Disappointing, but not surprising news for people excited about seeing climbing included in the 2020 Olympics in Buenos Aires:
The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today recommended that baseball/softball, squash and wrestling be proposed to the 125th IOC Session for possible inclusion as an additional sport on the Olympic programme for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Posted In: Asides, News
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[…] See the original article here: Climbing Will Not Be In 2020 Olympics | Climbing Narcissist […]
[…] too long ago it was announced that climbing wasn’t short listed for the Olympics in 2020. The comments ensued–most climbers didn’t care if climbing was in the Olympics or not. […]
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The best thing that could have happened to our beautiful sport. That means less traffic at the crags and less environmental impact. We don’t need to make our sport as consumer oriented as skiing or road biking. That would kill it.
Shoe companies, time to stop raising prices so much because there is not forecasted increased demand now.
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I agree that this is better, but I think we have to accept that we can’t stop climbing from getting more popular at this point. We will have less anger in our lives if we acknowledge that the sport is growing rapidly. Taking care of the environment will just have to become a proactive effort. Climbing improves people’s lives and it would be selfish of us to deny that to others.
Some wish they could go back in time to an era of the lone man ascending into a virgin ocean of rock. They risked their lives doing what they loved.
Some like their modern rubber climbing shoes, chalk, nylon ropes, military grade pro, guide books, artificial walls, and clif bars. They provide a market for the companies.
I wouldn’t be having a discussion on a computer 10 years ago. The world is changing, technology is changing, climbing will change too. We’re lucky to have not be born 50 years from now, when crags might look like a ski slope. We’re also lucky to have not been born 50 years ago, when you had to have serious balls and no job in order to go crag exploring.
Be happy and share your passion with others (as we already do).
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I don’t think it would have affected the climbing community very much anyway. For most other sports that are in the Olympics, the fans actually would sit and watch the Olympics instead of doing something else (say, participate in the sport that they are watching.) Take basketball for example. Watch Team USA annihilate Japan or go play a game of pick up? Most basketball fans will watch the game. Or soccer. Forget a full 11v11 since that’s near impossible. Even getting enough people to play some pick up game will take some organizing effort. Most soccer fans will watch the game. Same for track and field, swimming, etc. Also, there is actually some prestige in the Olympics for those sports.
Climbing is different. It’s just the culture of climbing. Yes, there are competition climbers out there who focus more on indoor competitions. Even then, it’s a small portion of the overall climbing community. The vast majority of us would much rather go out and climb instead of watch other people pull on plastic. If you have the time to watch a comp, you’ll probably even rather go climb at the gym. It’s much easier/convenient to participate in the sport.
The way I see it, even if climbing made it to the Olympics, the existing spectator base (climbers) would not have paid all that much attention to actually tune in and watch the comps. Some Olympics fans (i.e. people who watch the Olympics because it’s the Olympics, not because they like some particular sport) might have watched while waiting for other events or because they just wanted to. I doubt that kind of exposure will necessarily explode the sport.
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Ummm, what are you talking about? Football/Soccer is the #1 most played sport worldwide. You can’t climb 24/7 and you can’t play soccer 24/7, there is always time to watch. Your argument is bunk.
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I played soccer through college. Right now, at this moment (5PM pacific), me saying “I’m gonna go climb” is a lot easier than saying “I’m gonna go play soccer.” That was my point.
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Although it is true that many team sport fans are not also players, don’t forget how difficult it is to find 9-21 other people for a game of basketball or soccer. The participant barriers for most outdoor sports are a lot lower than team sports.
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Thanks god another 1st world rich mans sport didn’t make it into the ‘world competition’. How badly do we have to stack the olympics so we can win everything?
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you’re a doo doo head
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Was this sarcasm? If not then I’d be interested in hearing your solution to the problem. My rebuttal is this:
1) The IOC is much bigger than the US, and “stacking” the games is hardly a priority. Take into account all of the summer events that have been removed from the games like baseball, cricket, croquet, lacrosse, polo, softball, water sports, etc. These are all 1st world games that would have given the US a huge edge on the modern medal count.
2) I doubt US would dominate competition climbing. Look at the current world cup results, not a lot of stars and stripes up there. If anything, it would be the opposite, there would be more opportunity for smaller countries to compete in climbing. All you need are some tight shoes! Climbing does not segregate to 1st world communities and never will. As long as there are rocks where you live, there will be climbers, rich or poor.
3) You must not really keep up with the Olympic Games, which is sad. Saying that we stack the Games so we can win everything is ridiculous. Yes, we win the medal count quite often. But it’s based on our culture… not our pocketbooks. It’s amazing how many world-class athletes come from poverty and hardship. Our medal count also has a large amount to do with the variety of our athletes. US athletes are in every sport in the games, of course we’re going to be close to the top f the medal count. I assure you that if they were to cap the numbers of athletes per country to compete in the Games there would be a lot less talk of the US and a lot more talk of countries like Hungary, China, Cuba, Korea, Czech Rep, Kazakhstan, etc.
So, yes, we have a lot of competitors, but the Games are not “stacked”.
As for my opinion on climbing in the Olympic Games…. I’m indifferent. We’re torn by three different showcases. The world wants to watch speed climbing (until the watch it for 10 minutes), bouldering may be the most practical and easiest to glorify (think about what TV producers did to curling, they made it awesome!), and I personally think that sport would be the best ground for unified competition (sport takes some of the luck and body type prejudices out of it, and also is a better test of endurance). I’m not upset or surprised that climbing got the ax but it would have been interesting to see how it could have been presented in the right hands.
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I wouldn’t want climbing in the Olympics. It makes it too generic. Not every sport has to be in the Olympics…surfing? that shouldn’t be in the Olympics either…it turns everything into a competition among countries. Most sports aren’t set up to be competitive in a Nation Vs. Nation mentality…certainly not climbing. It would be a real Nike-ization of climbing. Olympics is great but it is not the answer to everything. Who wants to see climbing on EsPN? Yuck! IMO
Anyone have John Long’s contact info…email? thanks
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Big victory for climbing and climbers, big loss for marketing teams, posers, sprayers and anyone trying to make money from climbing.
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Totally agree Dave- keep climbing cool ! psyched its not in the olympics !
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While I feel bad for the many kids around the world who would have been electrified by the opportunity to try for their respective Olympic teams; the institutional structures, coaching, and sports medicine support that individual athletes and national teams need are almost non-existent in the climbing world. Minus France, Germany and Spain what other countries could acutally put together a national development program? Participation in the Olympics is not just about having a trial and sending the top three. If that were the case, the Olympics would be no different than any other international competition. One might say that the Olympics should be about exciting the grass roots by providing an inspirational goal that anyone can undersand and then providing the resources to help discover and support the athletes capable of competing at the highest level. But we are far from being able to do this, at least in the US.
Also, the point about marketing is a good one. The marketing and revenue generation aspects of the Olympics have become so overwhelming that event sponsors are allowed to censor the athletes and seem to have a say in every aspect of the competitions. So in that respect that Olympics are dead at this point anyway because the values of mass marketing have eclipsed the athletic values that were supposed to be the very reasons for the games in the first place.
We should probably just go about our business, making sure that we are doing a good job articulating and handing down the various values and forms of pleasure that we hold dear as climbers: The beauty of movement, adventure, being in wild and unspoild places, learning to act despite fear, setting and achieving goals, forging meaningful partnerships with people we can rely on, etc. etc. etc.
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Narc, the 2020 Olympics are not in Buenos Aires. BA will be the site of the next IOC session where they will pick the site for the 2020 Olympics as well as the new sports to include. Cheers! -Rob
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Thanks for the correction!
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