Climbing Olympics Paris 2024 summary and thoughts

Summer has gone, Climbing Olympics Paris 2024 happened and it’s safe to say that most of us are back to our normal lives by now. But after such an emotional Saturday, Aug 10th, a Boulderflash summary and thoughts guide simply couldn’t be missed.

As expected, the Paris edition delivered lots of excitement, emotion, and a showcase of athletic skill. Let’s analyse together the 6-day Olympic climbing portal where the best climbers in the world joined forces and demonstrated their highest set of skills acquired during their life’s work as athletes.

Climbing Olympics Paris 2024 podium

As a short recap, the second Olympic Climbing Edition hosted a format of two distinct events:

1. Boulder & Lead Combined: Bouldering tackles multiple short challenging problems (3 to 5m) while lead tackles up to 15 m overhang routes. Both disciplines focus on power, endurance, technique, and problem-solving in a limited amount of time.
2. Speed Climbing: Contrary to Tokyo, Paris’s 2024 edition was a completely separate event, where specifically trained climbers race up a 15-meter wall, requiring explosive strength and speed.

Curious about how this year’s Olympic climbing event came together? Here you can read the behind-the-scenes thorough recap.

And if you missed the action – or just want to relive the excitement, here’s a quick look at the champions who dominated the competition and podium:

Men Finals Boulder & Lead

🥇Gold: Toby Roberts (Great Britain)

🥈Silver: Anraku Sorato (Japan)

🥉Bronze: Jakob Schubert (Austria)

Women Finals Boulder & Lead

🥇Gold: Janja Garnbret (Slovenia)

🥈Silver: Brooke Raboutou (USA)

🥉Bronze: Jessica Pilz (Austria)

Men Finals Speed

🥇Gold: Veddriq Leonardo (Ina)

🥈Silver: Peng Wu (China)

🥉Bronze: Sam Watson (USA)

Women Finals Speed

🥇Gold: Aleksandra Miroslaw (Poland)

🥈Silver: Lijuan Deng (China)

🥉Bronze: Aleksandra Kalucka (Poland)

Undoubtedly winners have worked hard and we are very happy to share with you the history of modern climbing. However, we can’t help but think:

What happened to the rest of the competitors on the Olympics list?

We all know some of the Olympians consistently pushed the climbing limits above and beyond and set benchmarks that redefined what’s possible in the sport. In both competition and outdoor climbing.

Names such as Adam Ondra (redpointed the first 9c), Natalia Grossman (22 WC podiums, 11 gold medals), Miho Nonaka (Silver at Tokyo Olympics 2021) Laura Rogora (3ed female to redpoint 9b, FFA Goldrake 9a+, qualified twice for the Olympics), Alberto Ginés López (Gold Tokyo 2021) did not podium.

Why did the world’s ‘best’ climbers not podium?

On one hand, the fact that some of the best climbers in the world did not get a winning place could also reflect the rapidly evolving character of competition climbing.

Aspects such as modern climbing movements, mental pressure, the Olympics format, routesetting or simply having a bad day could be influencing factors for winning or not a competition.

And with only three spots on the podium for each category – male and female – the competition is as fierce as it gets.

On the other hand, despite magazines stating that ’30s is the new ’20s, it looks like it only applies to competitive sports such as indoor climbing. Gen Z has started to slowly but surely win ground in the climbing scene of Millenials.

Promising young competitors such as Toby Roberts, and Anraku Sorato unexpectedly dominated the male Bouldering/Lead podium. The women’s podium was more predictable but it was still fully dominated by climbers up to 27 years old.

Apart from stating how strong and skilled Jakob Schubert (3rd place) is in both competition and rock climbing, it also seemed like he was passing the torch to the younger generation of competitors.

Last but not least, it becomes clearer and clearer how indoor climbing, due to its modern bouldering movements and style, is slowly separating itself from rock climbing.

Therefore it becomes harder and harder for established climbers such as Adam Ondra, Alex Megos, or Stefano Ghisolfi to keep up.

Compared to the youngsters who basically grew up while already training this way, the “old” generation had to adapt and learn. Which requires much more effort and energy.

Nevertheless, the Olympic Games are one hell of a ride – just getting to qualify for this incredible event and compete is the ultimate dream for every climber. 

Every athlete who hopes to at least get a chance and qualify must give their full attention to specifically training for it.

This comes with sacrifices, and a lot of time spent training for the world’s most famous competition which happens once every 4 years.

Is an Olympic gold medalist the ‘best’ all-around climber?

Climbing encompasses many different disciplines (sport climbing, bouldering, trad climbing, speed climbing, big wall, alpine climbing, etc.) and the Olympics format includes only 3 of them: sport climbing as lead, bouldering, and speed.

Therefore saying an Olympian is the ‘best’ all-round climber can be highly subjective and untrue.

Rest assured, there are exceptions! Take Janja Garnbret as an example, it seems nothing stays in her way from being the best in the world on both plastic and outdoors.

No matter the circumstances or competition format, Janja is a great example of a resilient athlete who somehow manages to always adapt their training to fit the external demands.

Excellent as she is, Janja takes every challenge as part of the game – no complaints.

With two Olympic titles and endless gold medals, it’s safe to state that she dominates the competition world.

But does that make her the ‘best’ all-round climber too?

While it is clear that Janja’s main focus is still on competition, even so, with very little experience on the rock, she was still the first and only woman to onsight two 8c’s (Fish Eye and American Hustle, in Oliana, Catalogna, Spain).

Therefore that question is still to be answered. We must all agree it’s only a matter of time until we witness what is the most successful competitive climber of all time capable of doing in the great outdoors.

What does it mean to be an all-round climber?

By the book definition, “all-round” means having great versatile abilities. In climbing, this would mean to excel on both plastic and rock. But wait, does this mean all climbing disciplines?

Generally speaking it is hard for a climber to fill in all the boxes and be great at all disciplines.

However, the first and only name that comes close to that is undoubtedly Adam Ondra.

Despite him not winning the Olympics:

• He did qualify twice for both Tokyo and Paris
• Is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year (2014)
• Is one of the two male athletes (alongside Sorato Anraku in 2023) to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines (lead climbing in 2009, 2015, and 2019 and bouldering in 2010)

As for rock achievements, a very short but highlighting overview of Ondra’s achievements:

• Free climbed and onsighted all pitches on the Nose except for the Great Roof pitch (5.13c)
• Did the second free ascent of the Dawn Wall
• Climbed Bon Voyage 9a trad (E12)
• Sent Silence, 9C – the world’s hardest route

As you can see, while a gold Olympic medalist can be a good all-around climber, being the best all-around climber will not necessarily help you win the Climbing Olympics.

Climbing, competitions, and mental pressure

In competitive climbing, as in many performance sports, the psychological element is as critical as physical training.

The pressure that comes with training for “that” special competition day and the psychological demands of the process are not an easy thing to navigate.

Happily, in recent years there has been a growing awareness within the climbing community about the weight of mental pressure.

Research focused on the impact of competition-related stress, and burnout, and open discussions in social media have opened doors to new strategies that can help athletes manage these pressures.

Both coaches and competitors now see mental conditioning as an essential part of training, as important as physical training and technique.

But our sport is so much more than performing under pressure on a given day.

In this regard, I invite you to read an interesting article by Xavier Sanchez, Julian Henz, Cécile Martha & Jerry Prosper Medernach on the psychological aspects of elite performance in climbing.

Climbing at the Paris 2024 Olympics: better structure, growing popularity, but still room to improve

There’s no doubt the Paris Olympics 2024 was much better organised and made more sense than Tokyo.

Moreover, it truly showcased the sport’s continuous growth in popularity.

But despite organisers separating Speed from Lead and Bouldering – which allowed for a deeper appreciation, this edition still failed to display the best climber in each discipline.

After all, Lead and Bouldering, as much as Speed, require a unique set of skills.

And having them separated from one another would enable climbers to focus and excel in their chosen disciplines.

What do you think?

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