She’s home and admittedly tired after two months of nearly continuous travelling, but Canmore ice climber and ACMG mountain guide Jen Olson says she feels proud and grateful for having represented Canada at the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
Olson, along with fellow Alpine Club of Canada athletes Nathan Kutcher and Gord MacArthur, was part of a contingent of the world’s top ice climbers from Japan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Germany, France, the U.K., Iran, the U.S. and Russia, who demonstrated their sport at a special venue at the Olympics for the first time.
Athletes who are part of the UIAA (International climbing and mountaineering federation, of which the ACC is a member) Ice Climbing World Cup circuit were invited by the Russian Mountaineering Federation to represent their countries at Sochi.
The week-long “cultural” event was staged at Olympic Park, where three exhibition stations were set up. One consisted of an area where the public could learn to tie knots essential to ice climbing, and also sign their names in a guest registry and have their photos taken in front of a rugged mountain backdrop.
Another consisted of a 20-metre high refrigerated tower with ice on three of its four sides, which was protected by a foam curtain when direct sunlight threatened the panels. At night, the structure, and the climbers on it, were illuminated.
“Amazingly, despite 20 to 30 C temperatures, the ice wall was open almost every day for the public to try ice climbing,” Olson said. “There were hundreds of people each day lined up to give it a swing.”
The third station consisted of several giant “ice cubes” suspended from scaffolding several metres above a stage, which the expert climbers traversed by hooking their tools and crampons onto plastic climbing holds fixed to the giant wooden blocks.
As a Canadian ice climbing ambassador, in addition to demonstrating the power and prowess essential to competing at the world cup level on both the refrigerated wall and on the dangling cubes, Olson answered questions from the public and shared her enthusiasm for the sport.
With official demonstration sports no longer being included in the Olympic Games, Olson said the potential for ice climbing to be added to the Olympic roster in future Games is unclear.
“For ice climbing, both Russia and Korea are big supporters of the sport,” Olson said. “The next winter Olympics, in 2018, will be in PyeongChang, Korea. There was a lot of support at these Olympics for ‘X-games’ type sports like the slopestyle and snowboarding, so it doesn’t seem so far-fetched that ice climbing could be the next addition.”
And with a world cup competition format that allowed five climbers to compete against each other at the same time in the difficulty discipline, the sport has terrific spectator potential.
“The cool thing about competition ice climbing is we can create the structures in the middle of big cities like Manhattan or Toronto,” she added. “And the spectators loved watching the excitement.”
While in Sochi, Olson and her mother, who travelled from Calgary to cheer her on, also watched bobsled races and enjoyed seeing the Canadian women’s curling team win gold. Olson also sang the praises of Canada Olympic House, which provided a refuge complete with the comforts of beer, wine and healthy meals.
“We watched the gold medal hockey games, met athletes and shared Canadian pride with the family and friends of the athletes and Olympic sports,” she said. “I did my best to spread the word of ice climbing to the other visitors of the house and convince them to come try ice climbing at our venue.”
Olson and the other ice climbers were filmed by CBC, CTV and U.S. broadcaster NBC and many other countries’ networks.
Following her time in Sochi, Olson flew to the Russian city of Ufa to compete in her fifth and final world cup competition of the season. She credited the generosity of those who responded to her fundraising efforts for enabling her to travel to those events. She finished the season 11th in the world cup standings for women ice climbers.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to compete in and promote ice climbing over the past two months,” Olson said.
And, she added, she’s grateful for having experienced the Olympic Games first hand, and for the learning experience her participation provided.
“During my time in Sochi, I came to my own realization about what the Olympics are about,” Olson said. “The Olympics in the media appear to exist for economics. In my opinion, the most valuable – and rarely discussed – benefit of the Olympics, not unlike religion, is to inspire, create and guide people’s lives. These sports give individuals and their families and friends purpose and meaning to their lives.
“Olympic sports create not only excellence in humans in the physical realm, but in a spiritual and social way of life as well. They provide a structure by which many of these families can contribute to society and connect.
“It’s unfortunate that we measure the value of the Olympics only by dollar figures instead of individual and community well-being.”
Visit www.jenolson.ca for more info and photos.
