Elan Jonas-McRae of Nanaimo has been described as being like a spider on a wall.
Those spidey senses could carry sa国际传媒鈥檚 top-ranked male junior climber all the way to the 2020 Summer Olympics, which will take place in Istanbul, Tokyo or Madrid.
The burgeoning sport of climbing has been short-listed 鈥� along with karate, roller sport, baseball/softball, squash, wushu and wakeboard 鈥� as a possible choice to be added to the 2020 Olympics.
But they could all be done in by the huge world-wide sentiment building for wrestling, which is being shockingly expelled after the 2016 Rio Summer Games. The IOC, feeling the fury of the outrage that followed their decision, has said wrestling can join the list of sports applying to be the one sport added for 2020.
Nothing against mats, but it鈥檚 walls that rule at the 2013 Canadian youth climbing championships that began Saturday and run through Monday at the Boulders Gym in Central Saanich鈥檚 Stelly's High School.
鈥淐limbing has all the aspects an Olympic sport needs to have,鈥� said Jonas-McRae.
He has a point.
The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius 鈥� Faster, Higher, Stronger.
What is competitive climbing if not all of that?
And climbing is as ancient and basic a human activity as wrestling.
鈥淕etting into the Olympics would be an amazing opportunity for our sport,鈥� said the top-ranked Canadian junior female climber, Alison Stewart-Patterson of Victoria.
鈥淓veryone here at the Canadian championships is super-excited that it鈥檚 being considered. I hope someday to compete for sa国际传媒 in the Olympics.鈥�
Whether Stewart-Patterson, Jonas-McRae, or any of the other climbers competing in the Canadian youth championships get to become Olympians will be decided soon.
The IOC executive board will whittle the contending new sports for 2020 down to three during a meeting May 29 in St. Petersburg, Russia. As more than a few people have noted, that date is the 60th anniversary of the first-ever ascent of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and is an auspicious one for climbing.
The final vote will be taken by the entire IOC membership on Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, the same day the IOC chooses among Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid as 2020 Summer Games host city.
Until then, all competitive climbers will be crossing their fingers.
The qualifying rounds of the Canadian youth championships at Boulders took place Saturday. The semifinals are today from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with the finals Monday from 9 a.m. to noon.
The nationals are the prelude to the 2013 world youth championships that take place also at the Central Saanich facility from Aug. 15-19.
