Olympics Climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, and what else to know.
Here is everything you need to know about climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
When did climbing become an Olympic sport?
Climbing made its debut at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Prior to that, the sport had its Olympic debut in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
How does Olympic climbing work?
Olympic sport climbing is divided into three disciplines: bouldering, speed, and lead.
Bouldering: Athletes climb a 4.5-meter (almost 15-foot) wall without using ropes in the shortest amount of time and with the fewest number of attempts.
Lead: Climbers scale a 15-meter (almost 50-foot) wall in six minutes.
Speed: In one-on-one elimination rounds and a race against the time, climbers mount a 15-meter wall with a five-degree slope. The best male athletes can accomplish it in less than six seconds, while the finest female athletes generally break seven seconds.
The grading method also differs from that employed in Tokyo. To calculate the final score, the scores from each discipline at the 2021 Games were multiplied by one another. However, with speed climbing removed from the equation, the new grading system for bouldering and lead includes a maximum of 200 points.
Climbers earn points in bouldering by moving up the wall through different “zones” (5 points for the low zone, 10 points for the high zone) and reaching the summit hold (25 points). A perfect bouldering round of flashing four boulder problems is worth 100 points, with attempts deducted.
In the lead, athletes score by successfully holding the top 40 holds. The quantity of points scored for each hold.All climbers take part in two speed runs (on different walls).
In lead, competitors score by successfully holding the top 40 holds; the number of points scored for each hold increases as they progress up the wall. If an athlete advances to the next hold but fails to secure it, they will be rewarded 0.1 points on top of their previous score.
Top Team USA athletes for climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
- Sam Watson, 18, is the current men’s speed world record holder, clocking in at 4.79 seconds. He finished 2023 rated seventh in the world in men’s speed, having won gold at the Pan American Games in Santiago last year.
- Natalia Grossman: Last year, she finished first in women’s bouldering and fifth in combined boulder and lead. Grossman won gold in bouldering and lead at the Pan American Games.
- Brooke Raboutou finished fifth in Tokyo and is the daughter of Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, a former climbing world cup champion, and Didier Raboutou, a Frenchman.
Top climbers in the world for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris
- Returned to compete on the lead/bouldering side is Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, the current women’s gold medallist.
- In the women’s speed division, Ai Mori of Japan is a formidable competitor, and Aleksandra Miroslav of Poland is a rising star.
- Veddriq Leonardo and Rahmad Adi Mulyon of Indonesia will compete against Watson for the podium in the men’s speed event.
- Four-time world champion Jakob Shubert, an Australian, is a podium finisher in the men’s lead/bouldering event.
