On December 7, 2020, the International Olympic Committee IOC confirmed that sport climbing will also be part of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris - and that in a separate competition mode.
Climbing will be held as an Olympic discipline for the first time at the summer games in Tokyo next year. However, this in a competition format in which there is a combined rating from the disciplines of speed, lead and bouldering. This has been sharply criticized by numerous athletes.
Paris 2024: two formats, more athletes
In France, the athletes will no longer fight for just one set of medals, but for two - in a combination competition of bouldering and lead as well as in the speed discipline. In addition, the number of tickets awarded per gender for Paris will also increase - from 40 for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 to 68 in Paris.
The DAV sports director Martin Veith also sees the IOC's decision as confirmation: “The decision shows that sport climbing is also very attractive in the eyes of the IOC and may even have potential for a long-term integration of the Olympic program."
Sport climbing at the Olympic Games
- Sport climbing made its debut in 2018 at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At that time, a set of medals was awarded in a combined format (Olympic Combined).
- In Tokyo (JPN), the Olympic Combined format should actually be held by the seniors in 2020. Corona prevented that - the Summer Olympics in Japan were postponed to 2021. Alexander Megos. and Jan Hojer will represent Germany there. Austria is from Jessica Pilz and Jakob Schubert and Switzerland from Petra Klingler represented.
- In four years the best climbers in the world will again compete under the sign of the five rings. In Paris, however, the triathlon "Olympic Combined" is no longer held, but bouldering and lead as a combination competition and speed as an individual discipline. For the first time, two sets of medals will be awarded per gender.
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Credits: Cover picture Expa Pictures, text DAV