Keep on climbing!
The International Olympic Committee recognizes the IFSC

Last December, we met the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, in Lausanne. We honestly told him that, when we started 25 years ago, we could not imagine that this, one day, would happen.

Climbers life is strange, though: sometimes you are in front of a boulder, of a crag, of a wall, in a competition or outdoor, and you see a line, a sequence: it might look damned out of reach.
But then the spirit starts crying and the motivation grows: we try, we train, we climb, we make it!
If you are a climber you know what I mean.

Being recognized by the International Olympic Committee was considered by many a “mission impossible”.
But a bunch of people believed in it. Watching our kids and our young climbers we knew and we felt that they deserved to be part of the Olympic family.
We worked hard, we listened, we learned, we climbed, we made it.

And here we are: this is not the end of the story, it is a start!
Being part of the Olympic Family, while gives dignity to our climbers as actors of a Sport, brings the responsibility to move on in the spirit of the Olympism, with the principles reaffirmed in Copenaghen, in occasion of the XIII Olympic Congress, in October 2009.
The definitive IOC recognition, ratified by the 122° Session in Vancouver, on February 12 (three years after the IFSC foundation in Frankfurt), gives to each and every one of us the duty to continue the job: our sport and our athletes must be considered and recognized not only in Lausanne, but inside our countries, at all levels, from kids to adults.

Climbing (moving in the vertical dimension) is one of the human basic movements. Its motor skills are primordial and reside in all human beings, able to climb even before being able to walk.
That’s why it is so natural, and attracts the children.
We know that climbing has been used and is used  in a variety of activities and for different purposes, including going up the mountains, that is called mountaineering.
We started the Sport and surprisingly we discovered the social value of the sport of climbing.
It is a powerful educational tool, it is for all, without barriers: paraclimbing shows it.

Getting here, climbing up here was a great challenge, although hard.
The game is not over, it starts again: someone sees the line, the sequence…
Passion lives here…we want to climb higher, stronger and faster.
We need to be strong, we need to be ready. Are you ready?

Marco Maria Scolaris
IFSC President

Brand new start: the IFSC communication projects for 2010

2010 opens with the pursuit of a radical improvement of the IFSC communication with three projects destined to change the look and feel of the Federation: the IFSC newsletter, the IFSC webcasting and the website renewal.

The IFSC newsletter is what you now have in your hands, or better, on your screens. It’s meant to be an improvement of the classical Highlights, with a broader focus on sport and on the athletes, with updates on the activity of the National Federations and athletes’ interviews, previews of upcoming events and reports of the past ones. To make it really interesting for all of you who are reading it we are open to suggestions, and are looking forward to yours!

After 2009, when almost all IFSC World Cup events were webcast thanks to the effort of the National Federations, starting from this year the IFSC Executive Board has decided to support a professional IFSC webcast service for major calendar events, to deliver of a high quality product also destined to TV. The webcast will be planned in cooperation with the organizers of each event to meet in the best way both their needs and the audience’s.


Among the three projects, the IFSC website renewal will most likely be completed in 2011. The decision to change the looks and the structure of the IFSC website springs from the desire to communicate better and with more immediacy to a very composite audience, providing both the institutional information necessary for the stakeholders but attracting the athletes and youth as well.

Elena Corriero