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Krampl and Rakovec show why the fight is worthwhile

An a Sunday in December, Mia Krampl from Slovenia stood in front of a climbing wall in Toulouse and cried. She wanted to be happy, she knew at that moment that she was qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but it just didn’t work. She cried, she later told The New York Times, because a few meters away Lucka Rakovec was waiting, her friend, who also wanted to go to the Olympics but was no longer allowed to go because of her. She cried until Rakovec ran to her, hugged her and told her to stop now and go to the podium.

The Tokyo Olympics would have opened this Friday. And if you want to know what is going to be lost this year, you have to know the case of Mia Krampl and Lucka Rakovec, 20 and 19 years old, both from Slovenia. They’ve been climbing ever since they were little, making friends at their first international competition, that was in 2015. A year later, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that sport climbing in Tokyo would be part of the Summer Games program for the first time. Krampl and Rakovec started dreaming – and training even harder. They drove each other, even though they knew that only one could do it.

A wonderful invention

There was only one place left in the Slovenian team behind Janja Garnbret, the world champion. They reached the final in Toulouse, where the Tokyo tickets were distributed. In the end, the decision was made with a single grip. Krampl could hold on, but Rakovec couldn’t. And so one may presumably experience what the other may never be able to experience. Nobody knows whether climbing will remain in the Olympic program. Now Mia Krampl is preparing for her lifelong dream – with the help of Lucka Rakovec, who says: “If it’s a real friend, you have to be happy with her. Friendship is always more important than competition and medals. “

It may sound naive, but the story of Mia Krampl and Lucka Rakovec stands for what the Olympic idea means. Two young women get together in sport, share a life dream, travel around the planet, make friends and stick to each other, although sooner or later their paths will have to separate them. At such moments it becomes clear what a wonderful invention Olympia is: the youth of the world gathers for peaceful competition. Wow!

However, it would be even more naive to restrict the Olympic Games to this idea. Its inventor and guardian, the IOC, unfortunately also stands for greed, megalomania and corruption. If the idea of ​​the games were not so wonderful, their influence on the youth not so great, one would have had to turn away a long time ago. When Corona spread, the Olympics had long been infected by a virus. Now there is a second one that came from outside. Olympia is canceled – and nobody knows for how long.

But maybe these days, when athletes from all over the world don’t meet in Tokyo, but adapt their life plans in the home office, why it is worth fighting for the Olympic Games despite skepticism and resistance: They are missing, and painful.

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