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Athlete or Model? 29-Jan-2015 At 12:38:13 PM rolsen1

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On 29/01/2015 wallwombat wrote:
>SBC is a 20 year old self-professed "professional climber'' currently studying
>digital marketing at the Uni of Arizona. She is hot, wears tiny little
>outfits when she climbs and sponsors love her.

Thanks for the clarification about her, you seem to be knowledgable. I see you've put professional climber in quotes, I assume you're pointing out that her definition of a professional climber isn't the norm and that claim shouldn't be taken seriously.

>
>She has a huge (mostly male) following on social media.
>
>Apparently she climbs indoors 300 days a year and outdoors about 20. She
>boulders at a grade around V7.
>
>She is a bit like the Anna Kournikova of comp climbing in the states,
>although that's probably being a bit unfair to Anna K.
>

I wonder if Anna Kournikova dared to refer to herself as a professional tennis player? A quick look at wikipedia shows she only made it to number 8 in the world... a long way from number 1. She'd probably pass a professional in quotes tennis player. Oh, she made it to number one in doubles tennis, maybe it is better we call her a professional doubles tennis player, no need for the quotes with that one.
>Like Anna, though, she makes more money from sponsorships and endorsements
>than she does from winning climbing comps.
>

So that's why you need the quotes... got it.

>I think Bishharat's point is she defines herself as a "professional climber",
>when there are really talented climbers out there who have to juggle work
>with climbing and don't have the luxury to be able to call themselves pro
>climbers.
>

Hang on, even though you've used the quotes, isn't a professional athlete an athlete who participates in professional competitions? Now I think about Anna Kournikova did play in professional tennis competitions, lets risk it and just drop the quotes when we describe it as a tennis player.

Also a quick look at SBC's website shows she competes in professional climbing competitions surely that also (begrudgingly) makes her a professional athlete? Begrudgingly I think I'm going to have to drop the quotes when I describe her as a professional rock climber, don't worry wallwombat I'm sure you can still use the quotes when you write it, or air quotes when you talk about her.

>Personally, I think she is exceptionally good at what she does - digital
>marketing of herself.

But aren't you concerned that she's gaming the system? Just like that aussie girl with those small hands gamed passport to insanity all those years ago! As long as that girl knows she couldn't climb Passport with a guys hands, and SBC knows she wouldn't be a professional climber without digital marketing of herself "we" (us guys) should all be ok.

>
>It helps that she is hot and wears next to nothing when she climbs but
>that in itself is probably not enough. Alex Puccio, for example is also
>pretty hot, also wears tiny little outfits and climbs V13. She wins lots
>of comps in the US, yet probably cant call herself a "professional climber"
>as she lags behind SBC in the digital marketing game, in which SBC is an
>absolute expert.
>

There are the quotes again, got it you need to win and game the system to be a professional climber if you are a woman.

>Good on SBC, in that respect. I think she should call herself a professional
>digital self-marketer who models and climbs. Even in this day and age,
>it's almost impossible to be a "professional climber" - there would be
>none in Australia.
>
>NB: I wouldn't even call James Kassay a professional climber. He owns
>a climbing gym and I imagine that's where most of his income comes from.

Thanks for clearing that up, if you're a guy you need to be the best but you don't need to game the system to be a professional climber (without quotes). Although its likely to be impossible anyway.

If it is impossible shouldn't we redefine the term professional climber so at least some people can be them? I don't know, how about every climber who competes in professional competitions can call themselves professional climbers... just like every other sport.

Now if we could just round up all of the male climbers we could have a vote.