This weekend Boulder, CO, and more specifically Movement Climbing & Fitness, will play host to the first lead climbing World Cup held on American soil in over 20 years. 67 athletes from around the world, including 25 from the U.S., will compete Saturday and Sunday according to the following schedule (all times MDT):
Saturday
- 11:30 am – Qualifiers
Sunday
- 12:00 pm – Semi-finals
- 7:00 pm – Finals
You can catch the proceedings live on the IFSC.tv stream.
To commemorate the impending return of the World Cup, the American Alpine Club caught up with Jeff Lowe, one of the people who was instrumental in the last World Cups held in the U.S. There are a lot of interesting tidbits in the interview including this one about the type of purse offered in an event held in 1988:
There was a $17,000 purse, with cash prizes all the way to tenth place. We even paid some expenses for the athletes to get to the event—we really wanted to respect them and make it a great experience for everyone. That was in 1988.
As to why there haven’t been more World Cups in the U.S. ? Well, running climbing comps is expensive:
Attracting sponsorship is more difficult than people think!
Check out the full interview here.
hosting climbing comps might be difficult, but i’m sure they do great things for the host city.
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