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).
Bid for inclusion The inclusion was proposed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) in 2015. 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; 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. 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.
Competition format 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.
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; the 2024 Summer Olympics would expand sport climbing to separate boulder-and-lead and speed climbing events.
Beginning at the 2028 Summer Olympics, the boulder and lead disciplines will be split into separate medal events.
Technical information
For Olympic level sports climbing, route setters are instructed to set lead climbs at a grade of between and for both the men's and women's events. For boulder, men's routes are set between a grade of and , and women's routes between and .
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 GamesEventsBest nations2020 Summer Olympics 2 (1) (1) 2024 Summer Olympics 4 (1)2028 Summer Olympics 6
Events Current program Event 2020 2024 2028 Years Men's combined (s, b, l) X 1 Men's combined (b, l) X 1Men's lead X 1Men's boulder X 1Men's speed X X 2 Women's combined (s, b, l) X 1 Women's combined (b, l) X 1Women's lead X 1Women's boulder X 1Women's speed X X 2Events246
Participating nations 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.
Nation202020242028 Years 2 2 2 2 2 2 – 1 1 2 – 1 2 7 2 1 1 2 4 7 2 2 3 2 1 4 2 – 4 1 – 1 1 3 4 2 4 4 2 1 1 2 – 2 1 1 2 2 3 – 1 2 3 2 2 4 2 2 3 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 – 2 1 4 8 2 Nations 19 22 24Climbers 40 68 Year 2020 2024 2028 3
Olympic records history Event Round Climber Nation Time Games Date Record Men's combined (speed) Qualification Bassa Mawem 5.45 2020 Tokyo 3 August 2021 Women's combined (speed) Qualification Aleksandra Mirosław 6.97 4 August 2021 FinalAleksandra Mirosław6.846 August 2021WRWomen's speedQualificationAleksandra Mirosław6.062024 Paris5 August 2024WRMen's speedBronze medal matchSam Watson4.748 August 2024WR
Medal table
Current program Men's Combined 2020 Tokyo 2024 Paris MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal11001100120101010130022Total5 nations2226
Men's lead 2028 Los Angeles MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotalTotal0 nations0000
Men's boulder 2028 Los Angeles MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotalTotal0 nations0000
Men's speed 2024 Paris 2028 Los Angeles MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal110012010130011Total3 nations1113
Women's combined 2020 Tokyo 2024 Paris MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal12002201123010140011Total4 nations2226
Women's lead 2028 Los Angeles MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotalTotal0 nations0000
Women's boulder 2028 Los Angeles MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotalTotal0 nations0000
Women’s speed 2024 Paris 2028 Los Angeles MedalsRankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal1101220101Total2 nations1113
See also IFSC Climbing World Championships IFSC Climbing World Cup
References
External links
Olympic Committee – International Federation of Sport Climbing International Federation of Sport Climbing