Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics

Competition climbing has been held at two editions of the Summer Olympic Games. First selected as one of the discretionary sports at the 2020 and 2024 games, sport climbing will be inducted as one of the mandatory sports at the 2028 games. Athletes compete in the disciplines of bouldering, lead climbing, and speed climbing. All three were contested as a single event in the 2020 programme, while speed climbing was spun off into its own event in the 2024 programme. Slovenia have won the most gold medals (2), while Austria, Japan, and the United States have won the most medals overall (3 each).

Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics
IOC CodeCLB
Governing bodyIFSC
Events4 (men: 2; women: 2)
Summer Olympics
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Bid for inclusion

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The inclusion was proposed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) in 2015.[1] In September 2015, competition climbing was included in a shortlist along with baseball, softball, skateboarding, surfing, and karate to be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics;[2] and in June 2016, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that they would support the proposal to include all of the shortlisted sports in the 2020 Games.[3] Finally, on August 3, 2016, all five sports (counting baseball and softball together as one sport) were approved for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program.[4]

Competition format

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At the 2020 Summer Olympics, two climbing events were contested: men's combined and women's combined. The competition format combined three disciplines of competition climbing: competition speed climbing, competition bouldering, and competition lead climbing. This decision caused widespread criticism in the climbing community.[5]

Members of the IFSC explained that they were only granted one gold medal per gender by the Olympic committee, and they did not want to exclude speed climbing. The IFSC's goal for the 2020 Olympics was primarily to establish climbing and its three disciplines as Olympic sports; changes to the format could follow later. This tactic proved to be successful as they were granted a second set of medals for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where speed climbing will be a separate event from the combined event of lead climbing and bouldering.[6][7][8]

Technical information

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For Olympic level sports climbing, route setters are instructed to set lead climbs at a grade of between 8c (5.14b) and 9a (5.14d) for both the men's and women's events. For boulder, men's routes are set between a grade of V10 (7C+) and V14 (8B+), and women's routes between V9 (7C) and V12 (8A+).[9][10]

NB:

  • Lead grades are given in French Numerical and grades in brackets () are in American YDS.
  • Boulder grade are given in V-Grades and grades in brackets () are in Fb-Grades.
  • Due to the climbing routes being at the highest level, routes cannot be sufficiently tested, therefore the exact grade of each route is unknown, and may not reflect the target range.

Summary

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Games Events Best nations
2020 Summer Olympics 2   Spain (1)
  Slovenia (1)
2024 Summer Olympics 4   Poland (1)

Events

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Current program
Event 2020 2024 Years
Men's combined (s, b, l) X 1
Men's combined (b, l) X 1
Men's speed X 1
Women's combined (s, b, l) X 1
Women's combined (b, l) X 1
Women's speed X 1
Events 2 4

Participating nations

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The following nations have taken part in the Olympic climbing competition. The numbers in the table indicate the number of competitors sent to that year's Olympics.

Nation 2020 2024 Years
  Australia 2 2 2
  Austria 2 2 2
  Belgium 1 1
  Canada 2 1
  China 2 7 2
  Czech Republic 1 1 2
  France 4 7 2
  Germany 2 3 2
  Great Britain 1 4 2
  Indonesia 4 1
  Iran 1 1
  Italy 3 4 2
  Japan 4 4 2
  Kazakhstan 1 1 2
  New Zealand 2 1
  Poland 1 2 2
  ROC 3 1
  Slovenia 2 3 2
  South Africa 2 4 2
  South Korea 2 3 2
  Spain 1 2 2
  Switzerland 1 1 2
  Ukraine 2 1
  United States 4 8 2
Nations 19 22 24
Climbers 40 68
Year 2020 2024 2

Olympic records history

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Event Round Climber Nation Time Games Date Record
Men's combined (speed) Qualification Bassa Mawem   France 5.45 2020 Tokyo 3 August 2021 OR[11]
Women's combined (speed) Qualification Aleksandra Mirosław   Poland 6.97 4 August 2021 OR[12]
Final Aleksandra Mirosław   Poland 6.84 6 August 2021 WR[13]
Women's speed Qualification Aleksandra Mirosław   Poland 6.06 2024 Paris 5 August 2024 WR[14]
Men's speed Bronze medal match Sam Watson   United States 4.74 8 August 2024 WR

Medal table

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As of the women's combined event of 2024 Olympics[15]
RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Slovenia (SLO)2002
2  Poland (POL)1012
3  Great Britain (GBR)1001
  Indonesia (INA)1001
  Spain (ESP)1001
6  Japan (JPN)0213
  United States (USA)0213
8  China (CHN)0202
9  Austria (AUT)0033
Totals (9 entries)66618

Medalists

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Men's combined

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Games Gold Silver Bronze
2020 Tokyo
details
Alberto Ginés López
  Spain
Nathaniel Coleman
  United States
Jakob Schubert
  Austria
2024 Paris
details
Toby Roberts
  Great Britain
Sorato Anraku
  Japan
Jakob Schubert
  Austria

Men's speed

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Games Gold Silver Bronze
2024 Paris
details
Veddriq Leonardo
  Indonesia
Wu Peng
  China
Sam Watson
  United States

Women's combined

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Games Gold Silver Bronze
2020 Tokyo
details
Janja Garnbret
  Slovenia
Miho Nonaka
  Japan
Akiyo Noguchi
  Japan
2024 Paris
details
Janja Garnbret
  Slovenia
Brooke Raboutou
  United States
Jessica Pilz
  Austria

Women’s speed

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Games Gold Silver Bronze
2024 Paris
details
Aleksandra Mirosław
  Poland
Deng Lijuan
  China
Aleksandra Kałucka
  Poland

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "IFSC Proposes Sport Climbing For Toyko 2020 Olympic Games". The British Mountaineering Council. Archived from the original on Aug 10, 2019.
  2. ^ "Surfing and skateboarding make shortlist for 2020 Olympics". GrindTV.com. September 28, 2015. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  3. ^ "IOC Executive Board supports Tokyo 2020 package of new sports for IOC Session - Olympic News". Olympic.org. June 1, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  4. ^ "IOC approves five new sports for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020". Olympics.org. International Olympic Committee. August 3, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  5. ^ "Rock climbing will be a 2020 Olympic sport. Here's what to expect". National Geographic. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on Aug 10, 2019.
  6. ^ "Rock climbing will be a 2020 Olympic sport. Here's what to expect". National Geographic. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on Aug 10, 2019.
  7. ^ "Vertical Triathlon: The Future of Climbing in the Olympics". climbing.com. 30 August 2016. Archived from the original on Aug 10, 2019.
  8. ^ "Olympic Committee Unanimously Votes to Include Sport Climbing in Paris 2024 Games". climbing.com. 25 June 2019. Archived from the original on Jul 4, 2019.
  9. ^ "IN FOCUS: What does it take to become an Olympic climber?". www.ukclimbing.com. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  10. ^ Clarke, Owen (2024-07-31). "Just How Hard is Olympic Sport Climbing?". Climbing. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  11. ^ "Sport Climbing – Men's Combined – Speed Qualification Results" (PDF). Tokyo 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  12. ^ "Sport Climbing – Women's Combined – Speed Qualification Results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-08-04. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  13. ^ "Sport Climbing – Women's Combined – Speed Final Brackets" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-08-06. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  14. ^ "Sport Climbing - Women's Speed, Qualification Seeding heats Results". 5 August 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  15. ^ "Sport Climbing - Medal Standings" (PDF). Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
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