(ATR) Sport climbing will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo, in 2021, sharing the Aomi Urban Sports Park venue with 3x3 basketball.
Forty athletes (20 male, 20 female) will compete for two sets of medals in a combined event encompassing the disciplines of bouldering, speed and lead climbing.
International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) president Marco Scolaris discusses the sport’s exponential growth in indoor climbing gyms, among other topics, with ATR's Brian Pinelli in the latest video edition of ATRadio.
"The growth has even surprised us," Scolaris tells ATR. "When we started organizing climbing competitions in 1985, nobody could even expect that some people would talk about the Olympics and medals. We were sort of a social community just living in the bush.
"Over the years, we realized the social impact of climbing and with the creation of artificial walls - walls designed for climbing, there was a booming of our activities."
Sport climbing is also on the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games program and has been provisionally included as one of four new sports for Paris 2024, pending IOC approval in December.
Homepage photo: Eddie Fowlke/IFSC
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