It’s official. Canada’s competitive climbers are another step closer to the Olympics.
Climbing Escalade Canada (CEC), the nation’s official member of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), is now recognized by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). After having been officially incorporated as the National Sport Organization for competition climbing in Canada back in 2012, CEC was designated the official IFSC Canadian member in February.
A board of directors which includes administrators from each of the provincial competition climbing federations, as well as The Alpine Club of Canada, has worked together over the past few years to advance the sport within Canada.
Among other things, provincial and national competition series were created, a new bilingual website was launched and several world-class events were hosted. As well, CEC has worked to implement important new governance changes in order to be able to better serve Canadian competition climbers, as well as to be in accordance with the model and requirements of Sport Canada.
Leading up to those steps, Canmore hosted Canada’s first bouldering world cup competition in May 2011.
With competition climbing expected to be an “additional” sport at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, all this is exciting news for the competition climbing community.
“Recognition of the CEC as the sport’s governing body in Canada by the Canadian Olympic Committee establishes a direct working relationship between the two organizations which will benefit athletes should the sport gain Olympic status,” said David Foster, Alpine Club of Canada representative on the CEC Board.
“The COC has tremendous capacity to assist in areas like athlete development programs and the broader organization’s requirements involved in mounting a Canadian team for the Olympic Games. Aside from providing additional recognition to their sport, it establishes connections that should allow broader support in the run-up to the 2020 Games in areas like athlete development.”
Competition climbing has been growing steadily in recent years, with some 400 new athletes annually gaining their license to compete at national CEC-sanctioned events and to represent Canada internationally. The sport is organized at the provincial and national levels and Canadian athletes are strong on the competitive circuit.
Canadian Sean McColl has maintained top rankings on the world cup circuit for most of his 18 years competing, including five years as Canadian youth champion, and five world youth titles. Now 28, the Vancouver native has podiumed 23 times as a world cup competitor, and is a three-time overall world champion.
In addition to his position as athlete representative on IBSC board of directors, McColl continues to inspire young Canadian climbers. Bow Valley climbers are among those placing well at national and international competitions.
“Canada is a strong competitor internationally,” Foster said. “The real growth in competition climbing is occurring at the provincial level, where more and more young people are entering local and regional competitions with an eye on making it to the national level.
“Most of the provincial sports organizations that make up the CEC’s membership are seeing rapid and ongoing growth in the number of young competitors. In turn, this reflects the growth being seen in indoor climbing generally, which is estimated at between 10 and 15 per cent a year in recent years.”
With the International Olympic Committee sport department scheduled to present climbing to the IOC board in early June, hopes are high that competition climbing will be formally recommended for inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Games at the 129th IOC Session, scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro prior to the XXXI Olympic Games running in August.
