Westminster and the Olympic Dream...
7 November 2011, 12:01 am
Hello! I have not written a blog in a very long time due to becoming absorbed in a whirlwind of university work, climbing and life in general. However, on Wednesday I attended a very significant event which caused me to reflect on the current position of competitive climbing, the future of British competitive climbing, and where I hope climbing in general can take me later in life. So I decided to switch my focus from writing about the function of the Latin quotations in one of Montaigne's Essais and discussing Chomsky's theories of language acquisition to talk about my recent trip to Westminster - a bit about the event and the possibility of climbing becoming an Olympic sport in the 2020 Games!
Competition climbing has been shortlisted - alongside 7 other sports - as a potential event for inclusion in the 2020 Games. The purpose of the reception for the GB Team and BMC affiliates at the beautifully ornate Palace of Westminister was to promote our sport as one which encourages active participation at all ages and abilities, and one which has a wide variety of benefits outside of the competitive arena and aside from the superficial "glory" of winning a competition. Amongst the many influential people we had the honour of meeting were John Mann MP and David Rutley MP (Co-Chairs of the Mountaineering APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group)) and the Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson MP. I had met John Mann MP at a similar reception at Number 10 Downing Street in 2008, although I doubt that he recognised me! Also attending the Reception was guest of honour Dame Kelly Holmes, who we were all very excited about meeting. Anyone -particularly those involved in a competitive sport and especially those from the United Kingdom - would find it difficult not to be inspired by watching her performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Winning not just one, but TWO Gold medals in one Olympic Games is an outstanding acheivement in itself, yet what is even more striking is the journey undertaken in order to acheive this - the years of gruelling training, defeat and injuries which provide obstacles at the most inconvenient moments.
Attending the Reception were members of the Junior Team - Ed Hamer, Luke Tilley, Kitty Wallace, Buster Martin, Tara Hayes, Molly-Thompson Smith and Manager Ian Dunn. Representing the Bouldering Team were Shauna Coxsey, Dave Barrans, Jon Partridge, Diane Merrick, Helen Shilleto, Nick Clement and Tom Sugden, and I took on the role of representing the Senior Difficulty Team. Alongside the Teams were BMC officials and top officials from Sport England including Jennie Price (SE CEO) and Tim Lamb (SRA CEO).
Audrey Seguy, Rob Adie, Dame Kelly Holmes and me!
First of all a select number of us were given a tour of the Palace of Westminster, which was incredibly ornate and adorned with numerous historical relics, paintings and statues which appeared on every turn of the labyrinthine corridors and archways. Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, Presidents and Popes - the history inside this gigantic building was mind-blowing! After making it through security to Portcullis House and being issued with an identity tag which consisted of a black and white photo (which rather amusingly resembled a CCTV image of a shoplifter) we began the tour. The long and very cold corridor which lead from the Portcullis House (a building opposite Big Ben on the other side of the road) and under the road into the Palace of Westminster resembled something you would expect to see in Hogwarts - stone and marble statues, paintings, beautifully sculpted arches and ceilings welcomed us through to a passageway which led out to underneath the world's most famous bell-tower - Big Ben. Admiring the scale of the tower and clock-face and learning of its history, we took photos whilst simultaneously scoping out the decorative exterior of the building - "Tufas!" exclaimed Kitty. Upon entering Westminster Hall, we were told of the recent visitors who had given speeches there this year - the Pope Benedict XVI and US President Barack Obama. Then we were lead through the crypt and into the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, which was restored after fire damage and was once used by Oliver Cromwell to house his horses!
We ventured into the Central Lobby which lies between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and noticed the four intricate mosaics above the 4 doorways which featured the 4 Saints of the United Kingdom's constituent nations - George, Andrew, David and Patrick. The House of Commons was situated beside another lobby called the Members' Lobby (which you may recognise from TV news broadcasts) The room featured bronze statues of former British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George, and the archway leading to the Commons was left unrepaired after the bombing in 1941 to serve as a reminder of the evils of war. We saw a brief glimpse of a session occuring inside the Commons, and saw the Speaker and many MPs debating. Across on the other side of the Central Lobby was the Peers' Lobby, which lies in front of the House of Lords. If the Members' Lobby was ornate, this one was ten times more beautiful than that. Security was tight and despite our MP's very persuasive attempt to get us in closer, we were not allowed to get very near to the chamber doors.
Attempt at artistic photograph of Big Ben!
The Tour was over and we were taken through yet more winding passageways bursting with history and into a small function room. Assembled as a group, the climbing teams stood together as the speeches were read out. A welcome address from the MPs and Sports Minister and then an excellent speech by Audrey Seguy who addressed the room about the benefits that climbing as a sport can bring to people of all ages, abilities and from all walks of life. Audrey mentioned the health benefits that climbing brings to children and adults, the community aspect of climbing, and the respect that climbers develop for the natural environment. The past lack of recognition of climbing as a sport in the UK was highlighted as a problem that is very quickly diminishing - with the growth of indoor climbing facilities and the corresponding increase in participation. As participation in the sport has widened, the media coverage and public awareness of indoor climbing has gradually risen, but very little funding for sports development has been arranged in comparison with Olympic sports such as athletics and gymnastics. Audrey highlighted these issues and countered them with an extensive list of the acheivements of the GB teams - a very impressive array of results which can only be improved upon if the Teams receive the funding and support which they deserve!
Money isn't everything, but it certainly helps in the arena of competitive sport - with costs of travel, training, coaching, competition entry and physio to take into account! By increasing the money available to competitive climbing in the UK, the opportunities available to aspiring athletes would increase, and who knows where these opportunities may take them. In short, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy - more funding equals more participation, which means more chance of success, and with success comes promotion of acheivement and resultantly more recognition and more funding.
Back to Westminster, Dame Kelly was taking her time to speak to each Team member and find out more about our climbing backgrounds and acheivements. She is a keen climber herself, and told of her trips to Fontainebleau, Stanage and of her fascination with the sport. She came across as very friendly and quietly confident, and spoke very modestly of her acheivements in Athens when questioned as to whether or not she expected to win. "After the first race I was so shocked, and after the second it was simply unbelievable!" I vividly remember watching her races and screaming at the TV in 2004, aged 13. Even though I didn't know much about athletics, or indeed much about her past, it didn't matter - her expression both before and after was enough to show everyone how much it meant to her, and it inspired me to work hard for what I wanted to acheive. We didn't have an Olympics, but as young competition climbers we had our own battles. Three years later in 2007, when I won my first European Youth Cup in Kranj, Slovenia, I felt the same feeling of shock and disbelief when I realised what had happened, and the elation when I knew that a dream had come true. It was obvious to me that Kelly's joy did not derive from having beaten people, but from the personal journey which had taken her to the top of the podium. What made her success even more poignant was her struggle with years of injury and disappointment, and her fight to keep running competitively with the fear of injury constantly on her mind: "You have all those dreams and then something goes wrong, and I just thought everything's going too good, and it's just going to go away from me again."
I know from personal experience (and I know many other people who are currently injured and in the same situation) exactly what Dame Kelly means by this and can relate to her word for word. The power which injury holds over a person's self-confidence and self-esteem is incredible - the emotional pain often outweighs the physical, and having the strength of mind to pull oneself back from an abyss of injury is very difficult to acheive. Kelly was 34 when she won her two Gold medals, and is a prime example of someone with outstanding strength of character and determination to get back in the game after defeat and injury, and someone who - after years of being denied success - is not afraid of slowly taking her time to work her way back to winning form. This brings to mind a quote from Michel de Montaigne, a French Renaissance writer whose work "On the Verses of Virgil" I am currently writing an essay on. Despite writing about love, the following line could easily be applied to a sport or anything that requires a "journey" of some sort: " Plus il y a de marches et degres, plus il y a de hauteur et d'honneur au dernier siege" which roughly translates as "The more the steps the greater the height, and the more the rungs the greater the honour, of that ultimate siege." As competition climbing works its way closer towards the Olympics, many of the world's upcoming young climbers will be aspiring to fulfil their ambitions to succeed in what is truly the most "ultimate siege" in any sportsperson's dreams.
Yet what would the Olympics mean to the current GB Team? We talked quite a lot throughout the event about the possibility of competing in the 2020 Olympics. For the older ones amongst us, it seemed very surreal to be thinking about something which has always seemed so far-removed from our own little bubble of competition climbing - thinking of the usual sighs of disappointment when people ask if climbing is an Olympic sport and seem surprised when they are told "No, not yet!" Many of the Team admitted feeing slightly cynical about the Games in the past, wondering how the format would work out and how the rest of the non-climbing world (and indeed the anti-comp crew within the climbing society) would perceive our sport. Now, though, we felt as though competition climbing had built up so much force and influence (the IFSC now consists of 66 member federations and 10 associate members from 5 continents around the world) that we have no reason to feel inadequate as competition climbers, and that we need to work together positively to ensure that things go our way. If you don't ask, you don't get!
Dame Kelly's autograph
Dame Kelly also told us about the difficulty faced by many athletes as they reach the transition from school to university. She highlighted the fact that maintaining participation at this stage is tough when many are faced with changes in circumstance and the challenge of balancing education, work, sport and life alongside the physiological changes which frequently result in injury. Personally, I felt quite proud when she praised me for keeping up my climbing alongside university studies and for having to deal with 2 years of injuries which she called "great strength of character." I had never thought of it that way before, and I will admit that hearing it from Dame Kelly was very inspirational.
Wherever life will take us in 2020, we all agreed that if climbing made it as an Olympic event, it would make us proud to represent our country if we are still competing in 8 or 9 years time, and that even if we are simply enjoying climbing as a hobby whilst looking after kids/homes/pets and whatnot, we could feel proud that the sport we love has finally been recognised as one which fulfils the criteria to become part of the world's most prestigious sporting event. Proud that the younger kids we see down at the wall or at the crag today and the ones we encourage will have something amazing to aspire towards acheiving. Even if competition climbing doesn't make it in 2020, we can rest assured that one day it most likely will, and deep down we know that it is more than worthy of the Olympics. It might take a few more steps and a few more rungs, but as the sport keeps growing and the kids keep having fun, maybe in a good few years down the line the GB Climbing Team will be bringing the greatest honour of an Olympic Gold medal to a climbing wall near you.
At Heathrow, Mum and I visited the shop dedicated to "London 2012". On a stand were commemorative gold medallions for each of the Olympic sports. I read the sports aloud and sighed. Mum said "Maybe one day, there will be one for climbing." Watch this space...
Source: Blogs from Natalie Berry
7 November 2011, 12:01 am
Hello! I have not written a blog in a very long time due to becoming absorbed in a whirlwind of university work, climbing and life in general. However, on Wednesday I attended a very significant event which caused me to reflect on the current position of competitive climbing, the future of British competitive climbing, and where I hope climbing in general can take me later in life. So I decided to switch my focus from writing about the function of the Latin quotations in one of Montaigne's Essais and discussing Chomsky's theories of language acquisition to talk about my recent trip to Westminster - a bit about the event and the possibility of climbing becoming an Olympic sport in the 2020 Games!
Competition climbing has been shortlisted - alongside 7 other sports - as a potential event for inclusion in the 2020 Games. The purpose of the reception for the GB Team and BMC affiliates at the beautifully ornate Palace of Westminister was to promote our sport as one which encourages active participation at all ages and abilities, and one which has a wide variety of benefits outside of the competitive arena and aside from the superficial "glory" of winning a competition. Amongst the many influential people we had the honour of meeting were John Mann MP and David Rutley MP (Co-Chairs of the Mountaineering APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group)) and the Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson MP. I had met John Mann MP at a similar reception at Number 10 Downing Street in 2008, although I doubt that he recognised me! Also attending the Reception was guest of honour Dame Kelly Holmes, who we were all very excited about meeting. Anyone -particularly those involved in a competitive sport and especially those from the United Kingdom - would find it difficult not to be inspired by watching her performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Winning not just one, but TWO Gold medals in one Olympic Games is an outstanding acheivement in itself, yet what is even more striking is the journey undertaken in order to acheive this - the years of gruelling training, defeat and injuries which provide obstacles at the most inconvenient moments.
Attending the Reception were members of the Junior Team - Ed Hamer, Luke Tilley, Kitty Wallace, Buster Martin, Tara Hayes, Molly-Thompson Smith and Manager Ian Dunn. Representing the Bouldering Team were Shauna Coxsey, Dave Barrans, Jon Partridge, Diane Merrick, Helen Shilleto, Nick Clement and Tom Sugden, and I took on the role of representing the Senior Difficulty Team. Alongside the Teams were BMC officials and top officials from Sport England including Jennie Price (SE CEO) and Tim Lamb (SRA CEO).
Audrey Seguy, Rob Adie, Dame Kelly Holmes and me!

First of all a select number of us were given a tour of the Palace of Westminster, which was incredibly ornate and adorned with numerous historical relics, paintings and statues which appeared on every turn of the labyrinthine corridors and archways. Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, Presidents and Popes - the history inside this gigantic building was mind-blowing! After making it through security to Portcullis House and being issued with an identity tag which consisted of a black and white photo (which rather amusingly resembled a CCTV image of a shoplifter) we began the tour. The long and very cold corridor which lead from the Portcullis House (a building opposite Big Ben on the other side of the road) and under the road into the Palace of Westminster resembled something you would expect to see in Hogwarts - stone and marble statues, paintings, beautifully sculpted arches and ceilings welcomed us through to a passageway which led out to underneath the world's most famous bell-tower - Big Ben. Admiring the scale of the tower and clock-face and learning of its history, we took photos whilst simultaneously scoping out the decorative exterior of the building - "Tufas!" exclaimed Kitty. Upon entering Westminster Hall, we were told of the recent visitors who had given speeches there this year - the Pope Benedict XVI and US President Barack Obama. Then we were lead through the crypt and into the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, which was restored after fire damage and was once used by Oliver Cromwell to house his horses!
We ventured into the Central Lobby which lies between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and noticed the four intricate mosaics above the 4 doorways which featured the 4 Saints of the United Kingdom's constituent nations - George, Andrew, David and Patrick. The House of Commons was situated beside another lobby called the Members' Lobby (which you may recognise from TV news broadcasts) The room featured bronze statues of former British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George, and the archway leading to the Commons was left unrepaired after the bombing in 1941 to serve as a reminder of the evils of war. We saw a brief glimpse of a session occuring inside the Commons, and saw the Speaker and many MPs debating. Across on the other side of the Central Lobby was the Peers' Lobby, which lies in front of the House of Lords. If the Members' Lobby was ornate, this one was ten times more beautiful than that. Security was tight and despite our MP's very persuasive attempt to get us in closer, we were not allowed to get very near to the chamber doors.
Attempt at artistic photograph of Big Ben!

The Tour was over and we were taken through yet more winding passageways bursting with history and into a small function room. Assembled as a group, the climbing teams stood together as the speeches were read out. A welcome address from the MPs and Sports Minister and then an excellent speech by Audrey Seguy who addressed the room about the benefits that climbing as a sport can bring to people of all ages, abilities and from all walks of life. Audrey mentioned the health benefits that climbing brings to children and adults, the community aspect of climbing, and the respect that climbers develop for the natural environment. The past lack of recognition of climbing as a sport in the UK was highlighted as a problem that is very quickly diminishing - with the growth of indoor climbing facilities and the corresponding increase in participation. As participation in the sport has widened, the media coverage and public awareness of indoor climbing has gradually risen, but very little funding for sports development has been arranged in comparison with Olympic sports such as athletics and gymnastics. Audrey highlighted these issues and countered them with an extensive list of the acheivements of the GB teams - a very impressive array of results which can only be improved upon if the Teams receive the funding and support which they deserve!
Money isn't everything, but it certainly helps in the arena of competitive sport - with costs of travel, training, coaching, competition entry and physio to take into account! By increasing the money available to competitive climbing in the UK, the opportunities available to aspiring athletes would increase, and who knows where these opportunities may take them. In short, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy - more funding equals more participation, which means more chance of success, and with success comes promotion of acheivement and resultantly more recognition and more funding.

Back to Westminster, Dame Kelly was taking her time to speak to each Team member and find out more about our climbing backgrounds and acheivements. She is a keen climber herself, and told of her trips to Fontainebleau, Stanage and of her fascination with the sport. She came across as very friendly and quietly confident, and spoke very modestly of her acheivements in Athens when questioned as to whether or not she expected to win. "After the first race I was so shocked, and after the second it was simply unbelievable!" I vividly remember watching her races and screaming at the TV in 2004, aged 13. Even though I didn't know much about athletics, or indeed much about her past, it didn't matter - her expression both before and after was enough to show everyone how much it meant to her, and it inspired me to work hard for what I wanted to acheive. We didn't have an Olympics, but as young competition climbers we had our own battles. Three years later in 2007, when I won my first European Youth Cup in Kranj, Slovenia, I felt the same feeling of shock and disbelief when I realised what had happened, and the elation when I knew that a dream had come true. It was obvious to me that Kelly's joy did not derive from having beaten people, but from the personal journey which had taken her to the top of the podium. What made her success even more poignant was her struggle with years of injury and disappointment, and her fight to keep running competitively with the fear of injury constantly on her mind: "You have all those dreams and then something goes wrong, and I just thought everything's going too good, and it's just going to go away from me again."
I know from personal experience (and I know many other people who are currently injured and in the same situation) exactly what Dame Kelly means by this and can relate to her word for word. The power which injury holds over a person's self-confidence and self-esteem is incredible - the emotional pain often outweighs the physical, and having the strength of mind to pull oneself back from an abyss of injury is very difficult to acheive. Kelly was 34 when she won her two Gold medals, and is a prime example of someone with outstanding strength of character and determination to get back in the game after defeat and injury, and someone who - after years of being denied success - is not afraid of slowly taking her time to work her way back to winning form. This brings to mind a quote from Michel de Montaigne, a French Renaissance writer whose work "On the Verses of Virgil" I am currently writing an essay on. Despite writing about love, the following line could easily be applied to a sport or anything that requires a "journey" of some sort: " Plus il y a de marches et degres, plus il y a de hauteur et d'honneur au dernier siege" which roughly translates as "The more the steps the greater the height, and the more the rungs the greater the honour, of that ultimate siege." As competition climbing works its way closer towards the Olympics, many of the world's upcoming young climbers will be aspiring to fulfil their ambitions to succeed in what is truly the most "ultimate siege" in any sportsperson's dreams.
Yet what would the Olympics mean to the current GB Team? We talked quite a lot throughout the event about the possibility of competing in the 2020 Olympics. For the older ones amongst us, it seemed very surreal to be thinking about something which has always seemed so far-removed from our own little bubble of competition climbing - thinking of the usual sighs of disappointment when people ask if climbing is an Olympic sport and seem surprised when they are told "No, not yet!" Many of the Team admitted feeing slightly cynical about the Games in the past, wondering how the format would work out and how the rest of the non-climbing world (and indeed the anti-comp crew within the climbing society) would perceive our sport. Now, though, we felt as though competition climbing had built up so much force and influence (the IFSC now consists of 66 member federations and 10 associate members from 5 continents around the world) that we have no reason to feel inadequate as competition climbers, and that we need to work together positively to ensure that things go our way. If you don't ask, you don't get!
Dame Kelly's autograph

Dame Kelly also told us about the difficulty faced by many athletes as they reach the transition from school to university. She highlighted the fact that maintaining participation at this stage is tough when many are faced with changes in circumstance and the challenge of balancing education, work, sport and life alongside the physiological changes which frequently result in injury. Personally, I felt quite proud when she praised me for keeping up my climbing alongside university studies and for having to deal with 2 years of injuries which she called "great strength of character." I had never thought of it that way before, and I will admit that hearing it from Dame Kelly was very inspirational.
Wherever life will take us in 2020, we all agreed that if climbing made it as an Olympic event, it would make us proud to represent our country if we are still competing in 8 or 9 years time, and that even if we are simply enjoying climbing as a hobby whilst looking after kids/homes/pets and whatnot, we could feel proud that the sport we love has finally been recognised as one which fulfils the criteria to become part of the world's most prestigious sporting event. Proud that the younger kids we see down at the wall or at the crag today and the ones we encourage will have something amazing to aspire towards acheiving. Even if competition climbing doesn't make it in 2020, we can rest assured that one day it most likely will, and deep down we know that it is more than worthy of the Olympics. It might take a few more steps and a few more rungs, but as the sport keeps growing and the kids keep having fun, maybe in a good few years down the line the GB Climbing Team will be bringing the greatest honour of an Olympic Gold medal to a climbing wall near you.
At Heathrow, Mum and I visited the shop dedicated to "London 2012". On a stand were commemorative gold medallions for each of the Olympic sports. I read the sports aloud and sighed. Mum said "Maybe one day, there will be one for climbing." Watch this space...
Source: Blogs from Natalie Berry