3 May 2016

2020: 9-year-olds will do 8b's and they'll progress to 9a being 13

During the last few years, we have seen an extreme grade progress in children's performance. What used to create a headline some five years ago, i.e. a 13-year-old doing an 8b+ is not so special any longer. If this trend continues, we will have 9-year-old doing 8b's by 2020 and then they will progress to 9a being 13 years old. The two most famous wonder-kids are of course Adam Ondra and Ashima Shiraishi but in few years, there might be a handful that can copy them or even climb harder. The rationale is of course that today there is possibly 10 times more kids climbing compared to 2000, when Adam Ondra was seven years old. In the long run, climbing will be recognized as the sport where small girls perform at high male senior standard.
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Jorge Diaz-Rullo FAโ€™s Cafรฉ Colombia (?) after 240 sessions
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