A few years back when I was sat on the National Council for the BMC, this topic totally divided the council to a certain extent. Although to be honest when put to a vote I remember those that could vote were in favour of it, as the BMC is a member of the UIAA and the IFSC, we had to make a decision to back the UIAA’s and IFSC ‘Olympic Dream’ or not.
The major players in the BMC council who where against it seemed to be the stalwarts that seemed to hang onto some kind of power by having a small non-voting position on the council but a large opinion. I guess these people have nothing better to do than sit on committees and make proposals for things like turning the BMC in a bank for climbing clubs to repair huts for only the club members, or write a proposal to write a proposal on something similarly out of sync with the actual members of the BMC.
Still the Olympic dream, caused a split in the UIAA briefly hence there is the International Federation of Sports Climbers and the UIAA. The IFSC is the competitions side of the UIAA, I think?
So eventually the UIAA or IFSC got round to petitioning the IOC whose Executive Board tasked the Olympic Programming Commission to look at some new sports. The OPC recommended to the IOC EB that climbing be put forward onto a shortlist, and the EB has accepted climbing onto a shortlist, where one lucky sport may well be chosen to feature in the games in 2020.
So who are our competitors? Well its baseball, karate, roller sports, softball, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu. So lets look at them all, and consider our chances, as above all the sports needs international competition and good TV ratings.
Baseball is big in America, but I am not sure that it has enough participation world wide, Is there for instance a UK, French, German Baseball team? The game to me is totally unfathomable, but on it is plus side it’s American, however given that America is one of the countries behind the international monetary problems and countless pointless wars, it will probably count against them. Same arguments go for softball, which is essentially baseball for kids!
Karate is a good sport, but isn’t there enough fight sports in the Olympics? Boxing, Fencing, Greco-roman cuddling, judo. Then there’s roller sports, which are what exactly?syncronised Rollerdisco? Or are they going to go and follow the ESPN extreme games and have a skate park at the next Olympics? Similarly the Wakeboarding doesn’t seem a brilliant idea, have you heard of Wakestock or as the North Wales press called it last year drug-stock! I can see it now the rowing lake transformed into wakeboarding run, someone cutting spray across Sir Steve Redgrave as he comments on the cockless fours.
WTF is Wushu you ask, well think crouching tiger hidden dragon, swords, sticks and mayhem. Basically its a kind of Karate with brighter costumes and Jet Li as a director!
About the only sport that has a chance is squash, its fast, its furious with modern one way glass it is probably a good spectator sport, its played the world over and they have had there act together for a long time. I am actually surprised is not an olympic sport already.
Then there is climbing, or to be precise sports climbing. At least understanding the competition is simple, climber starts at the bottom and gets to the top. They either succeed or fall off. However if you have watched any of the IFSC bouldering comps that have been televised online, the format is getting much better, as climbers spend a set time on a problem and they can work it a few times before the time runs out.
Climbing is also getting more international, as top climbers are coming from a more and more diverse areas. Where the UK dominanted in teh early years the europeans then took over, followed by teh american, now the eastern european and so Japanese climbers are starting to make there mark now.
So will we make it to our Olympic Dream, I can tell you one thing I am not keeping my finger crossed for that long!