Can India win an Olympic Medal in Climbing?

While sport climbing made its debut in the Olympics only this year, it has had a popular home in India for many years now, says Shyam G Menon.

Early August 2021, sport climbing made its debut at the Olympic Games.

The format followed in Tokyo -- that of awarding the best athletes based on performance across three disciplines of the sport -- had sparked debate in the run-up to the Games.

Such an evaluation was a departure from the norm. But it doesn't matter anymore. With climbing's appearance at the Olympics, the sport may become bigger.

"In India, it is still a niche sport. I hope that with this debut at the Olympics, a lot more people take to climbing. I also hope that the number of climbing gyms goes up; that would make it a very accessible sport," says Franco Linhares, 70, among Mumbai's most consistently active climbers (he has been climbing since the 1980s) and someone who religiously maintains his regular visits to the crags or a climbing gym.

As sport climbing commenced at the Olympics, there was an engaging angle for fans of the sport in Mumbai. They were already familiar with some of the top-class athletes competing in Tokyo -- names like Shauna Coxsey, Tomoa Narasaki, Akiyo Noguchi, Miho Nonaka, Jakob Schubert, Jongwon Chon, Sean McColl, Jan Hojer and Alexei Rubtsov.

These internationally reputed climbers had participated in the sport's World Cup (part of an annual series), held in Navi Mumbai.

It's a story with roots in the Navi Mumbai suburb of Belapur; a story at the heart of which lay the demystification and local manufacturing of a core ingredient of the sport -- the climbing wall.

Many years ago, as a mountaineer living in a compact Belapur apartment that became favoured hangout for some of Mumbai's climbers, Abhijit Burman had put up a small artificial climbing wall with synthetic holds in his house.

Those days, artificial climbing walls were imported and few were available in the country. They cost a lot.

The wall Burman built for use at his home was built of plywood and easily purchased steel slotted angles. It was significantly cheaper than climbing's imported panels.

The climbing holds fitted on the panel were however mostly imported. When he shifted to another house -- a one room-kitchen -- in Belapur itself, Burman built a bigger wall; in retrospect, a tiny gym.

The main room was fitted out with a loft. The side walls of the room became a bouldering wall as did the underside of the loft, which offered a taste of overhang and roof.

When his house was renovated, however, he gave up the wall.

Professionally, Burman worked as a technician in the public sector. He was skilled in the use of machine tools. He could build things.

His brother, who helped visualise the climbing walls digitally on the computer, was an architect.

A young carpenter, co-opted into the work, became adept at giving physical shape to what the brothers had imagined.

For other related tasks, there was no shortage of volunteers from the climbing community.

A mixed group met at Burman's house. There were members of Girivihar (Mumbai's oldest mountaineering club) and there were young sport climbers led by Vaibhav Mehta.

Together, they were instrumental in staging an annual open climbing competition -- at that time believed to be India's biggest -- at Belapur.

Started in 2004, it drew participants from Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, Bikaner, Davengere, Kolkata, Darjeeling, the north east and foreign climbers visiting India.

The climbs were essayed on natural rock in the nearby hills. Within a couple of years, it was clear that climbing on artificial bouldering walls would be a sensible addition to the competition.

Besides variety, it made the event logistically simpler as the action would be concentrated at one venue.

The first set of artificial walls for the competition, designed and built at Burman's house, revealed the organisers' position on the learning curve.

At the climbing competition marking its debut, the homemade bouldering wall was secured to the windows of the auditorium hired for the event.

In the next couple of years, as the event grew, and the number of climbing walls increased, they were mounted on bamboo scaffolding outdoors.

Compared to the photos of climbing walls overseas, it wasn't a pretty sight.

None of this however diluted the enthusiasm of participants and fans of the sport who gathered to watch. They enjoyed the proceedings and cheered the climbers on; unforgettable for their enthusiasm was the contingent from Pune.

Besides India, participants for the competition arrived from Europe, US, Indonesia, Singapore and Iran. For a couple of years, French climbers helped configure climbing routes.

In due course, the home-grown competition became almost entirely conducted on artificial walls designed and built locally.

The structure, looks, fit and finish of the walls improved greatly with time. They became objects everyone took pride in.

The climbing competition in Belapur was conducted successfully for 11 years. It prompted the organising team to dream bigger.

In 2016, Girivihar, along with the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, hosted the first IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) World Cup competition in bouldering in India. This was top notch competition-climbing -- held at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, with Tata Trusts as the main sponsor -- featuring some of the world's best sport climbers.

The World Cup needed two big bouldering walls of international standards.

One wall was dispatched by a large company overseas, the official wall-supplier for the event worldwide. The other was fabricated locally by Burman and his team, drawing on their experience of having built walls for the smaller competition in Belapur.

The final wall was inspected and approved by IFSC officials. It performed well at the World Cup and the event was much appreciated.

The following year, a second IFSC World Cup was held in Navi Mumbai. This time, the imported wall was designated for warm-up (athletes used it to get ready before making their appearance on stage to compete), while the main competition venue featured two locally built walls.

Once again, they performed well.

Among those who competed on these walls were international athletes who have since participated in the Tokyo Olympics.

Currently, there are indigenous climbing walls in various Indian cities. But Burman's is special because of its organic continuity from the wall's debut as homemade solution to its vindication in an international competition. And all this took place in one place -- Navi Mumbai.

It succeeded because of an ecosystem fuelled by passion for the sport and the thrill of foraying into new projects.

From the first wall he built, to the first sport climbing competition in Belapur, and on to the two World Cups in Navi Mumbai, it had been a long haul for Burman.

"You have to stick with the journey and not expect quick results," says Burman (known fondly in climbing circles as Bong).

Meanwhile, more climbing walls have sprung up in Mumbai.

The imported wall from the World Cup now sits at a climbing gym in the Navi Mumbai suburb of Nerul, a reminder of how the Mumbai region came to know some of the stars in Tokyo.

Shyam G Menon is a Mumbai-based columnist.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com