Elisabeth Tharp | Broadcast Reporter
As sport climbing joins the list of new sports being introduced into the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo, the Baylor Rock Climbing team is excited for the sport’s increased recognition.
Baylor has a climbing team that meets twice a week inside the McLane Student Life Center at The Rock Mondays at 10:00 p.m. – 12:00 p.m. and Wednesdays at 8:00-10:00 p.m.
“Something that is really nice about the climbing team is that it’s really laid back,” said junior climber, Adrienne Kruse. “We have people who just started climbing on the team and we have people who have been climbing for close to a decade.”
Sport climbing has three areas of focus: lead, bouldering and speed climbing. With each area, hours of practice go into building one’s skill set.
“I think climbers put in a lot of effort that a lot of Olympic athletes do and they are getting recognition for it,” said junior co-captain, Abdallah Brittain. “It’s great. It’s great for them and it’s great for the sport.”
Speed climbing can be viewed as the fastest sport in the Olympics since, on average, the winning time is under 7 seconds.
“Something that is cool about speed climbing is that you have bunch of holes on the wall and if you watch them, they look like spider monkeys — they fly up the wall,” Kruse said.
The rock climbing team is preparing for their competition season to begin in the spring and said they are eager for new students to join them and check out what the team is all about.
