In 2001 the American Chris Sharma dominated the Bouldering World Cup in Munich. But the victory was revoked - because of cannabis consumption. Today, twenty years later, professional climbers consume carrots and insect meal. Our sport has become more professional. We take a look at the past and present.
2001 in Munich: The young one Chris Sharma dominated the competition, just three days after having competed Biography in Céüse made the world's first 9a +. The 20-year-old Californian is currently taking the climbing world by storm and is the light figure on Boulder World Cup in Munich - and still lands hard on reality.
Sharma fails the doping test and is subsequently disqualified.
THC is detected in his blood, Sharma fails the doping test and is subsequently disqualified. It is obvious that THC does not provide any performance-enhancing advantage, and yet it is consistently taken. An example should be made with the Californian Sunnyboy: Please do not use cannabis for competitive climbing. The UIAA was just starting its ambitions to make sport climbing Olympic.
Chris Sharma's participation in the Boulder World Cup in Munich 2001
To signal to the Olympic Committee that it is being taken seriously, Sharma should be pilloried.
In order to signal to the Olympic Committee that they are taking it seriously, Sharma should be pilloried - at least that is the consensus in the climbing forums. Most sympathies lie with the perpetrator, while the UIAA is assumed to be marketing and greed for profit. «Keep climbing evil. Keep climbing real ”, writes a user who sees the importance of sport climbing endangered by the Olympic ambitions.
Today climbing is a high-performance sport
Now, 20 years later, the time has come. Competitive climbing now occupies a niche in high-performance sport that hardly affects outdoor climbing. Athletes like Ondra, Ghisolfi, megos or Schubert can move easily in both worlds at the highest level and uphold the values of the respective discipline. However, these guys are no longer booming, praising carrots, enough sleep and yoga. If you compare that with the legendary free climbing scene of the 80s in Yosemite, which is often referred to as the origin of the climbing soul, then yes: "keep climbing evil", that was once upon a time ...
The child prodigy from the Czech Republic at the World Cup in Imst 2009
But this change of heart would have happened without it Olympia set? Probably already. It just looks like sport climbing has grown up, puberty is over. 2007 became Edu Marin Disqualified for cocaine use at the World Cup in Zurich and excluded from competitions by the IFSC for two years. In a later interview he apologized and said it was hard to endure the whole training, "so many hours in the hall, always the same routine ..."
In 2007 Edu Marin was disqualified for cocaine use at the World Cup in Zurich and was banned from competitions by the IFSC for two years.
Marin was something like the last flick of the dubious substances, at least in competitive climbing. There have been no notable incidents since 2007. And the fact that Marin's attempt to legitimize his cocaine use did not garner much understanding seems to mean that both prevalence and acceptance in the scene are non-existent.
Alexander Huber sees the cleanliness of sport in danger
Alex Huber said in an interview that this could change because of the Olympics: “Up until now, climbing was a very clean sport because there wasn't a lot of money involved (...) It would be professionalism, the national teams and the medical care it would be a miracle if climbing remained doping-free. "
We say: as long as carrots or insects do not appear on the doping list, sport climbing has a good chance of becoming one of the cleanest sports at the Olympics.
Do you like our climbing magazine? When we launched LACRUX, we decided not to introduce a payment barrier. It will stay that way, because we want to provide as many like-minded people with news from the climbing scene.
In order to be more independent of advertising revenue in the future and to provide you with even more and better content, we need your support.
Therefore: Help and support our magazine with a small contribution. Naturally you benefit multiple times. How? You will find out here.
+ + +
Credits: Cover picture Dan Krauss / Red Bull Content Pool