Ireland
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Dec
20
2007
|
Sport Climbing accepted into Olympics |
KILDARE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - I don’t usually replicate news from UKclimbing.com, however this one deserves a mention. Sport climbing has been accepted into the Olympics, provisionally at least. Now don’t get all excited and start preparing for 2008, or even 2012 for that matter - it seems 2020 will be more likely.
Still, it gives me slightly over 12 years to get some routes bolted in Ireland, open an international standard climbing wall for training on, and train to be able to onsight 8b/5.13d (at least, that’s current standards :).
More info can be read at UKclimbing’s article, with more info on the IFSC site and Olympic.org
So, has anyone seen some steep climbing areas in Ireland that they’re willing to tell me about? :) all answers in the comments or forum!
- Neal :) -
Latest Comments (3):
It’s good news for the sport, yeah?
It should be, however we’ve no sports climbing (bar a tiny quarry) in Ireland, and no international standard climbing walls.
But from my point of view, it’s great as it legitimises it more - there’s a very negative attitude towards bolts in Ireland. Partly valid as we’ve not enough rock, and partly unfair due to old-school ethics. But definitely, it’ll be interesting to see what it does - gives me more of an incentive to keep training!
I’m a bit odd in that the sport I ply is not available in my own country :)
cool! Stephen (DCURCC) sent through this mail during the week and I never got to the net in Colorado (now in Chicago on net) to post it… thanks Stephen, hope you don’t mind me posting the mail public!!
“The International Federation of Sports Climbing (IFSC) are reporting that they have been given provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee(IOC). This paves the way for the possibility of Competition Climbing in the Olympics. Although I wouldn’t hold my breath since it doesn’t look like it will be included until the 2020 games since the format of the games are decided 7 years before they even start. That doesn’t leave much time to meet all the requirements for the 2016 Games deadline.
In some ways this is old news since technically climbing had recognition since 1995 until the IFSC split with the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) last year. Hopefully now this renewed recognition and the fact that provisional recognition, under a new rule, only lasts for two years will give a new drive behind the movement.
Although some people people seem to be negative about this whole idea, I hope that in time this will mean more recognition for the sport (maybe some insurance companies will finally figure out exactly what it is that we do, or maybe we should leave them in the dark). Also since sponsorship/funding is almost impossible to get in Ireland for anything thats isn’t GAA, Soccer or an Olympic sport hopefully we’ll get some sort of benefits in this area as well.
You can read the IOC’s press release here, the International Cricket Council were recognised at the same meeting…if we have to fight it out over getting into the Olympics I vote that they’re not allowed to use their bats :P “
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