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Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024 (Read 7028 times)

shark

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Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 12:20:56 pm
Always looked likely - now official

https://thebmc.co.uk/sport-climbing-official-added-to-paris-2024-olympics

It’s a big day for competition climbing. Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee officially confirmed that Sport Climbing has been included on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024....

Johnny Brown

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#1 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 12:51:58 pm
FFS can't we just drop the speed? Much as it is good to see it separated from the proper climbing, keeping it as an independent discipline now gives it more kudos surely?

sdm

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#2 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 01:11:27 pm
At least all the climbers can stop pretending to care about speed after this olympics.

And they don't have to waste a load of training time on it.

Let them have a separate speed climbing medal. It doesn't affect me any more than having a separate 25 m rapid fire pistol event.

nik at work

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#3 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 01:14:19 pm
Isn’t that a bit like a sprinter saying let’s drop the steeplechase? Just because he’s not interested in that aspect of track athletics doesn’t make it invalid?
Separating it out seems perfectly sensible to me, let speed stand (or fall) on it’s own merits, and likewise for other climbing events.

Will Hunt

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#4 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 01:36:14 pm
Personally I won't be satisfied until I've seen the speed climbers humiliated. In a way, that is the merit of the combined format and having the speed bit done first. There'll always be some speed punt who will make it through to the next two events and then have to spend 4 minutes per problem demonstrating how weak they really are. If we're lucky they'll deck out trying to clip the second bolt on the lead wall and have to be stretchered off.

This could be the start of a brilliant long game by the IOC. I know it's unlikely but maybe, just maybe, they'll hold the event, get all the speed people psyched up, really hype it and get everyone watching, and then when it comes to the medals at the end Ondra will come up to the podium and tell them all that they've wasted their climbing careers and it was all just a big wind up - no medals for anyone. Give them a golden turd or something. Maybe he could pull down their shorts and get everyone to point and laugh? I don't know. As a fantasy it's not very well developed yet but something for the IOC to think about and build upon.

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#5 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:03:19 pm
Makes you wonder how on earth they ended up all mashed together in the first place, anyone know?

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#6 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:04:51 pm
This could be the start of a brilliant long game by the IOC. I know it's unlikely but maybe, just maybe, they'll hold the event, get all the speed people psyched up, really hype it and get everyone watching, and then when it comes to the medals at the end Ondra will come up to the podium and tell them all that they've wasted their climbing careers and it was all just a big wind up - no medals for anyone. Give them a golden turd or something. Maybe he could pull down their shorts and get everyone to point and laugh? I don't know. As a fantasy it's not very well developed yet but something for the IOC to think about and build upon.

If you present your idea to the members along with a large bowl of white laughing powder and a £1m 'donation' to a 'charity' of their choice I think it'll run...

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#7 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:05:35 pm
So despite the headline news that sport climbing has been added, what they actually mean is that climbing hasn't been taken away, and that the speed/lead/boulder combined has now been separated into two events: speed and lead/boulder? Despite the line that implies that it's been added along with surfing and the others which I assume are new. So the closest indoor equivalent to sport climbing (i.e. lead) is not actually its own event, and in fact hasn't been added to anything for anything, and climbing hasn't been added it's just not been removed and had the format changed. Glad to have such well-written clarity.  :slap:

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#8 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:07:06 pm
So despite the headline news that sport climbing has been added, what they actually mean is that climbing hasn't been taken away, and that the speed/lead/boulder combined has now been separated into two events: speed and lead/boulder? Despite the line that implies that it's been added along with surfing and the others which I assume are new. So the closest indoor equivalent to sport climbing (i.e. lead) is not actually its own event, and in fact hasn't been added to anything for anything, and climbing hasn't been added it's just not been removed and had the format changed. Glad to have such well-written clarity.  :slap:

The headline is clearly wrong...

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#9 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:33:58 pm
Makes you wonder how on earth they ended up all mashed together in the first place, anyone know?

IOC wanted something measurable and comparable to track and field for numerical victories.

Speed being separated from actual climbing is a definite  :2thumbsup: :clap2: :dance1: result. As disgraceful as it's existence is, a bit like winter climbing,it doesn't really bother me as long as it doesn't impinge on the proper stuff.

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#10 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:43:01 pm
Makes you wonder how on earth they ended up all mashed together in the first place, anyone know?

As I understand it here was only one medal* per gender up for grabs. It was either speed only or combined. The IFSC went for combined.

*They are attempting to limit the extra number of athletes.

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#11 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:45:06 pm
So despite the headline news that sport climbing has been added, what they actually mean is that climbing hasn't been taken away, and that the speed/lead/boulder combined has now been separated into two events: speed and lead/boulder? Despite the line that implies that it's been added along with surfing and the others which I assume are new. So the closest indoor equivalent to sport climbing (i.e. lead) is not actually its own event, and in fact hasn't been added to anything for anything, and climbing hasn't been added it's just not been removed and had the format changed. Glad to have such well-written clarity.  :slap:

Sport climbing wasn't on the Paris Olympic programme when it was bid and there is no obligation for Paris to include for it. As of yesterday, it wasn't on the Paris Programme. As of today, it is. That sounds like it was added to me?

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#12 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 02:56:51 pm
Sport climbing wasn't on the Paris Olympic programme when it was bid and there is no obligation for Paris to include for it. As of yesterday, it wasn't on the Paris Programme. As of today, it is. That sounds like it was added to me?

I think this is pedantically correct. Its inclusion in Tokyo was as a test event and didn't apply to any other Olympic Games. The press release isn't particularly clear either way. In fact, the IFSC's whole press game is basically crap.

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#13 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 03:37:55 pm
Sport climbing wasn't on the Paris Olympic programme when it was bid and there is no obligation for Paris to include for it. As of yesterday, it wasn't on the Paris Programme. As of today, it is. That sounds like it was added to me?

Oh right, maybe they should have said that  :shrug:

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#14 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 03:52:48 pm
So despite the headline news that sport climbing has been added, what they actually mean is that climbing hasn't been taken away, and that the speed/lead/boulder combined has now been separated into two events: speed and lead/boulder? Despite the line that implies that it's been added along with surfing and the others which I assume are new. So the closest indoor equivalent to sport climbing (i.e. lead) is not actually its own event, and in fact hasn't been added to anything for anything, and climbing hasn't been added it's just not been removed and had the format changed. Glad to have such well-written clarity.  :slap:

The headline is clearly wrong...

Maybe we could get Shark to change the title a few times, and then berate him for making it even less accurate?

shark

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#15 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 05:25:57 pm
Maybe we could get Shark to change the title a few times, and then berate him for making it even less accurate?

 ;D

Not falling for that one again

cheque

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#16 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 05:30:38 pm
Makes you wonder how on earth they ended up all mashed together in the first place, anyone know?

As I understand it (from a talk by the bloke who made the film Need for Speed from the 2018 Reel Rock) the IOC’s interest was purely in speed as they consider(ed) it to be the only discipline with any appeal to non-climbing spectators. The three-part format is a result of subsequent bargaining by the IFSC.

Obviously makes perfect sense to have speed as one event and lead/ bouldering as another. I swear that speed will be the sub-discipline that “captures the public imagination” though, will be up there with portaledges and Alain Robert as things our colleagues talk to us about and there’ll be lots of people turning up at walls expecting there to be a speed route for them to try.

Not that that’s a bad thing. I seriously recommend that Need for Speed film to anyone who hasn’t seen it (it’s on the soft drink website that you can’t link to from UKB- Google “reel rock need for speed” to find it) I was angry with speed for not being proper climbing when I started watching it and came out of it thinking it was pretty cool. Well, there’s nothing cool about it obviously but it gave me a bit of respect for the people who do it and made me realise that it probably does have the broadest appeal as a televisual spectacle.

Will Hunt

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#17 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 05:36:53 pm
This is an issue on which I have no interest in being persuaded otherwise.

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#18 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 05:45:00 pm
Firstly, despite trying very, very hard, I can’t consider indoors to be ‘real climbing’. Obviously nowadays there’s a strong argument to say I am wrong, I get that. So speed is even further down the hierarchy in my head.

I watched the outdoor comp at La Riba in 86 or 87. Things I remember: Ron Kauk arriving in an aromatic smelling car, being driven wildly and nearly crashing as they came to a stop, music blaring. Looked like a party-in-a-car. A lot of fannying about in the men’s semis as chipped holds are hard to read.. and the speed final.

 Artificial wall, 2 lines, main square at night with the church tower illuminated behind the first one to smash a big red bell at the top. Absolutely mega.

r-man

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#19 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 07:41:32 pm

Not that that’s a bad thing. I seriously recommend that Need for Speed film to anyone who hasn’t seen it (it’s on the soft drink website that you can’t link to from UKB- Google “reel rock need for speed” to find it) I was angry with speed for not being proper climbing when I started watching it and came out of it thinking it was pretty cool. Well, there’s nothing cool about it obviously but it gave me a bit of respect for the people who do it and made me realise that it probably does have the broadest appeal as a televisual spectacle.

Up to Speed?
« Last Edit: December 08, 2020, 07:49:08 pm by r-man »

DAVETHOMAS90

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#20 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 07:44:40 pm
Isn’t that a bit like a sprinter saying let’s drop the steeplechase? Just because he’s not interested in that aspect of track athletics doesn’t make it invalid?
Separating it out seems perfectly sensible to me, let speed stand (or fall) on it’s own merits, and likewise for other climbing events.

I'm inclined to agree with you there Nik.

By "Sport climbing", perhaps they meant this, the forgotten Olympic sport of rope climbing:

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/video/detail/forgotten-olympic-sport-rope-climbing/

Something John Gill was a fan of.

Worth remembering that, in Paris, there'll be a separate point system for "style" - invoked only if any of the Frenchies fail to top out.

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#21 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 07:55:46 pm
Head to head on how many times you blow chalk off your fingers before grabbing the hold in event of a tie.

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#22 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 08:00:27 pm
Up to Speed?

Oh fuck, yeah it’s called Up to Speed not Need for Speed. :slap:

See what I mean about linking to it?  ;)

r-man

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#23 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 09:06:46 pm

See what I mean about linking to it?  ;)

😆

Did I miss the memo about over-caffeinated sugary drink company or something?

I guess you could link via a tiny URL as a workaround, but if ukb is completely against those links, it seems a bit pointless.

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#24 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 08, 2020, 09:31:58 pm

See what I mean about linking to it?  ;)

😆

Did I miss the memo about over-caffeinated sugary drink company or something?

I guess you could link via a tiny URL as a workaround, but if ukb is completely against those links, it seems a bit pointless.
I think it's gone past that now and is more of a UKB meme thing.

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#25 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 09, 2020, 08:57:34 am
Sport climbing wasn't on the Paris Olympic programme when it was bid and there is no obligation for Paris to include for it. As of yesterday, it wasn't on the Paris Programme. As of today, it is. That sounds like it was added to me?

Oh right, maybe they should have said that  :shrug:

They probably should, but I can’t blame them (IFSC) for being massively excited and sending out a press release. They just made the mistake of thinking that everyone would know the intricacies of the Olympic application process and miss the fact that everyone thought it was already a done deal.

(Sorry for the previous arsey reply, bad day at the office/in the loft)

Will Hunt

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#26 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 09, 2020, 03:00:04 pm
Does it matter?
 :tumble:

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#27 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 04:28:07 am
Head to head on how many times you blow chalk off your fingers before grabbing the hold in event of a tie.

Hopefully Graeme will be judging  ;D

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#28 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 09:44:29 am
I also see Break Dancing.... I mean 'breaking' made the cut.

I bet quidditch will make it into the olympics before squash.

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#29 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 11:33:35 am
I think the Olympics is great for giving a showcase to niche sports.

Isn't it about time they got rid of the mainstream stuff that gets global attention the rest of the year?

Any sport which doesn't view an Olympic medal as the greatest achievement shouldn't be in the Olympics.

Get rid of football, tennis and rugby.

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#30 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 11:53:41 am
Any sport which doesn't view an Olympic medal as the greatest achievement shouldn't be in the Olympics.

Get rid of football, tennis and rugby.

By this argument also Cycling? Certainly for the road stuff a grand tour is held in higher regard, not sure whether track stuff considers Olympics higher than world champs, likewise with mountain biking.


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#31 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 01:09:20 pm
Every comp climber that didn't qualify for the combined format in Tokyo now breathing a sigh of relief that they never have to climb the speed route again. Olympic qualified climbers to do appallingly in boulder and lead world cups next year.

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#32 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 02:18:24 pm
Any sport which doesn't view an Olympic medal as the greatest achievement shouldn't be in the Olympics.

Get rid of football, tennis and rugby.

By this argument also Cycling? Certainly for the road stuff a grand tour is held in higher regard, not sure whether track stuff considers Olympics higher than world champs, likewise with mountain biking.

Definitely. Get rid of road cycling and give the spot to a sport that doesn't have a Tour de France and hundreds of millions of pounds invested annually.

Track cycling, I've never seen it on TV outside the Olympics. I'm sure it exists, but it's clearly not that big a deal.

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#33 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 03:36:32 pm
Any sport which doesn't view an Olympic medal as the greatest achievement shouldn't be in the Olympics.

Get rid of football, tennis and rugby.

By this argument also Cycling? Certainly for the road stuff a grand tour is held in higher regard, not sure whether track stuff considers Olympics higher than world champs, likewise with mountain biking.

Definitely. Get rid of road cycling and give the spot to a sport that doesn't have a Tour de France and hundreds of millions of pounds invested annually.

Track cycling, I've never seen it on TV outside the Olympics. I'm sure it exists, but it's clearly not that big a deal.
Maybe you need to take out a Eurosport subscription and then you can watch track cycling till the cows come home.
As for road cycling the Olympic championship has great prestige. The champion is usually seen wearing gold shoes and a gold helmet.
What you need to do is get rid of the sports that do not require any athletic ability.
Also nobody knows yet in climbing whether an Olympic medal will be considered greater than the World Cup.

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#34 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 03:54:00 pm
Any sport which doesn't view an Olympic medal as the greatest achievement shouldn't be in the Olympics.
Presumably climbing would be removed from the Olympics?

A repeat of Burden of Dreams is clearly greater than an Olympic medal.

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#35 Re: Climbing added to Paris Olympics 2024
December 10, 2020, 05:57:59 pm
To a climber maybe but surely any cycling fan would rather win Roubaix than get a gold medal on the track but that doesn't make them more likely to get offers to advertise yoghurt or appear on TV alongside other C-list celebrities.

 

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