Even though climbing is new to the Olympic games, the sport and what it represents is a natural fit
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But when it resumes this summer, four young climbers will represent the USA.
This is the first time that climbing will appear as an Olympic event. "Sitting here as a team of four athletes going, I think that's really cool, and it just shows how much we've improved as USA Climbing," Kyra Condie from Team USA said. “And I can't wait for more people to be introduced to climbing as it's on this world stage."
Since the sport will be new to most, many don’t know how it works. Team USA’s Brooke Raboutou breaks it down. “Climbing in the Olympics will be a combined format, which is a combination of three disciplines: there's bouldering, speed climbing, and lead climbing," she said.
"Bouldering and lead climbing are based on difficulty," she continued. "Speed climbing is based on time. And then pretty simply stated, they will just multiply your scores from each event individually, and the lowest score wins."
And even though climbing is new to the games, it is a natural fit. One team USA member explains how their sport actually ties in with the Olympic motto. “The fact that climbing is in the Olympics really suits the Olympic motto in general. Like, Citius, Altius, Fortius is higher, faster, stronger, and it really relates to climbing, I think. Higher is lead climbing, faster is speed climbing, and stronger is bouldering, so it's kind of cool that there's that relationship to that."
The Tokyo Olympics will be from July 23 to Aug. 8.
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