In a disappointing turn of events, on Tuesday USA Climbing (USAC) confirmed that none of its athletes would be competing in the Lead World Cup in Briançon, France, after a representative from USA Climbing failed to attend a pre-comp check-in and confirm their attendance. This means that the American climbers on the start list for the World Cup—which began July 17 and wraps up July 19—have been barred from competing. (The Speed competitors were unaffected.)
Although 10 Americans were on the start list for the event, U.S. Olympian Colin Duffy told Climbing that at least a couple of these—himself and fellow Olympian Jesse Grupper—were not intending to compete in Briançon, which USAC would have indicated to the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) at the check-in.
(Duffy won gold at last weekend’s Chamonix Lead World Cup, but is stepping back from any further competitions to focus on preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in August.)
The other climbers on the U.S. start list who have now been disqualified were men Nathan Sato, Declan Osgood, and Hugo Hoyer, and women Alyssa Keanini, Analise Van Hoang, Olivia Ma, Melina Costanza, and Adriene Akiko Clark.
USA Climbing issued an apology for the blunder via their website yesterday. “We can only imagine the immense disappointment our athletes and fans must be feeling right now,” the statement reads. “We want to express our sincerest apologies for this inexcusable oversight. Our staff are actively working on ways to prevent this from happening again in the future.”
“There’s always a meeting before these comps to confirm team attendance that the Team Official should go to,” Duffy explained. “I don’t know what went down, but I guess our Team Official for that event just didn’t show up. Obviously, rules are rules. But it sucks that the team couldn’t get a warning or something, and maybe the athletes could still compete.”
Somewhat damningly, although the USAC statement says “the rules require a confirmation of attendance in person by a Team Official at the competition venue,” a public PDF dictating all of the IFSC’s 2024 Rules states that “in exceptional circumstances” check-ins can alternatively be performed via SMS or phone call.
In another error, the USAC statement said that a “Team Official” was required to confirm attendance, but the IFSC Rules list states that even one of the competitors may do this themself if no Team Official is registered.
Rumors were awash on social media in the wake of the incident, with some sources speculating that there was a lack of consideration for non-Olympic USA Climbing team members this close to the Paris Games.
Although some of the athletes, like Duffy, were already in Europe for previous IFSC events, he said several had flown over from the United States specifically for the Briançon World Cup. “I can’t imagine how that felt,” he said. “There really aren’t any positive takeaways.” In their statement, the USAC said that they would reimburse travel expenses for all the affected athletes and their family who traveled to support them.
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