For those of us in the indoor climbing profession a hard blow was felt when the International Olympic Committee announced that sport climbing well not be one of the sports in the 2020 Olympics. Climbing was beat out in the second to last round by Squash, Baseball/Softball and Wrestling.
The International Federation for Sport Climbing (IFSC) states:
“First of all congratulations and best wishes to the athletes of the three selected sports for the final vote on 7 September at the 125th Session in Buenos Aires. Despite we climb day by day higher faster and stronger, we did not make it. Now it is time to go climbing again” says Marco Scolaris, IFSC President.
“We remain convinced that Sport Climbing would perfectly complete the Olympic Games program. We will continue our efforts to share our values and our lifestyle with young generations and develop new marketing opportunities in the outdoor marketplace, which is huge and constantly growing. Our mission remains to support the growth of Sport Climbing around the world and to organize state-of-the-art events bringing together the best international athletes. We can count on the young and vibrant climbing community as well as enthusiastic professional climbers to help us in this task.”
USA Climbing statement:
Though we are all disappointed by the IOC’s decision to eliminate sport climbing from consideration from the 2020 Olympic Games today, USA Climbing remains committed to supporting the IFSC and a future bid for the 2024 Olympic Games program. While we congratulate wrestling, baseball/softball, and squash for making the short list, we believe strongly that climbing offers the Olympic Games a truly different sport: one that celebrates human excellence in a basic physical movement and that it is uniquely vertical in nature. Sport climbing will someday add a completely new dimension to the Olympic Games as well as new and different athletes and audiences from around the world. Pete Torcicollo, President of USA Climbing summed up the feelings of the climbing community noting “We are obviously disappointed, but we continue to believe that our sport is a great fit for the Olympic program, and that climbing will be part of the games sooner than later.”
USA Climbing will continue to support the development of the bouldering, lead, speed, and paraclimbing athletes that will eventually compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We thank the entire United States climbing community for your support and continued dedication to the Olympic dream as well.
EP & IFSC 2020 Dream Event Commercial from Entre Prises Climbing Walls on Vimeo
Full IFSC statement here at ifsc-climbing.org
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