2024 Summer Olympics Preview –– Competition Climbing

Wasn't expecting to wax poetic about climbing today, but here we are...enjoy!

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Introduction

“Citius, Altius, Fortius” –– it’s kind of like that Daft Punk song, but because it’s in Latin, it sounds much fancier. And in my mind, very few sports embody the Olympic motto as well as competition climbing.

(Quick note: we have termed this preview to be “competition climbing”, since the phrase “sport climbing” is often used by the climbing community to refer to pre-bolted lead climbing instead.)

A little late to the Olympic party, it has made itself at home rather quickly since its introduction to the Summer Games in Tokyo. The pumping music, high (literally) drama, and popular athletes have made it a hit, especially among young people, which has been a big target of the IOC.

There was some controversy in Tokyo, as all the climbing world governing body could get the IOC to agree to was one medal category. They decided to use that category to show off as much of the sport as possible, combining speed, lead, and boulder (more on them later), with the aim of splitting them in a future Games once they’ve proved their worth. It was very unpopular among climbers (imagine a track event that combines 100 meters with 10 kilometers…), but the plan mostly worked, and now in 2024, there are two categories –– speed and combined (lead and boulder, as these two are much more similar to each other).

Speed is the simpler event, as athletes climb a pre-set wall of certain height and placements of holds, and is simply a matter of scaling the wall as fast as possible.

The combined category has two disciplines –– boulder and lead –– and there are up to 100 points on offer for each athlete in each discipline. Boulder comes first, and it involves trying to get as high as possible on four very difficult five-meter bouldering “problems”, so named because they are designed to be solved. The athletes can try each wall as many times as they like in four minutes to work out solving techniques, and there are more points the higher you reach (five points for the lower zone, ten for the higher zone, and 25 for finishing the whole thing). A “flash” is when one finishes a wall on their first try; any additional attempts will subtract 0.1 points (which is more or less a tie-breaking system in disguise) to that athlete's score. Moves one might encounter in bouldering include “dynos” (flashy moves where they have to jump between holds), “slabs” (no wall overhang but very thin holds), and “pinchers” (holds where you grip between your thumb and fingers rather than on top of them).

The lead is slightly different. It still has the same principle of getting as high as you can, but this time you have six minutes and just one attempt –– if you fall, you’re done. It is much higher at 15 meters, and the higher you get, the more points each subsequent hold is worth (first ten are zero points, next ten are one point each, etc.). The points are added to give a score out of 200.

Both boulder and lead will have completely unknown walls until the day of competition, where the athletes will get a bit of observation time before competing, and you will actually see them chatting with each other about how best to climb them! It’s unusual in sports for direct competitors to be so collaborative, but just because they’re discussing doesn’t mean they’re always right, or that they’re not hiding anything, or that they can actually do it!

Competition Format

For speed climbing, there will be a qualification round to sort the seeding (first to 14th), then a knockout bracket where they race two at a time on two identical walls to decide who progresses. The fastest loser in the round of 14 also progresses to make 8 quarterfinalists, then it will be a straight knockout to the end.

For combined (boulder and lead) climbing, there is a semifinal where everyone completes both boulder and lead, and the top eight athletes advance to the final. The final will feature a different series of boulders and lead walls for the athletes to learn, but is scored the same, with the highest score in the final winning gold.

Event-by-Event Breakdown

Alright, let’s climb through these four events and break down the field:

• Women’s speed:
  • Aleksandra Mirosław [POL] is the favorite, as she has broken the world record eight times (!) in the last three years, taking the women’s record from 6.96 seconds to 6.24 seconds, and has won ten out of the last 13 events she’s competed in.
  • Chasing her will be her compatriot Aleksandra Kałucka [POL] (who qualified at the expense of her sister Natalia), reigning World champion Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi [INA] (who will be looking for Indonesia’s first gold medal outside of badminton), and Emma Hunt [USA] (the silver medalist from last year’s World champs).
  • The Chinese pair of Deng Lijuan and Zhou Yafei can also both challenge for the podium.
• Men’s speed:
  • We also have a recent world record holder on the men’s side in Samuel Watson [USA], who lowered the record to 4.79 seconds a few months ago. He has also won his last two World Cup events (though he wasn’t competing against some of the best in the field).
  • Wu Peng [CHN] topped the table at the qualifying event, and also has two wins in his last two World Cup events.
  • Look out for current World champion Matteo Zurloni [ITA] - he is ranked first in the world, but hasn’t shown outstanding 2024 form yet.
  • Veddriq Leonardo [INA] is incredibly consistent, as he hasn’t finished outside the top ten at an event for nearly six years.
  • Other contenders include Long Jinbao [CHN], Zach Hammer [USA], and France’s own Bassa Mawem.
• Women’s combined (boulder & lead):
  • Janja Garnbret [SLO] is unreal. (A quick note here: route-setters try to get good separation when creating boulder walls, which means the best athletes can top the routes and the worst can’t, so that their scores are separated.) She is basically the benchmark for these top climbers, and she will flash boulders when everyone else can’t even get into the higher zone. She’s won 21 of her last 25 events, and took second in the other four. She is the reigning Olympic and World champion, and I don’t realistically see anybody stopping her.
  • Trying to stop her will be Japanese lead-climbing specialist Ai Mori [JPN], who, at a height of 1.54 meters, has an insane power-to-weight ratio, but sometimes struggles to reach higher boulders.
  • American Brooke Rabatou won her first World Cup event last year, and has placed in the top five at all twelve events since.
  • Don’t rule out Oriane Bertone [FRA] with a vociferous home crowd behind her, or Jessica Pilz [AUT], Seo Chae-hyun [KOR], or Natalia Grossman [USA].
  • Erin McNeice [GBR] and Luo Zhilu [CHN] have both burst onto the scene just this year, and they look to be peaking at the right time.
• Men’s combined (boulder & lead):
  • I’ll start this section by talking about the current Olympic climbing champion, Alberto Ginés López [ESP]. There was a lot of contention around his win last time –– he came from nowhere at the age of 18, got relatively fortunate in the speed event, did well enough in lead and boulder to win gold, only to disappear back into mediocrity soon after. He certainly earned the medal –– you make your own luck, after all –– but it was all wrapped up in the contention around the format setup, which has since been fixed.
  • López’s form has once again picked up in an Olympic year, and with his experience, he will be in the mix again. But he will have to beat the Japanese favorite Sorato Anraku, who is not as dominant as Janja Garnbret is in the women’s counterpart, but has four victories in his last eight events. This track record definitely makes him a very strong contender for gold.
  • 19-year-old Toby Roberts [GBR] is fairly new to the scene, but has improved rapidly, and is the current European champion.
  • Colin Duffy [USA] took second at last year’s World champs, but he’s had some up-and-down results since. On his best day, he can certainly contend for the podium.
  • Adam Ondra [CZE] is back for another go, and as one of the most famous names in climbing, he will be a popular contender.
  • Other names to watch include Jakob Schubert [AUT] (the reigning World champion), Sam Avezou [FRA], Tomoa Narasaki [JPN], Jesse Grupper [USA], and Lee Do-hyun [KOR].

Competition Schedule

The first climbing events will begin on August 5, and every subsequent day will feature some climbing action, all the way until August 10. The women’s speed event will have its final on August 7, while the men’s speed event will have its final on August 8. The men’s combined event will have its final on August 9, while the women’s combined event will finish on August 10.

Excitement Factors

There is something captivating, something quite visceral, about watching humans attempt to ascend large walls of stone. It’s one of the most primitive forces of nature (large formations of rocks) right up in their face, alongside their utter defiance of said force. To watch climbing is to witness humans struggling against natural and physical laws, and yet to persevere all the same –– to fundamentally understand our simultaneous feebleness and bravery as a collective species. In the grand scheme of things, all of our traits and appearances and statuses and achievements and commemorations and emotions will not matter more than a single speck of dust –– when the Sun becomes a red giant and swallows the Earth whole, will any of our lives and endeavors be remembered? But in the moment where we successfully climb to the top of a wall, a wall built by unspoken gods and forces, a wall designed to reflect our primal, powerless selves –– in this fleeting, miniscule moment, we feel like we’ve achieved something great, something unforgettable, something supernatural.

It’s also just fun to watch.