[GraemeA]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/dec/09/russia-banned-from-tokyo-olympics-and-football-world-cup

So that would make Fanny Gibert eligible for the Olympics, lest Iuliia Kaplina be able to prove she has not been involved in any doping activity?

This is what they did in 2016
https://www.olympic.org/news/decision-of-the-ioc-executive-board-concerning-the-participation-of-russian-athletes-in-the-olympic-games-rio-2016

[cowboyhat]

Have I missed something; Ashima hasn't qualified for the olympics.

So what? Was she even going for it?

Quite a lot of people seem to be still crushing despite not having qualified for the olympics. Its a dumb format anyway, etc...

[Fiend]

Caught up on the finals (boulder and lead only ofc), good stuff. Boulders particularly good viewing, it seems the setters cram as many crux moves from 4 "normal" boulders into the 3 combined format boulders, which is exciting. Nice to have a bonus bit of IFSC later in the season.

[gme]

Have I missed something; Ashima hasn't qualified

So what? Was she even going for it?

Quite a lot of people seem to be still crushing despite not having qualified for the olympics. Its a dumb format anyway, etc...

She was and hasn’t.

I don’t think your second comment is true. Could Possibly said for  bouldering but in sports climbing without doubt the best climbers in the world are all focused on the olympics.

[GraemeA]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/dec/09/russia-banned-from-tokyo-olympics-and-football-world-cup

So that would make Fanny Gibert eligible for the Olympics, lest Iuliia Kaplina be able to prove she has not been involved in any doping activity?

This is what they did in 2016
https://www.olympic.org/news/decision-of-the-ioc-executive-board-concerning-the-participation-of-russian-athletes-in-the-olympic-games-rio-2016

Post from Nat Berry on FB.
Russian Climbing Federation on WADA ban: 'Sport Climbing's Olympic debut can't happen without Russia!' headline reads. Their 1 quota place so far is proven to have been 'absolutely clean' over years of tests in events. ROC will push against ban. 2020 Euro Champs in Moscow are safe from ban. '[People from other countries] know that rock climbing originated more than 70 years ago in our country. It was with us that the first official starts [in competitions] took place. Olympic debut cannot take place without representatives of Russia!

[mrjonathanr]

Disappointing she haan’t posted in the boardshare directory...
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/11/shauna-coxsey-climbing-tokyo-2020-olympics

[Coops_13]

Anyone know the latest on this still happening / rumours of delay or cancellation? One of my colleagues has spent the whole winter training for the Tokyo Marathon that’s just been cancelled...

[andy popp]

At the moment they seem to be holding to the line that it will go ahead.

[tomtom]

Many Serie A matches abandoned this weekend. Even plans to play them behind closed doors have not happened.

[abarro81]

Given the enormous faff of rearranging the Olympics, presumably they'll have it go ahead but behind closed doors if at all possible??

[tomtom]

Given the enormous faff of rearranging the Olympics, presumably they'll have it go ahead but behind closed doors if at all possible??

X thousand athletes (and support teams) from all over the world - coming together and staying in the same Olympic village. No chance.

[Ru]

The ramifications of cancelling are that lots of contracts will get cancelled, break clauses will be triggered and lots of insurance claims would be made. TV stations will have set aside blocks of time for coverage and they and other sponsors will probably be leaning pretty heavily on the IOC not to cancel. They can't rearrange for another time as it would clash with other sporting events and it can't easily be moved to another country as there's only 5 months left and no-where else has a complete range of olympic facilities in a usable state.

The IOC has no good option so it will probably just sit tight a bit longer and hope it all goes away.

[SA Chris]

Maybe they should divert the efforts of all those doing boffins towards developing a vaccine.

[bigironhorse]

I quite enjoyed the Pan American comps. The women's comp was really good and I thought the Olympics place was well deserved by Yip. The men's comp was a bit disappointing overall I thought, boulders and route all too easy. Brilliant effort by Duffy but it would have been better to have more separation of the American men, especially on the boulders.

What follows is extremely nerdy and probably quite sad, but in case anyone is remotely interested:

Since the Olympics format was announced I've been wondering why they chose to have the speed as a head-to-head final rather than a time trial. In my opinion a time trial style comp were the best of three attempts is used would give a better representation of speed climbing skills. It seems unfair that climbers can place below their rivals who climbed the route more slowly.

I've done a bit of investigating as to whether I am right about the head-to-head vs time trial system for splitting climbers based on how fast they can climb - and the effect on the overall ranking. Here is a graph showing the overall place (speed x boulder x lead) attained by climbers using the head-to-head vs time trial system in Hachioji, Toulouse and the Pan American comp:



In most cases using either system for speed ranks climbers in more or less the same order. But there are some pretty notable exceptions. For example, in Hachioji Futaba Ito came 5th in the speed despite having the second fastest time. Using the head-to-head system her overall position was 7th, below Nonaka and Noguchi. Had the time trial system been used she would have placed 3rd - below Noguchi but above Nonaka. So perhaps if the time trial system had been used Ito might have been selected rather than Nonaka.

Obviously this is pretty rough and ready as some climbers may have climbed conservatively in the speed knowing they had a weak opponent or had no chance of winning. Overall, the time trial system seems inherently fairer to me and I cannot see any benefit of the head-to-head system, other than that it might be more spectacular for the audience - a pretty poor rationale when competition is supposed to be about who is the best a comp climbing.

[sdm]

Imagine if the 100m was done as a series of 2 person head to heads but one of the medal hopefuls had been knocked out in the first or second round despite running 9.8 seconds because they got drawn against Usain Bolt.

Whilst I'm thinking about hypothetical speed formats, imagine if rather than a 2 person head to head, there was 8 speed lines so we could have an 8 person speed final. It would take up a lot more space and would cost more to set up but I might actually watch that.

[bigironhorse]

Imagine if the 100m was done as a series of 2 person head to heads but one of the medal hopefuls had been knocked out in the first or second round despite running 9.8 seconds because they got drawn against Usain Bolt.

Yes, exactly my point!

[bigironhorse]

Aside from the weird speed climbing format, it's a shame that no South American climbers have managed to get a spot. Maybe the tripartite commission will select someone.

[abarro81]

Speed format is 1. lame and 2. dumb.

Tripartite will go to next person down in World Champs, once country quotas etc accounted for I believe

[SA Chris]

Tripartite will go to next person down in World Champs, once country quotas etc accounted for I believe

That's the place 2 below. First one can be anyone they see fit. Might choose a South American for balanced representation? Is that one male and 1 female, or just 1?

Selection by the Olympic Committee – 2 Spots
The two remaining spots are selected by the Olympic Committee.
(1) One spot is for a “wildcard” athlete. S/he must have qualified for and competed in the first selection event in Hachioji, but not qualified for the Olympics there or through any other event.

(2) The other spot is reserved for the Japanese team. This way, as the host country, Japan is guaranteed at least one man and woman in the Olympic games. In the (very likely) event that the two spots for Japan are filled at the qualifying events, this spot is given to the next athlete in the rankings from the Hachioji selection event.

[abarro81]

No, I don't think so. AFAIK, the tripartite place was designed for smaller countries who are, basically, a bit shit and unlikely to qualify through the normal routes. No-one from an eligible country did enough qualifying events to be eligible for selection via this route, so now it goes to next placed in World Champs. (There was a story about this - one guy could have qualified if anyone had told him that all he needed to do was turn up to another World Cup speed event or something like that). The Japanese place has already been assigned I beleive


EDIT: From 8a.nu (fits with what I've seen elsewhere I think):
"As USA has filled their country quota, Drew Ruana lost his possibility to get the Tripartite ticket based from him being #13 in the World Championship. The Tripartite was supposed to go to the best athlete from a micro Olympic country but as no such competed in the Combined in Hachioji, it will go to the best in Hachioji respecting the country quota.

Michael Piccolruaz from Italy was #15 in Hachioji and he will go to Tokyo unless and Italian will qualify and fill their country quota in the European Championship. If the Italians will fill their country quota, then Jernej Kruder is next in line to get the Tripartite ticket."

[bigironhorse]

No, I don't think so. AFAIK, the tripartite place was designed for smaller countries who are, basically, a bit shit and unlikely to qualify through the normal routes. No-one from an eligible country did enough qualifying events to be eligible for selection via this route, so now it goes to next placed in World Champs. (There was a story about this - one guy could have qualified if anyone had told him that all he needed to do was turn up to another World Cup speed event or something like that). The Japanese place has already been assigned I beleive


EDIT: From 8a.nu (fits with what I've seen elsewhere I think):
"As USA has filled their country quota, Drew Ruana lost his possibility to get the Tripartite ticket based from him being #13 in the World Championship. The Tripartite was supposed to go to the best athlete from a micro Olympic country but as no such competed in the Combined in Hachioji, it will go to the best in Hachioji respecting the country quota.

Michael Piccolruaz from Italy was #15 in Hachioji and he will go to Tokyo unless and Italian will qualify and fill their country quota in the European Championship. If the Italians will fill their country quota, then Jernej Kruder is next in line to get the Tripartite ticket."

Thanks, good knowledge.

[GraemeA]

Tripartite will go to next person down in World Champs, once country quotas etc accounted for I believe

Correct.

[GraemeA]

(There was a story about this - one guy could have qualified if anyone had told him that all he needed to do was turn up to another World Cup speed event or something like that).

It was a guy from Pakistan, he was in Hachioji but didn't register for Lead, if he had he would have been eligible for the Tripartite place.

[duncan]

Latest from Abe: postponement "may become inevitable".  For non-Japanese speakers this can be translated as "there is absolutely no way the Olympics are taking place this summer".

[bigironhorse]

Yes seems very unlikely to go ahead! I wonder what the possibilities are in terms of cancellation or postponement? Postponing until 2021 seems like the most sensible and fair way to proceed IMO.