Sport climbing officially added to Paris 2024 Olympics

Posted by Alex Messenger on 08/12/2020

It’s a big day for competition climbing. Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee officially confirmed that Sport Climbing has been included on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The decision marks a high watermark in the history of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), following on from the sport’s inclusion at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 and coming just eight months before its highly anticipated debut at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan.

Excitingly, the IOC Executive Board also agreed to split the current Combined event (which combines Boulder, Lead and Speed) into two events: Boulder & Lead and Speed. This brings the total number of medal events for Sport Climbing at Paris 2024 to four – two more than at Tokyo 2021.

The number of participating athletes will grow to 68 for Paris 2024, a significant increase from the 40 that will compete at Tokyo 2021 next August.

In addition to Sport Climbing, three other sports — breaking, skateboarding and surfing —were also added to the Paris 2024 sports programme.

Nick Colton from GB Climbing said:

“The confirmation that climbing is definitely in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 is great news for GB Climbing athletes who aspire to compete in the Olympics. Moving from one combined medal that incorporates Lead, Boulder and Speed in Tokyo to separate medals for Speed and another for Lead and Boulder allows more athletes to compete in the Paris Olympics.”

IFSC President Marco Scolaris said:

“We are grateful to the IOC Executive Board for confirming our inclusion in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. We would also like to thank the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for their constant support. On the IFSC side, this is the result of the hard work done in the last year by those who believed in the dream: the IFSC Executive Board, National Federations, athletes, officials and staff. We are going through the toughest time in our history due to COVID-19, but we have four intense and challenging years ahead of us. We are inspired and motivated. Being climbers, the harder the challenge we face, the better we perform.”

The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad are scheduled to take place in the French capital from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

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Anonymous User

11/01/2021

The photo for this article features a speed climber, not a sport climber. Just a heads up!

Speed climbers use an automated leash to catch them and they climb as fast as possible. The leash is fixed to the topmost point of the climb. The routes are always the same and, as such, can be memorised by climbers in advance of the competition in order to increase their speed!

Sport climbers use a human partner to give and take the rope as the climber moves upwards. The major difference between this and speed is that the rope begins on the floor with the climber and they secure it at fixed points as they move up the wall. The focus is less on speed, although it is important for endurance, and more on the technical difficulty of the moves. Climbers get points on how high they can climb and have never climbed the route prior to the competition so it isn't memorised.

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