Ep 23: Sebastian Depke - Getting Paraclimbing Into the Paralympics

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Sebastian is a German paraclimber. He is also the chair of the paraclimbing commission, and he worked on filing the application to get climbing into the Paralympics for LA 2028, which only recently got approved! In this episode, we'll learn about his journey accepting that his disease would affect his body and climbing forever, what the process was like for getting climbing into the Paralympics, the drama behind the paraclimbing classification process, and we talk about his harrowing 1000km journey to the Innsbruck world cup on just a solar hand bike.

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Guest links:
Instagram (instagram.com/sebastian.depke.bechti2go)
Youtube (youtube.com/bechti2go)

Reference links:
IFSC Classification Information (ifsc-climbing.org/paraclimbing/classification)
FAQ Video on the bike (youtube.com/watch?v=OA98a2Siauk)
Short teaser about the handbike (youtube.com/watch?v=XezRWIILD18)

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Timestamps of discussion topics
0:00 - Getting into climbing/paraclimbing
9:43 - Learning to live with ankylosing spondylitis
23:58 - Applying for paraclimbing to become a Paralympic sport
35:25 - Onsighting the Paralympic application and beating out surfing
39:53 - What sport classes will be in the Paralympics
44:51 - Requirements paraclimbing must fulfill to participate in the Olympics
49:55 - Classification drama
58:07 - How classification works
1:05:15 - The difficult job of classifiers: fluctuating impairments
1:09:25 - Funding his climbing
1:13:07 - And the solar hand bike was born
1:28:50 - Proudest outdoor climbing achievement
1:33:00 - Closing thoughts/where to find Sebastian