Climbing had a taste of the Olympics this summer as a demonstration sport at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. Ten climbers from around the world were chosen to join eight young Chinese climbers to present our sport to the rest of the Olympic athletes. Jen Wood - a member of the GB Bouldering Team was lucky enough to be selected and here is her experience.

Getting to Nanjing was a bit of a mission. I went straight there from a family holiday in Devon which meant a three hour drive to Bristol. I then caught the National Express to Heathrow, flew overnight to Beijing then finally to Nanjing. I arrived at 10pm after about 30 hours of travelling.

We had to wake up the next morning at 6am and I was feeling very jet lagged as the coach left at 7am to take us to the sports lab, where the climbing was located. The sports lab was an impressive venue. The speed skating rink surrounded the wushu mat, the skateboarding ramps and the climbing wall.

I was one of eighteen athletes from all over the world who were invited to Nanjing to show how good climbing would be as an Olympic sport. We had half an hour exhibition time every morning and evening where we demonstrated world class routes and boulders to the public as well as some speed climbing. It didn’t run like a competition as there wouldn’t have been time to show every discipline. The public were then invited to have a go at climbing in the initiation time and we were there to help them. Thanks to the commentator we were able to say things like left hand, left foot and up in Chinese.

Climbing was easily the most popular sport; people would stay and watch after our exhibition time was over or when we were warming up and the initiation time would always last well over an hour with many people coming back on multiple days.

As well as showing what felt like the whole of China how to climb, we were out to impress members of the International Olympic Committee with our sport.  This was a lot easier than I expected as there are so many reasons why climbing would be an amazing Olympic sport. All of the IOC members seemed to really like the sport and we even got a few of them to have a go. They especially liked that we all help each other with beta despite it being an individual competition.

We were allowed one rest day out of the 11 days in Nanjing so we went and saw the city and some other events. Nanjing was an amazing host for the Youth Olympics; you wouldn’t have known it wasn’t the real thing as they made such a big deal out of every athlete and event and the city was covered with posters and volunteers.

I saw some athletics in a really impressive Olympic stadium and was also pretty relieved to find a Starbucks just outside after having rice and noodles every meal every day.

Although the trip was really hard work, having to do a lot of climbing and coaching in Chinese, it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life.

The group of athletes there to climb were incredible and I’m sure we will stay in touch. We were all really well looked after by the IFSC and volunteers, and most importantly, I really think we showed that climbing is a worthy Olympic sport and I am really optimistic about its Olympic future.

Read Jen's pre-Nanjing interview.

BMC Youth Climbing Series Final 2014

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