would have been a tragedy. I'm just happy that climbing isn't going to be the reason that wrestling isn't in the Olympics.

I actually got in trouble at my local climbing gym for defacing the "climbing in the Olympics" petition. But that's another story...
Mark E Dixon · · Possunt, nec posse videntur · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 974
Alex McIntyre wrote: I started as a youth competition climber and it set me up extremely well to transition to outdoor climbing when I was able to do so. I wouldn't trade anything for the fellow climbers I've met and made friends with while on the competition circuit. As far as I am aware, no one is competitive in the traditional sense (victory at any costs, "I hope he falls so I beat him," etc.) that I've seen. Every fellow competitor I've ever known has turned right around after finishing their routes or boulder problems and immediately started cheering for their direct competitors. I know I do so myself. It isn't the psycho, cutthroat culture you seem to think it is. Youth climbing teams also derive a lot of their purpose and focus from competitions. I know that my team experiences mean the world to me; my team was essentially family. It was an amazing learning and growing experience that, again, I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. This isn't some isolated thing, either. As I've observed, most teams are the same way. It is truly a unique experience that I likely would not have had if competition climbing did not exist.
+1

I competed as an adult in the ABS for a couple of years. The comps and the competitors were positive, enthusiastic, encouraging and welcoming. Much more so than some members of the trad "community."

FWIW, I'll bet that many of tomorrow's super alpinists will come from today's youth comp teams.
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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