Competition climbing is a form of regulated rock climbing competition held indoors on purpose-built artificial climbing walls. The three competition climbing disciplines are lead climbing, bouldering, and speed climbing. The result of multiple disciplines can be used in a "combined" format to determine an all-round winner. Competition climbing is sometimes called "sport climbing", which is the name given to pre-bolted lead climbing.
Speed climbing is a climbing discipline in which speed is the ultimate goal. Speed climbing is done on rocks, walls and poles and is only recommended for highly skilled and experienced climbers.
USA Climbing is the national governing body of the sport of competition climbing in the United States. As a 501(c)3 non-profit, they promote Sport Climbing which comprises three competition disciplines: bouldering, lead climbing, and speed climbing, in elite, youth and collegiate formats.
Janja Garnbret is a Slovenian professional rock climber who specializes in sport climbing and competition climbing, and who has won multiple competition lead climbing and competition bouldering events. In 2021, she became the first-ever female Olympic gold medalist in climbing and is widely regarded as the greatest competition climber of all time. She is also the world's first-ever female climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) graded sport climbing route.
Tomoa Narasaki is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in bouldering and competition bouldering.
Miho Nonaka is a Japanese competition climber who specializes in competition bouldering. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's combined, winning a silver medal.
Kyra Condie is a rock climber who specializes in competition climbing and was one of four American rock climbers selected to represent Team USA at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. She placed 11th in the Women's Combined event in the sport of Sport Climbing. In December 2019, she qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics following her finish at the IFSC Combined Qualifier Toulouse 2019, becoming the second female American climber to do so.
Aleksandra (Ola) Mirosław is a Polish competition speed climber and a two-time women's speed world champion as well as the current women's competition speed climbing world record holder. Mirosław won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the speed climbing event, becoming the first ever Olympic champion in this event.
Petra Klingler is a Swiss rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. Known as a versatile climber, she competes in a wide range of competitive events, including competition bouldering, competition speed climbing, competition lead climbing, and also competition ice climbing.
Seo Chae-hyun, also known as Chaehyun Seo, is a South Korean professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She won the overall 2019 World Cup title in competition lead climbing in her senior debut season. In August 2021 she represented South Korea at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she was a finalist, and later that year won the IFSC World Championship in lead.
Natalia Grossman is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She represents the United States at IFSC Climbing World Cup in competition bouldering and competition lead climbing. She won gold and silver at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Championships, and has 19 podium finishes at World Cup events, including nine golds. In October 2023, Grossman qualified for the 2024 Olympic games in Paris by winning the boulder & lead combined competition at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Sean Bailey is an American professional rock climber, who specializes in competition climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. He has represented the United States in the IFSC Climbing World Cup in lead climbing, and has two podium finishes in bouldering at individual legs of the World Cup, including a win at the Salt Lake City leg of the 2021 World Cup.1 and three in lead climbing, including two gold medals, at the Villars leg, and Chamonix leg, in July 2021.
Colin Duffy is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. At age 17, he became the youngest climber to qualify to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Yoshiyuki Ogata is a Japanese professional competition climber and boulderer. He has won multiple medals in competition bouldering at IFSC Climbing World Cup events, including gold medals at Vail in 2019 and at Innsbruck in 2021. Ogata won the overall IFSC Men's Bouldering title for the 2021 and 2022 seasons and finished third overall in 2019.
Noah Bratschi is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition speed climbing and represents the United States at IFSC Climbing World Cups. He won the bronze medal at the 2021 International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Championship in Moscow, Russia. With this accomplishment he became the first American speed climber to win a World Championship medal in thirty years, and with that, he also became the first American to ever win a medal on the modern IFSC homologated speed climbing wall.
Competition climbing at the 2024 Summer Olympics is scheduled to run from 5 to 10 August at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue in Saint-Denis, returning to the program for the second time since the sport's official debut three years earlier in Tokyo 2020. The total number of medal events will double from two in the previous edition because the boulder-and-lead tandem has been separated from the speed format. Furthermore, the number of climbers will increase from 40 to 68.
Kiromal Katibin is an Indonesian competition climber who specializes in competition speed climbing. He was the world record holder in speed climbing, with a time of 5.009 seconds recorded at 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Chamonix, France in July 2022, until it was broken by his compatriot Veddriq Leonardo in April 2023. He finished second overall in the men's speed category during the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Cup series. Katibin also has four career IFSC Climbing World Cup medals, all in speed.
Samuel Watson is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition speed climbing and represents the United States at IFSC Climbing World Cups. He currently holds the world record for the discipline at 4.75 seconds, accomplished at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
Jesse Grupper is an American Olympic rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. In 2022, Grupper came in third overall in the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in the competition lead climbing discipline. He earned the gold medal in the 2023 Pan American Championships in the combined boulder and lead climbing discipline. Grupper is competing for the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Men's combined sport climbing on August 5, 7, and 9, 2024.
Piper Kelly is an American competition climber who specializes in competition speed climbing. She won a gold medal in her event at the 2023 Pan American Games and is part of the 2024 US Olympic Team.
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