Tokyo 2020 will be a watershed moment for three “extreme sports” primed to make their Olympic debut there: surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing. The reaction to the news has been a mixed bag among professionals, hobbyists, and industry types in all three sports, as the move is clearly an effort by the International Olympic Committee to attract younger audiences to the Summer Games in the same way snowboarding and freestyle skiing did for the Winter Olympics.
Unlike surfing (which will only feature high-performance shortboarding), and skateboarding (which will feature “park” and “street” competitions), in sport climbing athletes will compete in three distinct disciplines – bouldering, speed climbing, and lead climbing. The gold will go to the male and female climber that finishes with the highest combined total score.
It’s something that Czech climbing prodigy Adam Ondra says he’s unhappy about. But, because he has decided to make a go of the Olympics and not boycott (a possibility he toyed with in an interview with EpicTV) he ultimately has to make due.
“For me, the biggest personal challenge is that the first time in my life I will have to train something that I hate,” he says of speed climbing. “But I’m hoping that I can at least find a little bit of fun in it, and that will help me to improve.”
Ondra is currently in Innsbruck, Austria training for the upcoming IFSC World Championships hoping a solid result will give him momentum for next year’s contest – the top six from which will qualify for Tokyo in 2020.
In spite of not agreeing with the format, Ondra is still confident that climbing’s inclusion in the Olympics is good for the sport. “I think the advantages of being in the Olympics for climbing just outweigh the disadvantages.”
