A long climb to Olympics

Mumbai: Climbing has made it to the 2020 Olympics for the first time and international athletes for the Climbing World Cup here are pinning hopes on the Tokyo Games to give the sport a major boost.

The International Federation of Sport Climbing has been pushing to get climbing in the Olympics for years before it was finally approved last year by IOC president Thomas Bach along with baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding and surfing.

Slovenians Gregor Vegonik and Jernej Kruder are here among over 150 athletes to compete in the two-day Climbing World Cup to be held here in the Bouldering discipline from Saturday.

At the Olympics, Lead and Speed will the other two disciplines along with Bouldering and the medalists will be chosen based on the combined results of all three disciplines.

On the occasion of International Olympics Day, the two Slovenians hope the sport gets due recognition and they or their friends become Olympians.

“Climbing is popular in Slovenia. It has a long tradition especially in mountain climbing. We have five competitors and one coach from the country here. However we have struggled to thrive but after the sport made it to Olympics it has brought hope as we are getting sponsors. We have high hopes that the sport will get a major boost after the Olympics and we will be excited to see ourselves or our friends as Olympians,” Kruder said.