To the boulders! - and no one can stop me!!!

It's with relief that I am now involved in the sport of bouldering, whereby the only decisions that matter are my own. No one else can tell me to, or make me, do anything, likewise, no one can stop me from achieving my goals. It's up to me, and when I've put in the hours of hard work, the focus, the determination and kept my resolve, no one can say - 'no, you're not allowed'.

I don't have to register my name, or acquire the approval of some old, and no doubt fat, bitter, bureaucratic fool who's lost sight of the importance of sportsmanship. When my friends have supported each other's hard work, there'll never be any disappointment for us not being allowed to go to the block and send the latest project.

There's no one that can take from the sense of personal achievement in bouldering.

In that way, climbing is truly a great sport.

With that in mind, It was with disappointment that I read of the plight of the British Rhythmic Gymnastics Squad a week ago.

International Gymnast Magazine: British Decline Olympic Spot for Rhythmic Group.

I've let this story settle in my mind, to allow the initial frustration of it ease... but a week later, I'm still miffed about it.

Cut a long story short, they missed the Olympic qualification mark on day one of competition by 2 tenths of a point. Day two, they smashed it by 2 whole marks. So any normal person would take an average of the two marks and see that this team had easily qualified through.

The team of girls were afforded a spot at the Games by the IOC, but the BOA turned it down, claiming the girls hadn't achieved a good enough result on day one.

I've no idea why this news has been annoying me so much over the last week or so, but it has.

The British Rhythmic Gymnastics team are self-funded, have no doubt trained relentlessly, since they were kids to achieve the standard they have and even after being GIVEN the Olympic berth, they've been told no.

Some fat arsed committee in some stupid boardroom somewhere has decided to destroy the goals and of this team, forgetting the very idea of sportsmanship and completely dismissing the Oath and the Creed of the Olympic Games. Not only that, they destroyed and undermined the the goals and hard work of the coaches, disappointed and laid to waste the support (both financial and motivational) of the athlete's families and so on...

I think that's wrong.

When I read about this, it made me appreciate how much I love bouldering and how little the opinions and rules of committees with their clip boards matter.

For me, it was when I completely let go of the importance of competition, that I realised what my motivation was.

It's different for everyone I suppose.

But I've a feeling of safety in the fact that the only thing that can stop me topping out my latest project...

Is me.