IFSC CAPITALISES ON SOARING POPULARITY OF CLIMBING TO AGREE THREE-YEAR DEAL WITH DISCOVERY

Sport Climbing will be brought to millions of people across Europe after the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) and Discovery Sports announced a new three-year partnership to broadcast all IFSC World Cup and World Championship events on discovery+*, Eurosport App and Eurosport’s linear channels.

In the lead up to Olympic Games Paris 2024**, Discovery’s year-round approach to storytelling will further boost the popularity of Sport Climbing, telling the stories of the athletes and raising their profiles as the faces of the sport, taking it to new audiences across the continent. In addition, the appeal of climbing to broader audiences beyond sport makes it a natural fit for discovery+ with the streaming platform’s wide-ranging offering appealing to viewers of lifestyle and entertainment content.

“More than anything, our agreement with Discovery will raise the profile of our sport and our athletes, which should result in greater sponsorship opportunities for all climbers around the world,” said IFSC President Marco Scolaris. “We are confident that partnering with Discovery will help solidify our position as one of the fastest-growing Olympic sports and, thanks to the greater exposure, will lead more and more people to become interested in not only watching Climbing, but also trying it out.”

Trojan Paillot, VP Sports Rights Acquisition and Syndication at Discovery Sports, said: “Sport Climbing proved incredibly popular with audiences watching across our platforms during the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year, proving attractive to new and different audiences than some of those who already enjoy watching the sport and demonstrating its potential for engagement and growth.

“We are delighted to be able to showcase the best of the sport for the next three years on discovery+ and Eurosport’s channels and platforms. Discovery has built an enviable reputation for helping to grow sports and events and taking them to wider audiences and we look forward to taking this sport to more people across Europe in the lead-up to Paris 2024.”

The 2022 IFSC World Cup Series starts with the IFSC Boulder World Cup in Meiringen, Switzerland, scheduled from 8 to 10 April in the eastern Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The IFSC will continue its delayed free streaming of events via The Olympic Channel, to be shown 24 hours after the end of each live round within each event.

The full schedule for the 2022 IFSC World Cup Series:

  • 8-10 April – Meiringen (SUI) – Boulder
  • 6-8 May – Seoul (KOR) – Boulder, Speed
  • 20-22 May – Salt Lake City (USA) – Boulder
  • 27-29 May – Salt Lake City (USA) – Boulder, Speed
  • 10-12 June – Brixen (ITA) – Boulder
  • 22-25 June – Innsbruck (AUT) – Boulder, Lead
  • 30 June-2 July – Villars (SUI) – Lead, Speed
  • 8-10 July – Chamonix (FRA) – Lead, Speed
  • 22-23 July – Briançon (FRA) – Lead
  • 2-3 September – Koper (SLO) – Lead
  • 24-26 September – Jakarta (INA) – Lead, Speed
  • 30 September-2 October – Wujiang (CHN) – Lead, Speed
  • 6-9 October – Chongqing (CHN) – Boulder & Lead
  • October – TBD location in Japan – Boulder 

ENDS
*discovery+ is available is available to watch on discovery+ in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom and Ireland.
**Discovery is the Home of the Olympics in Europe (excludes Russia).

​About Discovery Sports: Discovery Sports represents Discovery’s portfolio of sports brands, channels and platforms. It collectively reaches 130 million people every month, engaging fans and broad audiences in more than 200 markets and in over 20 languages across all platforms where consumers are spending time --- free-to-air TV, pay-TV, streaming, online and social. Discovery Sports includes the much-loved consumer brands Eurosport, Global Cycling Network (GCN), Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN), Golf Digest and GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR, as well sports programming and content on discovery+ and Discovery’s free-to-air TV networks. They connect audiences with the greatest sporting events in the world. This includes being the Home of the Olympics Games in Europe; tennis’ Grand Slams; cycling’s Grand Tours and more than 200 days racing a year; the PGA TOUR year-round; the best new and existing electric racing series with ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and FIA eTouring Car World Cup; and every major winter sports World Championship and World Cup event. Discovery Sports completes a full 360 offer with its events management and promotion arm, Discovery Sports Events. 

About the IFSC: The International Federation of Sport Climbing is the international governing body of Sport Climbing; and it has 95 Member Federations. It was founded on 27 January 2007 as a continuation of the International Council for Competition Climbing, which was founded 10 years earlier, in 1997. As a non-profit organisation, the objectives of the IFSC are the direction, regulation, promotion and development of Sport Climbing competitions all around the world. After a successful debut at Tokyo 2020, Sport Climbing is set to make its second consecutive Olympic appearance at Paris 2024, and has been officially included in the initial programme of LA28. In 2018, two Sport Climbing medal events were contested at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018.

220325 IFSC News IFSC capitalises on soaring popularity of Climbing to agree three year deal with DiscoveryOlympic Champion Janja Garnbret of Slovenia competes in the women's Combined event at Tokyo 2020
Photo: Leo Zhukov/IFSC

IFSC Press Release

© 2019 ifsc-climbing.org    All Rights Reserved