What Is Sport Climbing and How Does it Work?

The Paris 2024 sport climbing tournament will see 68 of the world’s best extreme sports stars go for gold in two events – men’s and women’s bouldering and lead combined, and men’s and women’s speed. The sport climbing competition will take place at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue in Seine-Saint-Denis in northern Paris, one of two purpose-built venues for the Paris Games. So what is Olympic sport climbing and what are the rules?

It’s a story that can be traced back to the mountains and canyons of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in southeastern France in the early 1980s. Here’s your sport climbing Olympics guide.

Climbing has a rich history which has evolved into various forms over the years, including traditional rock climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. Traditional rock climbing involves climbers placing temporary bolts in cracks or fissures during their ascent and removing them on the descent, with a focus on reaching the summit. In contrast, sport climbing uses permanent, pre-placed bolts and emphasises the physical challenge of the climb itself. Bouldering, another popular type, involves climbing shorter but more complex routes without ropes, focusing on strength and problem-solving.

The sport appears to have developed on both sides of the Atlantic at roughly the same time in the early 1980s. French climbers Patrick Berhault and Patrick Edlinger started to place permanent bolts in Buoux and Verdon Gorge in the mountains of southeastern France, calling these pathways ‘sport climbing routes’. Over in the United States, Alan Watts was doing the same thing at Smith Rock State Park in Oregon’s High Desert.

Competitive sport climbing itself soon followed. In 1988 at Snowbird in Utah, the International Sport Climbing Championship was the first major competition that brought together the best climbers from Europe and the USA.

The IFSC – International Federation of Sport Climbing – proposed the inclusion of sport climbing in the Olympic Games in 2015, and a year later, the IOC’s executive board approved its inclusion for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

Sport climbing at the Olympics debuted at Tokyo 2020 with two medal events – one for men and one for women – known as the Combined, and involved three disciplines:

Speed Climbing: Two climbers race against each other on a standardised 15-metre wall to see who can reach the top first.

Bouldering: Climbers attempt to solve as many fixed routes on a 4.5-metre wall as possible within a given time. These routes, or “problems,” require a combination of strength, technique, and creativity.

Lead Climbing: Climbers aim to climb as high as possible on a wall over 15 metres tall within a six-minute time limit. The routes become increasingly difficult the higher they go.

At Paris 2024, the Olympic Games sport climbing competition has changed a little from previous competitions. There will now be two separate events – four in total, two men’s and two women’s – bouldering-and-lead combined, and speed.

Speed

Speed climbing is a head-to-head race where two climbers compete side-by-side on a standardised 15-metre wall. The fastest climber to reach the top wins the race. Sport climbing at the Olympics is structured in a standard single-elimination format, where athletes progress through rounds until the final race determines the winner.

Bouldering & Lead Combined

This combined event includes two disciplines, bouldering and lead climbing, with each climber’s performance in both contributing to their final score. For the Bouldering & Lead Combined event, climbers’ rankings in each discipline are multiplied to produce a final score. The climber with the lowest combined score wins.

At Tokyo 2020, the gold medal in the men’s combined was won by Alberto Ginés López of Spain, and the women’s combined was won by Slovenian Janja Garnbret, both professional rock climbers.

We hope you enjoyed reading this sport climbing Olympics guide and don’t forget, you can catch all the action from Paris 2024 on discovery+!