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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

Trade Tantrum

Donald Trump has never been a fan of facts. But even by his standards, the latest salvo against India reeks of economic illiteracy, diplomatic petulance and strategic folly. With all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the 47th president of the United States has slapped a punitive 25 percent tariff on Indian imports, cloaking his tantrum in half-truths and hyperbole. He called India a “friend” even as he penalised it more harshly than Vietnam, Indonesia or even China. In reality, the only ‘friend’ Trump seems keen to court sits in Rawalpindi.

 

India is not an American vassal state. Nor is it under the American security umbrella like Europe or Japan. It does not bend easily to pressure, especially not now. India under Narendra Modi is no longer the hesitant, reactive power of the past. It is assertive, nationalistic and increasingly unapologetic in defending its own economic interests. If Trump thinks a crude tariff club would coerce New Delhi into making humiliating concessions, he has misread the mood.

 

The tariffs all but doom prospects for a meaningful trade deal between the two countries—one that was already hanging by a thread. After years of painstaking negotiations, expectations of preferential treatment had risen in New Delhi. The door is now rapidly closing. Trump’s tantrum may delight his isolationist base, but it squanders a rare moment of opportunity in Indo-American ties.

 

His bombast about Indian tariffs and non-monetary trade barriers ignores recent reforms and the real progress made since 2017. Yes, India’s average applied tariffs remain high, especially on agricultural goods, but that is hardly exceptional in the developing world. More importantly, India has been a key player in diversifying supply chains away from China and ramping up purchases of American goods, including high-value aircraft and semiconductors. To treat it as a trade cheat rather than a strategic partner is myopic to say the least.

 

Trump further thundered that India and Russia can “take their dead economies down together.” Perhaps someone should remind him that India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world, and a democratic bulwark in a volatile region. It buys oil from Russia for the same reason Europe once did: cost, geography and realpolitik. That is no justification for economic retribution.

 

Even more galling is Trump’s gleeful announcement of an oil exploration deal with Pakistan, whose military-intelligence establishment has for decades harboured terrorists and undermined American interests. This is the diplomatic equivalent of hugging a cobra. That Trump now chooses to reward Islamabad while punishing India is a throwback to the worst instincts of Cold War-era geopolitics.

 

Yes, there will be pain for Indian exporters of metals, chemicals and engineering goods. But there is also opportunity. India can use this moment to double down on self-reliance, deepen its economic ties with Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan, and accelerate internal reforms to make itself less vulnerable to Western tantrums. After all, Trump is not the emperor of the world. And India is not a doormat.

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