After the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the International Federation of Sport Climbing prepared an action plan that will drive its main decisions in the upcoming months.

In these difficult times, the IFSC Executive Board is meeting every week to have a constant and thorough confrontation around the current situation, while IFSC President Marco Scolaris participated in two conference calls with the IOC President Thomas Bach and the presidents of all Summer Olympic Federations, also holding internal teleconferences with National Federations, athletes, officials and other stakeholders.

During the call organised on Thursday, April 2, the IFSC Executive Board agreed on a shared action plan to be followed in the next months:

1. No IFSC competition will take place until June 30, 2020, meaning that the competitions that were provisionally scheduled within that date have been postponed
2. To allow athletes, officials and organisers to prepare in the best possible way, competitions scheduled on a determined month will have to be confirmed with a 60-days notice:

• May 1: Possible confirmation of all the event provisionally scheduled in July
• June 1: Possible confirmation of all the event provisionally scheduled in August
• July 1: Possible confirmation of all the event provisionally scheduled in September
• August 1: Possible confirmation of all the event provisionally scheduled in October and November

iii. Now that the new dates of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been set, the IFSC Sport Department will also start working on the 2021 IFSC Season alongside National Federations and Event Organisers

1. The IFSC will keep working closely with the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee on the review of all the processes aimed at the preparation and delivery of the Olympic Games, including a readjusted communication plan that will keep promoting Sport Climbing in the lead up to its official debut on the Olympic stage in 2021

To protect the IFSC and mitigate financial risks, all the costs will be constantly monitored, while the ones related to unessential services will be consistently reduced. Also, the IFSC will apply for extraordinary unemployment funds provided by the Italian Government through the National Institute for Social Security. These funds will cover part of the staff salaries during these difficult times of inactivity or reduced activity caused by the outbreak of COVID-19.

IFSC President Marco Scolaris said: “We are living hard times and we live in uncertainty. However, are not going to give up and we are setting programmes with different options for the upcoming months, depending on circumstances. We want to be ready when better days will come and we will climb the world again.”

INFO: International Federation of Sport Climbing