There is currently a climbing wall on the Königsplatz in Munich.

It's so slanted that you might think it's about to tip over - and at 18 meters it's so high that you hold your breath when the athletes hold their fingers on a handle on the steepest parts that's hardly is bigger than one of the pebbles on Königsplatz.

They are secured to the wall with a rope.

But that doesn't take the tension away.

On Saturday, for example, Janja Garnbret from Slovenia, the queen of climbers, jumps towards the last hold in the lead final - and falls headlong several meters before the rope stops the free fall.

And if, understandably, she hadn't had to worry about more important things at the moment, she could have seen 5,000 people terrified.

Welcoming climbers like rock stars

On Monday the climbers completed their individual events of the European Championships.

They competed in three disciplines: bouldering, lead and speed.

One is not guilty of jubilant journalism when one writes: It was really spectacular!

That was of course because of how they climbed, but also a little bit because of where they climbed: on the Königsplatz in Munich, which King Ludwig I once had built.

The model: the Acropolis in Athens.

The spectators not only saw the climbing wall, but also the so-called Propylaea.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 5000 people will probably watch the combination competitions (bouldering plus lead) again.

They want to come because they can see the stars of the scene.

The Slovenian Janja Garnbret, who – despite a fall – won both the lead and the bouldering.

And the Czech Adam Ondra, who won gold (lead) and bronze (bouldering).

In Munich, where the trend sport of climbing is particularly popular anyway, they are welcomed like rock stars.

The Munich section of the German Alpine Club has 180,000 members, which is at least a seventh of the total number of members.

Probably more than 5000 tickets could have been sold per day.

And therefore one can say well before the end of the European Championships: Climbing on Königsplatz is at least the secret highlight of the European Championships in Munich.

The pictures of Königsplatz also show why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has included climbing in its program ahead of the Summer Games in Tokyo - and will continue the partnership in Paris 2024.

The IOC has to deal with the problem that many Olympic sports are no longer part of young people's lives.

The example from Munich, where young people watched enthusiastically, shows that it is worth giving climbing a stage.

Which will sooner or later lead to a more difficult question: Does climbing, which for most people does not necessarily live from competition but from experience, need the Olympic Games at all?