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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Olympic Speed Climbing Champion Sam Watson to Visit Mumbai

Mumbai: When Sam Watson sprints up a 15-metre wall, the world seems to slow down. The 19-year-old American speed climber, an Olympic medallist from Paris 2024 and current world-record holder at 4.64 seconds, has become the face of one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. On November 2, he will trade competition arenas for Mumbai’s High Rock in Powai, offering a rare day of workshops and conversations with India’s burgeoning community of climbers. Speed climbing, once a fringe pursuit of...

Olympic Speed Climbing Champion Sam Watson to Visit Mumbai

Mumbai: When Sam Watson sprints up a 15-metre wall, the world seems to slow down. The 19-year-old American speed climber, an Olympic medallist from Paris 2024 and current world-record holder at 4.64 seconds, has become the face of one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. On November 2, he will trade competition arenas for Mumbai’s High Rock in Powai, offering a rare day of workshops and conversations with India’s burgeoning community of climbers. Speed climbing, once a fringe pursuit of mountaineers, now stands as one of the Olympics’ most electrifying disciplines. The sport demands not just power and agility but precision measured in hundredths of a second. Watson, often hailed as the greatest speed climber of all time, has repeatedly rewritten the record books. His visit marks a milestone for India’s fledgling climbing scene. High Rock, the city’s first commercial climbing facility, opened its walls in December 2024 and has since drawn more than 10,000 enthusiasts. It represents the country’s growing fascination with vertical sports and a reflection of a global shift toward adventure and athleticism fused with technology and training science. During his visit, Sam Watson will conduct Masterclasses for both Kids and Adults, offering a rare opportunity for amateur climbers to learn directly from a global champion and experience his unmatched energy and technique up close. Watson will be joined by Matt Groom, the Official Lead Commentator for the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). Known as the voice of IFSC World Cups and World Championships, Groom will host a 30-minute talk at High Rock on ‘The Evolution of Climbing in Competitive Sport.’ His insights promise to provide a deep look into the transformation of climbing from niche adventure to Olympic spectacle. Event: Sam Watson, Olympic Medalist and current World Record holder at High Rock Date: November 2, 2025 Location: High Rock, Powai, Mumbai

Clouded Performance

The Rafale controversy post-Operation Sindoor simply refuses to die down. Despite repeated denials from top Indian defence officials and Dassault Aviation, a fog of innuendo and misinformation continues to swirl around the French-made fighter jet. The latest trigger for renewed debate was after Dassault Chairman and CEO Éric Trappier clarified that no Rafale was shot down in combat, but acknowledged that India had lost one aircraft to a technical fault, with a formal investigation underway.


These certainly are questions that deserve public scrutiny. After all, a single Rafale fighter costs upwards of Rs. 1,600 crores, a sum that should rightly demand operational transparency and robust public oversight. That India has reportedly lost one Rafale jet without official confirmation from New Delhi is in itself problematic. Even a whisper of malfunction or systemic oversight warrants honest reckoning. And yet, that is quite different from the sweeping allegations peddled by hostile powers and echoed, unwittingly or otherwise, by domestic sceptics.


Instead of fact-based analysis, the Rafale has become the target of something more corrosive: a sprawling disinformation campaign that stretches from Beijing to Islamabad and troublingly, into parts of the Indian media itself.  


What began as a Pakistani claim about Indian Rafales being shot down during Operation Sindoor has now steadily ballooned into a wider disinformation campaign allegedly orchestrated by Pakistan’s ally China, aimed at derailing France’s growing defence partnerships in Asia. What makes the saga more unsettling is not the predictable propaganda from India’s adversaries, but the ease with which parts of India’s own media ecosystem, including respected outlets, have echoed and in some cases, amplified these narratives. The result is a curious case of domestic dissent reinforcing foreign deception.


According to French defence and intelligence sources, China deployed its embassies to spread falsehoods about the Rafale’s performance, especially during India’s recent Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. The goal: to undermine confidence in a plane that symbolises not only technological sophistication but also strategic alignment with the West.


What China deployed was not garden-variety propaganda but an orchestrated assault on France’s defence exports. More than 1,000 social media accounts were launched during the India-Pakistan skirmish to circulate faked imagery, manipulated videos and video-game clips masquerading as real footage. This was not a guerrilla meme war but strategic digital warfare on a massive scale. Its target was nothing less than the credibility of a country offering high-end military products without the strings of political vassalage that Chinese exports often demand.


Dassault has already sold over 500 Rafales worldwide with countries like Egypt, Qatar and Indonesia signing up. For these buyers, India’s operational experience with the jet serves as a benchmark, making New Delhi’s messaging all the more consequential. The silence around the recent malfunction may have been intended to avoid embarrassment, but it has instead created a vacuum filled by speculation and sabotage. The Rafale, it seems, has verily flown into the storm of a new era of hybrid warfare, where bytes matter as much as bullets.

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