Climbing Escalade Canada (CEC) Now Recognized by Canadian Olympic Committee
After becoming the official Canadian IFSC member in February 2016, CEC has now been recognized by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). This recognition was announced during the COC Session on Saturday, April 16. CEC was officially incorporated as the National Sport Organization for competition climbing in Canada in 2012 and undertook important but exciting governance changes to better serve Canadian competition climbers and to be in accordance with the Sport Canada model and requirements.
Over the past few years a board composed of administrators from each Provincial Federations as well as the Alpine Club of Canada has worked together to advance the sport within Canada, Provincial Championships and National Series were created, many governance policies have been produced or clarified, a new bilingual web site was put in place and several world class events have been hosted.
Many challenges still lie ahead for a young organization still entirely run by volunteers and with no government funding yet. But competition climbing is growing at an impressive rate in Canada with new climbing gyms being built all over the country and with very dynamic provincial federations running competition series throughout the country. Talented young climbers are following in the footsteps of their Canadian Idol, World Cup and World Championships multi medalist and twice overall World Champion Sean McColl. CEC will do everything it can to support those Canadian climbers that can now consider themselves as part of the Canadian Olympic family and hopefully can dream of Tokyo 2020. CEC is a National Sport Organization with a mandate to regulate and promote the development of competition climbing in bouldering, difficulty and speed climbing. CEC will provide assistance to athletes, coaches, and event organizers at the National level.
Canada is also well represented at the International governance level, with two representatives on the IFSC Board of Directors: Sean McColl, as athlete representative, and Maria Izquierdo, CEC Chair, as the president of the Pan American Council. Competition climbing keeps growing and gaining recognition at the International level. It is now official that the IOC Sport Department will present climbing to the IOC EB in early June of this year; hopefully the IOC EB will then recommend its inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 games to the 129th IOC Session, scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro, prior to the XXXI Olympic Games, from August 2 to 4.
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