UKC

We are delighted to announce that UKClimbing.com has been selected to cover Sport Climbing at our second consecutive Olympic Games in Paris 2024. In 2021, despite the pandemic-induced restrictions, we travelled to Tokyo 2020 to report on climbing's successful Olympic debut from the ground.

Read more

Great news, congratulations!

Is it a bit bizarre for UKC to publish two articles, within hours of each other, one celebrating  travelling around the world to provide “on the ground tweets” for the Olympics, the other detailing another apparently catastrophic effect of climate change!? 

Awesome stuff, congrats guys!

If I listed categories of people who I'm happy to see continue to travel long distances, journalists travelling for the purpose of sharing information so that other people don't need to travel to see the events live would be pretty high up the list. I think it's fair to consider the carbon footprint of the journey to be to some extent divided up between the many consumers of the coverage. Granted, Olympic climbing isn't an important topic compared to a lot of world events, but I do think sport and other forms of entertainment are still valuable. And this announcement is about Paris anyway, which is hardly an absurd journey, particularly if it's done with consideration of the climate, which seems likely.

Hi Jim,

There’s no denying it’s a complex topic.

Providing ‘on the ground’ updates from a single member of staff, who’s likely got to Paris via train, is going to be a drop in the carbon ocean compared to the overall output of the hundreds of thousands of people/participants that descend upon Paris from all around the world. That said, we are undeniably a part of it. The Olympics is - after all - a huge, global event and whilst we may be one small part of it - we’re still a part of it.

What’s the solution? From our side, we’re sending out very few people (definitely one, maybe two) and those people will likely travel by train. As such, there’ll be a pretty minimalist carbon footprint from us. From the Olympics as a whole, and other international events such as the World Cup, Formula 1 etc…, I think we’re all hugely conflicted, because many of us want to watch these events, but at the same time shudder when we think of their unfathomable carbon footprint.

Not sure how much more I can say beyond that, but am curious to know how others feel. Is there a future for events like this? 

What will be the deciding factor in whether or not they travel to Paris via train or plane Rob?

Personally I feel that UKC is a fantastic source of information on climate change given that it is after all 'just a climbing website'.

Excellent news on the coverage though, were it not for the reports on here, then I'd have had basically 0 idea of what actually happened during the Tokyo climbing!

Congratulations! Well earned. 

Mick 

It would, without doubt, be an environmental decision. If our decision was based on anything other than this (e.g. cost + travel time) we'd fly each and every time. There's probably a whole other thread in order to discuss the rights and wrongs of that, but it does confuse me how despite everyone acknowledging how good trains are for the environment, and how bad flying is, we're still paying a pittance for the one we shouldn't be using. 

As an aside to the above, we stopped attending the two European Trade Shows (ISPO and OutDoor) partly as a result of the air travel it incurred, which amounted to six members of staff travelling out to Munich twice a year. Whilst we could have continued, albeit by train, we instead opted to shift our focus onto the The Outdoor Trade Show (OTS), which takes place in Liverpool. It's a great show and has the benefit of being a couple of hours away. 

Anyhow, tangents aside - I'm exciting to see what happens in Paris now that the format has changed. Lead/Boulder will be significantly more competitive with Speed removed from the equation!

Totally agree with you re the cost of train travel Rob, and as you say, there's scope for numerous other threads around the subject! Really appreciate your response though, and really encouraging to read that environmental impact is to the forefront of UKC thinking.

...on a climbing note then, whom are likely to be the UK representative's? Is Will Bosi likely to return to the comp circuit? With speed gone, he'd have to be a medal contender surely?

Speed too presumably, with speed specialists having a medal of their own.  Will anyone be competitive in both, or is that a ridiculous question?

That's a very good question...

Will has obviously had an outstanding 2022, but all his major achievements have been on rock, and it'll be interesting to see where his comp mojo lies throughout the year(s) ahead.

The other candidates are the various comp oriented young-guns, including the dynamic duo of Max Milne and Hamish McArthur, who both have their sights set firmly on not just the Olympics - but standing on the podium alongside each other (!!). The other person it'd be hard not to mention is Toby Roberts, who's form throughout Youth has been nothing short of outstanding. The fact he came 13th in the Boulder & Lead World Cup in Morioka further adds to his status, especially given his upward trajectory.

In the women's things are a little less clear, because unlike previously - where we had Shauna - we don't have any who's quite so dominant. Molly would be my first choice, but she's had a really tough run of lucky lately, and it'll be interesting to see how she recovers - and what her focus is after recovering.

All of this is getting me quite excited to see what happens once the comp season starts, as there's so much potential out there - and so much competition - that it's almost impossible to call.

That said, it's fun to speculate