[haydn jones]

I saw an interesting post the other day questioning who is actually in charge of the ifsc and how they are in the position they are in. It all seems like it could be just as easily corupt as the fifa organisation. I ask as i have no idea myself and wondered if anyone else knew. I saw they had put forward the idea of speed lead and boulder under 1 medal for the Olympics. I don't  think any true climber would put this idea forward and susspect its just money hungry corupt people who realise this is the most likley to go through and therefore lots of money to come flooding in.

Anyway doesn't affect me so im not bothered by it more just that the whole thing amuses me.

[masonwoods101]

Fuck speed climbing. Im dreading the conversations at work "how fast can you climb"

[ghisino]

I don't think there is a need to explain this with corruption.

I dunno ifsc but I see how the French federation works.

Some sport federations, as ffme, are recognized some kind of social function and get state money. The money they get is a function of their size (number of members) and international competition results.

The overall president of most federations, including ffme, is elected by club presidents.

Club presidents are not necessarily good climbers, actually what is needed to be darwinistically successful in this position is a mixture of greed and bureaucratic/political skills.
Actually many mediocre climbers, or non-climbing fathers of young competitors, make it quite well as presidents, while good climbers may not be as open to compromise as they should (darwinistically speaking)

It is no surprise that Pierre You, ffme president, reflects the ambition to make climbing "big" and similar to any "serious" sport, just as another athletic discipline, and lacks any sense of history and romanticism.

As far as the combined format goes, I think it is shit.
Yet if one looks at climbing comps only, it is true that the first climbing comps ever were speed events held in the USSR

[finbarrr]

one medal for the combination is like one medal for 100 meter sprint, marathon and triple jump.
and if this goes through, i congratulate sean mccoll

[Footwork]

I think it could be interesting.

Chances are it would create a comp climber that excels at all 3, but would end up being mediocre compared to the best of each discipline. Take the heptathlon for example. The heptathlon bests are not too far off world records (however there is a greater difference within the throwing events). Seeing as how some climbers already take part and do well in both sport and bouldering, there would probably be the biggest variation in the speed event. I can imagine people like Shauna wouldn't be on the GB olympic team and complete randoms might come out the woodwork.

Would it be like gymnastics when you have to do every event in one day? That would be tough

Edit: Maybe the climbing community would reject it and an olympic medal would be treated like olympic football. No one cares.

[Offwidth]

I saw an interesting post the other day questioning who is actually in charge of the ifsc and how they are in the position they are in. It all seems like it could be just as easily corupt as the fifa organisation. I ask as i have no idea myself and wondered if anyone else knew. I saw they had put forward the idea of speed lead and boulder under 1 medal for the Olympics. I don't  think any true climber would put this idea forward and susspect its just money hungry corupt people who realise this is the most likley to go through and therefore lots of money to come flooding in.

Some people claim the ifsc has worse governance than fifa (eg. a president for life?)....but  this is not the same as being more corrupt. On a wider stage, the olympic commitee has proven to have corrupt members,, the participants in many olympic sports are drug cheats, yet should we refuse to engage because of this and if we should how would we do it?... I think the UK pulling out of the Olympics is impractical and would be terrible for most people in sport so I'd prefer we stay, but we should campaign for stronger governance, greater penalties for corrupt practice and improved drug testing.

I think the selected climbing format is unfortunate but there is a cap on medals and speed was maybe part of the format that sealed the support from some countries that allowed entry.

[GraemeA]

Some people claim the ifsc has worse governance than fifa (eg. a president for life?)...

Yes and Bob Pettigrew should know better, his standing up at the BMC AGM and claiming the IFSC President is there for life is very, very dishonest of Bob. He knows that this is not true, article 25 of the IFSC Statutes (which are easily accessible on the IFSC website) say the Executive Board have 4 year terms. There is no limit on number of terms.

Just to be clear, Bob is stirring the shit because the UIAA President wants the IFSC to become part of the UIAA again. Bob knows this.

Edit. Ps. 2 BMC Vice Presidents asked me about Bob's comments about 10 days ago, I showed one of theme the Statutues and sent the link to the other one.

[36chambers]

Am I the only one who really doesn't want climbing to be in the Olympics in any shape or form?

Does anyone know of a way to try and stop it from happening?

Back to the 3 disciple discussion (I obviously don't agree with it). However, if bouldering was a stand alone event, that happened to follow the 4 problem final format of the IFSC world cup. Then using the male results from this year as an example, they may as well toss a coin to decide the winner and save everyone the hassle. 

[Three Nine]

I don't want it in the Olympics, because I don't want more climbers/more money etc.

[dave]

I've said before about climbing in the olympics being a disastrous idea. Infact I wrote a thing about it for the BMC Peak newsletter a while back.

The BMC's position always used to be to not promote climbing, for all the good reasons you'd expect. These days however they seem to basically have gone against this with the whole comps thing and conditions of funding from the sports council (which I understand is a hugely important source of funding).

As far as I can see climbing in the olympics is a winner for gear manufacturers, retailers, wall owners etc. Otherwise we're on to a loser, unless a vastly higher proportion of any new climbers attracted by Olympic inclusion take an active interest in erosion and access issues, which seems unlikely.

[Offwidth]

Some people claim the ifsc has worse governance than fifa (eg. a president for life?)...

Yes and Bob Pettigrew should know better, his standing up at the BMC AGM and claiming the IFSC President is there for life is very, very dishonest of Bob. He knows that this is not true, article 25 of the IFSC Statutes (which are easily accessible on the IFSC website) say the Executive Board have 4 year terms. There is no limit on number of terms.

Just to be clear, Bob is stirring the shit because the UIAA President wants the IFSC to become part of the UIAA again. Bob knows this.

Edit. Ps. 2 BMC Vice Presidents asked me about Bob's comments about 10 days ago, I showed one of theme the Statutues and sent the link to the other one.

Thanks for the update... Bob was indeed the loudest complainent. I asked him after the AGM if his ethics should mean young keen competition climbers missing out because presumably no one should compete in Olympic climbing until things were more rosy.

It still doesn't sit well with me that elected terms are not limited: that IS bad governance (to add to poor Olympic governance). Also the Olymic format for climbing indicates things are too political and detatched from the competitors.

[lagerstarfish]

Ondra's opinion

(sorry about the EPIC TV thing)

http://www.epictv.com/videos/film-makers/czech-climbing-channels-epic-series/604973

[jfdm]

Forget Ondra, this would be my take on it.
Chilled vibes, good support, bring your own mat/deck chair.
No sponsers, crap music/commentary.

[lagerstarfish]

the new Heeley boulder (next to 2 decent pubs) would be ideal

maybe just have the worlds best trying DT90's projects?

call it "The Real Climbing Olympics"?

[jfdm]

the new Heeley boulder (next to 2 decent pubs) would be ideal

maybe just have the worlds best trying DT90's projects?

call it "The Real Climbing Olympics"?

Exactly it doesn't have to be too fancy, did somebody say that they actually bouldered in a pub the other day.

Get the worlds best to boulder while drunk, now that would be entertaining.
Reaching the bonus hold would require them to have a quick sambuka.
And a double for topping out.

As much as Adam O doesn't want a speed climbing category I would.
I'd like to see a drunk speed climbing Olympic comp....
I think that the above would redefine the training routines in power club, or maybe not.

[shark]

Andrew Bisharat's take on the Olympics:

http://eveningsends.com/olympic-inglorious/

[SA Chris]

this too

http://www.climbing.com/news/vertical-triathlon-the-future-of-climbing-in-the-olympics/

[slackline]

The Olympics & the Battle for Climbing – Part I

[slackline]

Doubles bouldering as a discipline....