Sport Climbing & Karate Battle on After Olympic 2020 Dreams Dashed
May 30, 2013
Sport climbing and karate are the first of the five sports cut from the 2020 Olympic Games list to react to the disappointing news, sale with both sports adamant they will come back stronger.
The two, along with wushu, wakeboarding and roller sports, saw their dreams of being a part of the 2020 Olympics dashed after the IOC opted to keep baseball/softball, squash and wrestling – the sport they demoted earlier this year – in the running for a spot at the biggest sporting event in the world.
Marco Scolaris, President of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) said in an exclusive interview with iSportconnect in March that exclusion from the Olympics could ‘kill’ smaller sports such as climbing.
However, Scolaris and the IFSC have put the disappointment behind them and in a statement said: “First of all congratulations and best wishes to the athletes of the three selected sports for the final vote on 7 September at the 125th Session in Buenos Aires.
“Despite we climb day by day higher, faster and stronger, we did not make it.
“Now it is time to go climbing again.”
Karate pride
The World Karate Federation (WKF) held a similar stance to the IFSC and said they were ‘very proud of its extraordinary evolution’ since the bidding process began, nearly two years ago.
Many people, including WKF President Antonio Espinós felt that this could have been their year, having gone close in 2005 and 2009.
Statistics from London 2012 also revealed that 70% of Olympic goers already thought that karate was in the Olympics.
Stay tuned to iSportconnect for further reaction from roller sports, wakeboarding and wushu.
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