The 2023 Climbing Census, which has just been released by Abee (Brazilian Sports Climbing Association) brings zero surprises for those who know the paths of the country's fields, trails and mountains. According to the entity, 70.7% of those who practice the sport are white, 67.3% are men and 86.4% are from the south and southeast regions.
“Yes, it was somewhat expected”, admits Neudson Aquino, spokesperson for Abee, conjecturing that the regional predominance may be due to the fact that its states have received more immigrants from European countries with a greater mountaineering culture.
“Now, the predominance of white men”, he adds, “has two issues, which are the fact that there is a notion, in the community, that men are stronger, therefore more capable of climbing, on the one hand, and which, because it is a somewhat expensive sport to start with, ends up alienating people with lower incomes, which affects black people more.”
So says mountaineer Aretha Duarte, the first black Latin American woman to reach the summit of Everest, on May 23, 2021. She, who had to do a virtual fundraiser that took her to The Wall on Luciano Huck's program to make your climbing dream come true.
She told Folha that, upon completing her feat, which despite the hype of recent years, is still for few, she received positive feedback from groups of black women and men who practice outdoor activities, happy because she represented them at the top of the world . “Even my neighborhood on the outskirts, Jardim Capivari, finally got on the map,” she said.
However, two years later, the representation of black women is still negligible, as can be seen in Abee statistics.
Since coming down from the top of the world, Aretha's life has included a routine of speaking at public schools and visiting NGOs, always seeking to talk to children, teenagers and young entrepreneurial women to show that dreaming is possible and, above all, desirable. One of her most recent projects is the implementation of climbing walls on the outskirts, to disseminate the sport, which has always been seen as elitist. The project wants to show that even if they cannot afford a mountaineering club, or hire an operator, “everyone can have contact with climbing on a Sunday afternoon in the square next to their house, democratizing and facilitating free access to this sport” , explains.
Another woman who fought and faced mountaineering machismo and, mainly, her own difficulties, is Marina Dias. At 41 years old, the university professor who had multiple sclerosis diagnosed in 2009, compromising the strength and coordination of the left side of her body, is world champion in paraclimbing, and has six medals in the sport, in the RP3 category.
“I started competing in paraclimbing because I saw that there were no women competing, only men since paraclimbing competitions began in Brazil, and I saw bringing female representation to the predominantly male sport as something very important,” recalls Marina.
Among the countless prejudices that Marina noticed when she started climbing, one of them is that women who do it become too muscular. “Often, women suffer when they get stronger, but we have to show that being strong is not being masculine, and I have tried to encourage girls not to be ashamed of getting stronger, with bigger shoulders”, she adds, who has an institute in Taubaté, in the interior of São Paulo, to develop new talents for the activity.
Marina also observes that, in a patriarchal society, she finds that the victories achieved by women in sport tend not to have the same relevance as those achieved by men. “If we had a male climbing world champion, things would be different than they are with a female world champion,” she says. “Sometimes, we women don't value our achievements as much as men do,” she adds.
Recently, Marina achieved another important milestone for national climbing, when she climbed, alongside fellow para-athlete Igor Silva, Brazilian champion in the RP3 category, Pão de Açúcar and Corcovado, in Rio de Janeiro. “It was the first time that a pair of para-athletes did these climbs”, celebrates Marina, who confirms that she does not limit her activity to indoor gyms, but takes her example to the most emblematic rock pirambeiras in the country.
Abee, meanwhile, is trying to do its part to promote diversity in official ranks. According to Aquino, “today in competitions there is the figure of the roadsetter (the person who installs the boulders, or grips, that will be used on the indoor climbing route), and in Brazilian championships we always have at least one woman working on this.”
He adds that, when it comes to team selection, “projects that have mixed teams score more”, and that from the base coaches program there is a concern to convince them to form mixed teams. Although the Brazilian team did not reach the mark to participate in the Paris Olympic Games this year, Aquino points out that “the level of our athletes is basically the same as the international level and we have obtained better results with female representatives than with male representatives”.
