Olympic Climbing! What do you think? Bad joke or clever, just saying?
Okay, so it's climbing on plastic, contrived, like mechanical bull riding. The categories combined are Speed Climbing, Bouldering and Lead Climbing. I have a problem with combining the three for one medal, particularly the Speed category at 15 meters.
Why not combine the 100 meter, the mile and hot dog eating while on a treadmill for a track medal? Or bronc riding, calf roping, and running across the diameter of the arena in a clown suit and jumping in and out of barrels for a rodeo medal/buckle.
Lead climbing is in a class of its own given the tradition it came from.
Bouldering, while not climbing, is beyond comparison to speed climbing as a discipline.
Now, if the speed climbing was on lead and 100 meters long, it would be worth maybe half of bouldering as a discipline and a third of lead climbing. However, Speed Climbing as a team up a 400 meter tower with a 70 meter rope would be worthy of company with lead climbing and bouldering. Adding Hans Florine as a commentator might even rival a mediocre SNL skit for entertainment value.
Next Summer Olympics I hope they get the climbing competition sorted better.
If the Olympics adds barbecuing a perfect steak while flying a kite for altitude and getting drunk to a respectable level at least twice the legal driving limit while posting on a forum, I might even personally know one or two of the finalists.
BTW, any word on the Ice Climbing, Crevasse Maze and Speed Self Rescue Combined Competition in an oxygen depleted auditorium(to keep it real) for the Winter Olympics?
