Rope climbing. Not just the domain of Martha’s physical abilities testing at that haunted snake farm. At seven different Olympics from 1896 until 1932, climbing a rope counted as Olympic gymnastics. On five of those occasions, individual event medals were awarded for excellence at rope climbing (the other two times, it was included as an apparatus in the men’s all-around).

The first Olympic rope climbing event—appearing at the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896—was also the most intense. The rope was 14 meters high, just shy of 46 feet. It would never again come close to that height, with the next-highest Olympic rope climb ever contested coming in more than 13 feet shorter.

The 1896 competition originally had to be postponed due to darkness, but when it was brought back the next morning, a whole five people showed up to compete. The Zhaoqing Challenge Cup vault final owes it so much. Only the two Greek competitors fully completed the rope climb, with Nikolaos Andriakopoulos taking first place in 23.4 seconds. Standings were supposed to be based on both time and style, but sadly the rules for how style was evaluated have not survived. It’s a great shame for all of us. I badly need a document about how best to reflect an artistic theme through the medium of rope-climb arms.

The method for scoring or judging an event like rope climbing (Time? Style? Elbow pointiness?) and how to compare it to other apparatuses proved a conundrum that was never really solved, especially in the years when the rope climb was included in the all-around.

Continue reading It Used to be Gymnastics: Olympic Rope Climbing →