The Olympic climbing movement is growing, according to news just in from IFSC Athletes' Commission chair Sean McColl. Paris 2024 has proposed Sport Climbing as one of the additional sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, adding another set of medals and thereby doubling both the medal and athlete quota of Tokyo 2020. Pending IOC approval, disciplines will be split between an individual Speed competition and a combined Lead/Bouldering event. 12 medals would be up for grabs (6 in Speed, 6 in Lead/Boulder combined between men and women).
The athlete count would increase from 40 athletes in Tokyo 2020 to 72 in Paris 2024. Sport climbing is one of four sports to be added to the 2024 schedule, alongside breakdancing, skateboarding and surfing.
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With the increased number of medals and athlete count, they have proposed to split athletes and medals as follows:
- Speed (16 Men +16 Women) (Gold, Silver, Bronze x 2 (M+W))
- Lead/Bouldering combined (20 Men + 20 Women) (Gold, Silver, Bronze x 2 (M+W))
The proposal will be presented to the IOC Executive Board on March 26th-28th. If accepted, the proposal will then be put forward to the 134th IOC Session on 24th June in Lausanne, Switzerland. If approved, Sport Climbing will feature in the Summer Olympic Games for the second consecutive edition.
'It is again a great day: our climb goes on, and new challenges are taking shape beyond Tokyo. We are happy to see that Paris 2024 is supporting the new wave, which is strengthening the Olympic movement. We are grateful for the proposal's recognition of the value of Sport Climbing and the work the IFSC has done. We are proud to be part of this process and we look forward to the next steps in the following months,' says Marco Scolaris, President of the IFSC.
Spectaculaire, festif, et esthétique !
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) February 21, 2019
Avec 25 millions de pratiquants recensés dans 150 pays à travers le monde. Découvrez l'Escalade vitesse et le combiné bloc aux Jeux #Paris2024 🧗♀️.
Vous allez adorer 😀 !
Sport additionnel 3/4 pic.twitter.com/7cYcCyO3bK
McColl commented on social media:
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'Lots of discussion is sure to follow but I'm super happy we are still growing within the Olympic movement with more medals as well as athletes. With Speed being separated from the other two, the specialists in that discipline are sure to flourish.'
More information to follow.
Comments
Sounds like a move in the right direction.
Hopefully the IOC will agree with the proposal :-)
Yes half way there.
So speed climbing would essentially become an Olympic sport in its own right? Haha. I see they are also looking at breakdancing. Not sure which is more silly. I certainly would much rather watch breakdancing than speed climbing but it's a fairly weird to think of it as a competitive sport. But then they do have horse dancing as a sport so what do I know.
I think while speed climbing is quite silly when seen in the climbing context it fits the Olympics quite well. After all, the track and field competitions are somewhat contrived as well. Speed climbing feels certainly more like short track or hurdles that lead climbing.