Paraclimbing Will Debut at the LA28 Paralympics!

Climbers with disabilities and the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) celebrated last month with the announcement that paraclimbing will be in the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games. Professional paraclimber Maureen Beck cried when she heard “because it’s something that I never thought I would see when I started in this sport at the age of 12. And even when I started competing 10 years ago, it just wasn’t on the radar that we could be a Paralympic sport.”

Even if it wasn’t on the radar of most climbers until recently, IFSC President Marco Scolaris said, “It was clear from the beginning: for us there is no difference, it’s the same family.” Scolaris often refers to their journey to the Paralympics as “a climb”—let’s take a look at the climb so far.

The first bolts (2006-2019)

The early years from 2006-2010 brought rapidfire development. In those five years the IFSC was formed, began hosting paraclimbing competitions, and was ratified by the International Olympic Committee in February 2010 just before the Vancouver Winter Games.

In 2011, the IFSC worked with the Italian Federation to host the first international paraclimbing championship in Arco, Italy. As a “joint world championship,” the para and able-bodied competitions were held side by side. Paraclimbing comps became a regular part of the IFSC calendar, and in 2016 it was announced that climbing would debut in the Tokyo Olympics. The next year, in 2017, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) granted the IFSC the status of Recognised International Federation.

Between 2018-2019 the IFSC created and approved their official plan for Paraclimbing Development, which aimed “to professionalise the sport by striving to meet the standards of the International Paralympic Committee, therefore making the sport worth consideration for future Paralympic Games.”

The crux (2021-2024)

Since 2021, in preparation for their Paralympic bid, the IFSC began aligning their classifications (how athletes are grouped by physical limitations) with those of the IPC. The media Manager for the IFSC, Richard Aspland, explained the federation took the following steps:

• Reviewed and adopted classification rules compliant with IPC standards
• Developed a pool of dedicated routesetters to complement the needs of para athletes and each sport class
• Established a Head of Classification and a pool of IFSC-certified classifiers

These steps towards professionalism have not been without growing pains. Paraclimbers have, at times, felt that sport classes were unfairly grouped together or that routesetters were given a near impossible task, having to set for such a wide range of disabilities within one route. In recent years comps have seen the melding of sport classes, most often when there were not enough athletes in one group for a class to run on its own. For example, athletes with range and power limitations have been grouped with competitors having upper limb differences.

A Salt Lake City-hosted World Cup in 2023 brought disappointment for some blind climbers as the B2 and B3 classes were combined (mild visual impairment + moderate visual impairment) due to a lack of certified classifiers for the blind categories, as was previously reported in Climbing Magazine. The ICP does not foresee any issues with this at the future games, though, said Craig Spence, the IPC’s Chief Brand & Communications Officer.

In early 2023, the IPC declined to include paraclimbing in their initial lineup of sports, but shortlisted it along with para surfing as two “additional sports” that could be allowed into the 2028 Games, if the Organizing Committee for the LA Games saw fit. That year, IFSC sanctioned comps continued to gain athletes (the only solution to some of the issues).

The IPC, according to Spence, initially passed on paraclimbing “primarily because the sport did not meet the worldwide-reach criterion of 32 countries in three regions practicing widely and regularly.” But, he said they noticed “that several medal events comfortably met the requirements” of their guidelines for maintaining world rankings and/or medal events in world championships. So, the IPC offered the Los Angeles 2028 Games Committee (LA28) the opportunity to further explore the sport.

Janet Evans, LA28 Chief Athlete Officer, said in accordance with the IPC, the committee considered “the cost and complexity” of the sport, the global and domestic popularity of paraclimbing, as well as its “universality,” ensuring “international representation on the world stage.” Notably, the World Championship in Bern later that year boasted 203 paraclimbers, with athletes from four different “continents/regions” winning medals according to LA28.

But the committee also wanted to see world wide stoke for the sport, so they looked at fan viewership data of competitions as well as participation. As a retired Olympian herself, Evans noted, “one of the things athletes love is fans. So that was important to us that we wanted to bring new fans to the sport.”

On June 12, 2024, LA28 officially proposed to the IPC that paraclimbing be added to the roster in 2028, making it the first Organizing Committee in Paralympic history to do so. The IPC voted in approval on June 26.

To the anchors

Next year, the IPC will decide the medal count and which sport classes are allowed to compete. Spence stated, “The medal count is based on a confidential agreement with the IOC and is validated by the respective Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games.” Broadly speaking, he explained “each International Federation will propose to the IPC the medal events it would like to be included in the Games. The IPC then decides which events to include.”

For more on what the classification process is like for climbers check out our past comp coverage.

Podiumed paraclimber Melissa Ruiz is “over the moon” about the decision, but echoed the concerns of many saying, “I worry about what that means for paraclimbing, because there’s almost 20 categories total. So how are they going to navigate all of that? Hopefully they just do it with the same grace that they’ve been trying to do it …including everyone and only merging when necessary.” Ruiz has cerebral palsy and climbs in one of the decreased Range and Power (RP) classes. Most climbers in this sport class have neurological conditions that are less visible than the amputee or limb difference classes (AU and AL).

“The RP categories are what I’m worried about. I’m worried they’re going to take that out because it’s hard to classify us. It’s hard to set for us,” said Ruiz.

President Scolaris has, however, been emphatic that the federation will not eliminate sport classes from IFSC competitions simply because they are not chosen for the Paralympics. “We are in the Olympics [and Paralympics] but our categories, our World Championship, our World Cups will not change.”

But Ruiz says the setting for the RP classes can also be frustrating—they often climb the same routes as the blind or AU climbers (upper limb difference). “For the AU and the VI (blind) categories, they’re great! For the RPs, I think they either overestimate us or underestimate us…it’s almost like they’re still figuring out what kind of hard is too hard.” But, the setting has improved “year by year” she said.

Born with one hand, Brian Zarzuela is an AU climber and says “In the past couple years, we’ve seen routesetters pushing the limits of what they thought paraclimbers could do and it’s really exciting to see it.”

Maureen Beck acknowledged the truly difficult decisions in the future, but said, “I think for at least a couple weeks, we can pop the champagne…and start training.” Specifically, paraclimbers will be training for the third and final Paraclimbing World Cup of the 2024 season in Arco, Italy—where the journey began back in 2011.

The post Paraclimbing Will Debut at the LA28 Paralympics! appeared first on Climbing.