The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), has issued an apology to a climber from Austria after a broadcaster included seemingly inappropriate close-ups of her behind.
Johanna Färber, 23, had been competing at the women's bouldering semi-finals at the World Championships on Saturday, September 18, in Moscow, Russia when a close-up replay shot of her bottom was shown by a host broadcaster.
This is, in fact, the second time this year that the athlete has had to deal with an incident of this nature. When faced with a similar situation in June, she referred to it as "disrespectful and upsetting", per Sky News.
The International Federation of Sport Climbing, the governing body for the sport of competitive climbing, has now apologized to Färber.
A statement from the organization reads:
“The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) would like to deeply apologise to Johanna Färber, Austria Climbing, all the athletes, and the entire Sport Climbing community for the images that were broadcast today during the women’s Boulder semi-final at the IFSC Climbing World Championships Moscow 2021.
“The IFSC condemns the objectification of the human body and will take further action in order for it to stop, and to protect the athletes.
“After meeting with representatives of the Austrian team, IFSC President Marco Scolaris issued the following comment: “How many times will things have to be done wrong, before we learn how to do them right?”
Following the incident, former climber and editor-in-chief at UKClimbing.com, Natalie Berry, told Sky News: “For this disrespectful incident to happen once again to the same athlete is very disappointing at a time when more eyes are on the sport than ever before and more women and girls are being introduced to climbing.”
A number of people have since flocked to social media to share their opinions on the matter.
One person wrote: “I would appreciate a deeper look into how this could happen twice. Who was the director? How did they choose which clips to replay? Why didn’t they get the memo from last time?”
Another added: “Honestly, this quote is disappointing. This has happened twice in the last 3 months – it’s the IFSC’s job to get this right. You need to learn now, this isn’t complicated.’”
A third said: “Wasn’t it Johanna Farber it happened to last time? What the hell is going on?”
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