After Lead and Speed climbing in July, hundreds of the best Bouldering athletes in the world will compete this week in Munich, Germany, the 7th and final IFSC Bouldering World Cup of the 2017 season.

The monthly Executive Board teleconference took place on August 18th. The agenda included an update on the events in the past month, updates and discussions around the organisation of the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and continuing growth of the IFSC.

The Executive Board approved the Continental Membership of the Cambodia Climbing Association, to be ratified in the Plenary Assembly in Innsbruck March 2018. In addition, the  Board was also informed about the hiring of an additional employee, a Sport Officer, who will join the team in September.

The next Executive Board Mmeeting will take place on September 20th.

The Briançon Lead World Cup, a staple event in the IFSC calendar, provided a perfect backdrop for a meeting between IFSC President Marco Scolaris, Vice- President Treasurer and Finances Pierre-Henri Paillasson, President of the French Federation (FFME) Pierre You and local organisers.
After almost 25 years, the organisers continue to develop their event and seek to reach broader audiences, in part in memory of their “patron” Philippe Ligerot, who was killed two years ago in an avalanche. Proposals to develop the event included the relocation of the wall and a possible permanent infrastructure, to offer additional climbing opportunities to the thousands of climbers who come every year from all Europe to visit the endless crags of the region.

IFSC Europe and Bulgarian Federation would like to inform you that there will be online streaming of the European Youth Cup Boulder in Sofia. The event has its own dedicated YouTube Channel, which will go live to show the young talent on display on August 5th and 6th.

We hope that this stream will allow friends and family members who could not attend to take part in the action and cheer on the young climbers.

You can access a list of the registerd athletes here.

LUXOV Touch® during the Youth World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria
As an official partner of the IFSC, Luxov will be at the youth world championships to present its latest innovation, the LUXOV Touch® climbing holds system.

Recent weeks have seen several organisational and logistical meetings with IOC bodies for the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018. Most recently, the IFSC delegation met with representatives of Olympic Result and Information System (ORIS) at The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw. Sport Director Jérôme Meyer and Event Officer Alesandro Di Cato attended the meeting, in which the two organisations discussed the different needs of the three Sport Climbing disciplines in the combined format.

IFSC President Marco Scolaris and Secretary General Debra Gawrych deemed the “Urban Cluster” concept, in which sport competitions take place in the heart of the city, a complete success at The World Games in Wroclaw. At the event, Sport Climbing was featured on the central Nowy Targ, an arrangement which received significant positive feedback from the Polish Sport Ministry, the Wroclaw Organising Committee and other World Games organisers. The IFSC was delighted that spectators were moved to discuss developing permanent climbing facilities as well as consider the opportunity of opening the walls to the public after future competitions.

Many notable actors in sport including IOC President Thomas Bach attended the competition on Nowy Targ. Representatives of the Polish Sport Ministry and the Polish National Climbing Federation were also in attendance, and Athlete Edyta Ropek was recognised as the most decorated woman in climbing for Poland. She presented the silver medal at the awarding ceremony for the men’s Speed competition. Both the IFSC and the athletes were thrilled at this warm reception.

President Scolaris and Secretary General Gawrych were particularly pleased as the same concept is to be used at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. “The World Games in Poland showed how well the urban cluster can display a sport to a large audience,” President Scolaris said. “We are very confident and excited to see the same concept applied in the Youth Olympic Games and Olympic Games: imagine sport climbing being side by side with skateboarding, basketball 3 on 3, BMX freestyle: what a blast!”

IFSC President Marco Scolaris and Secretary General Debra Gawrych used the opportunity of The World Games in Wroclaw to meet with and discover additional sports. The IFSC executives were treated to the chance of shooting arrows at the archery venue with World Archery Secretary General Tom Dielen and 1st Vice President Mario Scarzella, as well as attended impressive sporting displays in Gymnastics, Flying Disk, Roller Sports, Wakeboard and Water Ski, Power Lifting and Karate.

The accreditation system for the Innsbruck Youth World Championships is now open on the official event webpage. National Federations are advised that in addition to the registration on Egroupware, all Athletes, Coaches and Team Officials are required to register on the accreditation portal. A guide to the accreditation process has been sent to all National Federations and is also available here.
Registration on both Egroupware and the Innsbruck accreditation system will close on August 25, 2017.

The closing ceremony of The World Games 2017 took place on Sunday, ending ten days of sports competitions at the highest level in Wroclaw, Poland.