Sport Climbing Debuts at the Olympics: Everything You Need to Know
Climbing is making its debut in the summer Olympics – in fact, it is very much just around the corner with qualifying beginning on August 3rd and finals on August 6th. The inclusion of climbing in the Olympics has been hotly debated for decades, and regardless of which side of the debate you land on, there is one thing on which we can all agree – this is A HUGE MOMENT in the history of our sport.
We wanted to take a moment to break down some of the essential info and answer the main questions about climbing, and what to expect at Tokyo 2020.
Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret topping the boulder at the Innsbruck World Cup. Janja is expected to be a top competitor at the Olympics. Photo by Liam Lonsdale.
How It Works
WHAT KIND OF CLIMBING?
Dubbed ‘SPORT CLIMBING’, athletes in Tokyo will compete in speed climbing, bouldering and lead climbing, in a combined format.
HOW DID THE ATHLETES QUALIFY?
Each gender was allocated 20 Olympic berths competing for one set of medals, with a maximum of two athletes per gender per country. There were two specific Olympic qualifying events held in 2019. One in Hachioji, Japan the other in Toulouse, France. These accounted for 14 berths in each gender. The remaining places were to be decided in subsequent continental championships.
ONE SET OF MEDALS?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to include speed climbing at Tokyo 2020. This is a bone of contention for many athletes, both qualified and otherwise with athletes who had never competed in speed before having to learn an entirely new discipline. Ultimately, the International Federation of Sport Climbing wanted to include bouldering and lead, to represent our sport as wholly as possible, thus the ‘combined format’ was born. In Paris 2024, the IOC has provisionally agreed to add one extra set of medals for climbing, meaning speed will be separated from bouldering and lead, and some sort of ‘normality’ will resume.
HOW DO ATHLETES WIN MEDALS?
Each athlete competes in all three disciplines. Their rank from each event is multiplied together, and the total number is their score. The lowest score, ergo the highest combined rank, wins.
For example, if an athlete wins the bouldering event (rank 1), comes fifth in lead climbing (rank 5) and second in speed event (rank 2), their combined score would be 1x5x2 = 10. If another athlete scored lower than this with their combined rankings, they would be the winner.
A perfect score would be to rank first in each event, 1x1x1 = 1. This is highly unlikely given due to there being World Cup winners from each discipline in attendance.
HOW DO THE ATHLETES WIN A DISCIPLINE?
In the simplest terms, and in order of events:
SPEED: climbers race head-to-head on identical routes up a 15m gently overhanging (5º) wall. The athletes have practiced this route many times, it has been the same for around 15 years. The fastest climber in each duel is the winner and advances to the next round, culminating in a race between the two fastest athletes.
If a climber falls, they rank last. In the event of a false-start the climber is instantly disqualified, ranking last, the other competitor advances.
BOULDERING: There are 3 unique, and very complex routes on a 4.5 metre wall, these are called ‘problems’. Competitors have an allocated amount of time in which to climb each problem from bottom to ‘Top’, and are allowed as many attempts as they require within the allotted time. If they fall, they land on a crash pad and must restart the problem from the beginning. The aim is to climb all three problems, in the least amount of attempts. A perfect score would be 3 ‘tops’ in 3 attempts.
Look out for the ‘zone’, this is a kind of half score that is used to split climbers in the event of a tie.
LEAD: climbers have one route to climb on a steeply overhanging 15m wall. They are allowed to inspect the route from the ground during an observation period at the start of the round. The climbers are held in an isolation zone and each athlete climbs on their own. The climbers are tied in with a rope and harness, when a climber falls their attempt is over. Their high point is their score. The climber that climbs the highest, wins. If two or more climbers reach an identical position, or the top, then it comes down to who got there quicker. The Lead event is intended to be a grand finale! (312/705)
Who?
The women
Seo Chae-hyun (KOR)
Julia Chanourdie (FRA)
Kyra Condie (USA)
Shauna Coxsey (GBR)
Janja Garnbret (SLO)
Anouck Jaubert (FRA)
Iuliia Kaplina (RUS)
Petra Klingler (SUI)
Mia Krampl (SLO)
Oceana Mackenzie (AUS)
Viktoriia Meshkova (RUS)
Aleksandra Mirosław (POL)
Akiyo Noguchi (JPN)
Miho Nonaka (JPN)
Jessica Pilz (AUT)
Brooke Raboutou (USA)
Laura Rogora (ITA)
Erin Sterkenburg (RSA)
Song Yiling (CHN)
Alannah Yip (CAN)
The men
Nathaniel Coleman (USA)
Christopher Cosser (RSA)
Colin Duffy (USA)
Ludovico Fossali (ITA)
Kai Harada (JPN)
Jan Hojer (GER)
Chon Jong-won (KOR)
Rishat Khaibullin (KAZ)
Alberto Ginés López (ESP)
Sean McColl (CAN)
Alex Megos (GER)
Tomoa Narasaki (JPN)
Mickaël Mawem (FRA)
Bassa Mawem (FRA)
Tom O’Halloran (AUS)
Michael Piccolruaz (ITA)
Aleksei Rubtsov (RUS)
Adam Ondra (CZE)
Jakob Schubert (AUT)
Pan Yufei (CHN)
