Grassroot Sport Climbing Initiative of Odisha

One of the states which picked up the challenge of taking this latest (Sport Climbing) Olympics sports to the grassroot is ODISHA. While there are many States where Youth Affairs and Sports Departments has been organising and promoting the sport climbing event themselves since many years, Shri Vishal Dev Singh, Principal Secretary, Odisha YouthAffairs and Sports Department, under the guidance of Hon. CM Shri Naveen Patnaik decided to introduce sport climbing in Odisha by building a world class and truly International Climbing Wall. After completion of the wall construction in 2018-19 Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) - Darjeeling was roped in for conducting sports climbing training programs where children and youth from Bhubaneshwar participated overwhelmingly. Few schools from nearby areas also actively participated in the training programs and developed a climbing wall in their campus as well. Before closing down due to COVID the HPC Sport Climbing Wall had an opportunity to organizes 25th National Climbing Championship in 2020.

Recently, Youth Affairs & Sports Department of Odisha headed by Shri Vineel Krishna decided to re-open this HPC – Sport Climbing Centre in partnership with TSAF – Jamshedpur. TSAF has been asked by the Department to take the Sport Climbing to the villages of Odisha where the real talent is waiting for it. Swimming, Archery and Climbing are considered as the natural skill of tribal village youth in Odisha and the initiative of training them professionally into this sport would certainly bring out several talents which India needs before hosting the Olympics Games on its soil.

Along with TSAF – Jamshedpur there are several small organisation and initiatives by Senior Mountaineers and Climbing fraternity of Odisha like RourKela Trekkers Club which is actively working to promote the sport at their level. In the past few years when HPC Sport Climbing Wall at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar was closed they helped the climbers of Odisha to participate in Zonal Competition organised by Indian Mountaineering Foundation – East Zone Committee and Several National Open Sport Climbing Tournaments organised by TSAF -Jamshedpur and West Bengal Mountaineering and Adventure Sport Foundation under Department of Youth Affairs and Sport, Govt of W.B

Report Courtesy: The Print