Listening to a briefing at one of The Rock’s Bouldering Comps.
If you haven’t heard the latest news from the IOC, Rock Climbing has made it into the Olympic Games and will be a demonstration sport in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
A lot has been said and written about this so far, it’s bad for the sport, it’s going to ruin it and change it forever. This is balder-dash!
Climbing, along with Surfing and Skateboarding, that have also made the Olympics, are sports that don’t need a competitive aspect to still be a great time. People will still go out with their mates and climb on smaller cliffs and venture further into the large cliffs and mountains, this will not change. Those people and the majority of climbers are like that, enjoy the challenge that the real cliffs give them and don’t need to compete against others to have the same feeling.
Competitive climbing is a great thing and can hone your training and focus to achieve things that usually are outside your grasp and with the fact that Climbing is now a recognized sport in Australia, this is going to help competition climbers excel like never before in Australia, as well as assisting the facilities and support structures for them.
After all is said and down though, climbing still is and always will be, for most of us, a great way to get outside and test our physical and mental limits, or just have a awesome time outside with friends.