Here’s what you need to know about climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
When did climbing become an Olympic sport?
Climbing debuted at the 2021 Tokyo Games. Before that, the sport first entered the Olympic radar at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
The addition of Climbing, along with skiing and surfing, was part of a movement to expand the program to include other urban sports with a focus on attracting more popularity among young people. Sport climbing will remain on the program for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.
➤ Get Olympic details in your books! Join the USA TODAY Sports WhatsApp Channel
2024 Olympic Medals: Who is leading the awards list? Follow along as we track the scores for each game.
How does Olympic climbing work?
Olympic climbing is divided into three categories: rock, speed and lead.
Bouldering: Athletes climb a 4.5 meter (about 15 feet) wall without ropes in a limited time and with the least possible effort.
Introduction: Cleaners go as high as they can on a 15-meter wall (about 50 feet) in six minutes on one attempt.
Speed: In single elimination rounds and a race against the clock, riders climb a 15-meter wall at a five-degree incline. Top athletes can do it in under six seconds for men, and top women typically break seven seconds.
➤ The USA TODAY app puts you at the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning broadcasts, voiceovers, audio storytelling, Newspapers and more.
What is different about these Games compared to Tokyo is that speed climbing is separated into its own event, while rock and lead are combined. This format allows climbers to focus on their specific routes.
The scoring system is also different from the one used in Tokyo. The points from each team during the 2021 Games were multiplied by each other to arrive at the final score. But with speed climbing out of the equation, the new judging criteria for boulders and leads includes a maximum of 200 points. 5 for low area, 10 points for high area) and reaching the top (25 points). Points are awarded for testing, and a perfect spot of sparkling rock is worth 100 points.
In the lead, athletes get points by successfully catching the top 40 groups – the number of points earned for each catch will increase as they climb the wall. If an athlete moves to the next pitch but fails to catch it, they will be awarded 0.1 points on top of their previous score.
Twenty men and 20 women compete for large or leading stones.
In the speed discipline, there are 14 competitors for men and women. All riders take part in two speed challenges (on two different walls). They will then be ranked 1-14 based on their fastest time, which will determine the matchups for the elimination rounds that follow.
Team USA’s top athletes for the 2024 Paris Olympics
- Sam Watson: With a time of 4.79 seconds, Watson, 18, currently holds the men’s sprint world record. He finished 2023 ranked eighth in the world in the men’s sprint and won gold at the Pan American Games in Santiago last year.
- Natalia Grossman: He finished last year ranked No. 1 in women’s rock, and ranked fifth in the mixed and lead rock category. Grossman took the gold in the stones and lead at the Pan American Games.
- Brooke Routou: She finished fifth in Tokyo and is the daughter of former world cup champions Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou and Didier Raboutou, who is from France (Brooke is fluent in French).
Top international athletes for climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics
- of Slovenia Eat Garnbretthe reigning women’s gold medalist, is back and will be competing on the front/rock side.
- from Poland Aleksandra Miroslav will be one to watch on the women’s side of the race, and You die Japan’s is a superpower of women.
- In the men’s race, in Indonesia Rahmad Adi Mulyon and Leonardo will challenge Watson for the platform.
- Jakob Shubert the Australian is a four-time world champion and a leading men’s podium/climber.
#works