IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships

The IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships are the biennial world championships for competition climbing for people with disabilities organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). This event determines the male and female world champions in various categories.

The first event was organized in Arco in 2011, held together with the IFSC Climbing World Championships.

Championships

Edition	Year	Location	Date(s)	Disciplines		Athletes	Nations	Website	Notes
				Lead	Speed
1	2011	Arco	18–19 July	X	X				[1]
2	2012	Paris	12–16 September	X					[2] [3]
3	2014	Gijón	11–14 September	X					[4] [5]
4	2016	Paris	14–18 September	X					[6] [7] [8]
5	2018	Innsbruck	10–16 September	X					[9] [10]
6	2019	Briançon [11]	16–17 July	X					[12]
7	2021	Moscow [13]	15–17 September	X
8	2023	Bern	1–12 August	X
9	2025	Seoul

Classifications and Categories

A wide range of different people take part in Paraclimbing, including visually impaired climbers, climbers with limb differences ^[14] and those with brain injuries or mobility impairments. ^{[15] [16]} Higher numbers equate to higher functionality (less impairment), lower numbers equate to lower functionality (more impairment). ^[17]

Paraclimbing categories according to the 2024 IFSC regulations ^[18]

Category		Criteria	Example image
Visual impairment	B1	Visual acuity is poorer than LogMAR 2.60 (blindness)
	B2	LogMAR of 1.50 − 2.60 and/or visual field of less than 10°
	B3	LogMAR of 1 − 1.40 (20/200 − 20/500 on the Snellen chart) and/or visual field of less than 40°
Upper limb(s)	AU2	One upper limb has reduced function below the athletes elbow and does not have a functional wrist joint
	AU3	One hand or multiple digits across both hands are absent or have reduced function
Lower limb(s)	AL1	Significantly reduced functional use for climbing or absence of bilateral lower limbs
	AL2	Impairment in a single lower limb or leg length difference
Range and power	RP1	Impairment across all eligible impairment types with severe impairment to function affecting at least 2 limbs or a single upper limb is absent or has severely limited functional use
	RP2	Impairment across all eligible impairment types with moderate impairment to function affecting the trunk and/or limbs
	RP3	Impairment across all eligible impairment types with mild impairment to function affecting the trunk and/or limbs

In the 2022-2023 season AU1 was permanently combined with RP1, and a new category of upper arm limb difference was added. AU3 is the designated sport class for athletes with limb differences between the wrist and tips of the fingers. With a minimum impairment of a loss of 6 finger joints across both hands. Prior to the creation of this sport class many AU3 athletes classified in RP3.

Merging

Merging order of paraclimbing categories. Since 2023, AU1 has been permanently merged into RP1.

If there is an insufficient number of competitors in a given category, this category can be merged into another, 'harder' category. In world championships at least six athletes from four countries must compete in each category. Merges may be performed sequentially until the required number of competitors is met. ^[18]

Men's results

Speed

Year	Category	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011 [20]	Amputee Arm PD	Mikhail Saparov	-	-
	Amputee Both Leg PD	Boyu Xia	-	-
	Amputee Leg PD	Urko Carmona Barandiaran	Günther Grausam	Oliviero Bellinzani
	Arthritis+Neurological PD	András Szijártó	Matteo Alberghini	Philippe Ribière
	Complete Neurological Leg Disability PD	Sebastian Richter	-	-
	Visual Impairment B1	Matteo Stefani	Manuel Cepero Gutierrez	Roman Kostyakov
	Visual Impairment B2	Simone Salvagnin	Oliviero Bellinzani	-
	Visual Impairment B3	Domingo Carretero Campon	Ricardo Pérez Amado	-

Lead

Year	Category	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011 [21]	Amputee Arm PD	Mikhail Saparov	-	-
	Amputee Both Leg PD	Boyu Xia	-	-
	Amputee Leg PD	Mineo Ono	Urko Carmona Barandiaran	Alexander Biermann
	Arthritis+Neurological PD	András Szijártó	Matteo Masento	Alessio Cornamusini
	Complete Neurological Leg Disability PD	Sebastian Richter	-	-
	Visual Impairment B1	Matteo Stefani	Manuel Cepero Gutierrez	Roman Kostyakov
	Visual Impairment B2	Koichiro Kobayashi	Masayoshi Idomoto	Simone Salvagnin
	Visual Impairment B3	Ricardo Pérez Amado	Domingo Carretero Campon	-
2012	Amputee Leg PD	Urko Carmona Barandiaran	Mineo Ono	Craig Demartino
	Arthritis+Neurological PD1	Manikandan Kumar	Raphael Nishimura	Mathieu Besnard
	Visual Impairment B1	Nicolas Moineau	Kenji Iwamoto	Matteo Stefani
	Visual Impairment B2	Sho Aita	Koichiro Kobayashi	Simone Salvagnin
2014	Amputee Leg PD	Urko Carmona Barandiaran	Ronald Dickson	Craig Demartino
	Visual Impairment B1	Koichiro Kobayashi	Nicolas Moineau	Matteo Stefani
	Neurological Physical Disability A	Mathieu Besnard	Manikandan Kumar	Behnam Khalaji
	Neurological Physical Disability B	András Szijártó	Alessio Cornamusini	Serge Laurencin
2016	B1	Koichiro Kobayashi	Nicolas Moineau	Matteo Stefani
	B2	Sho Aita	Mathieu Barbe	Simone Salvagnin
	AL-2	Albert Guardia Ferrer	Julien Gasc	Iván Germán Pascual
	RP1	Korbinian Franck	Nils Helsper	Connor King
	RP2	Nive Porat	Alessio Cornamusini	Vladimir Netsvetaev-Dolgalev
	RP3	Romain Pagnoux	Mathieu Besnard	Gregor Selak
2018	AU-2	Matthew Phillips	Trevor Smith	Maksim Maiorov
	B1	Koichiro Kobayashi	Matteo Stefani	Francisco Javier Aguilar Amoedo
	B2	Justin Salas	Raul Simon Franco	Fumiya Hamanoue
	AL-2	Thierry Delarue	Urko Carmona Barandiaran	Albert Guardia Ferrer
	RP1	Alessio Cornamusini	Korbinian Franck	Nils Helsper
	RP2	Behnam Khalaji	Nive Porat	Manikandan Kumar
	RP3	Romain Pagnoux	Michael Cleverdon	Gregor Selak
2019	AU-2	Matthew Phillips	Mor Michael Sapir	Kevin Bartke
	B1	Koichiro Kobayashi	Francisco Javier Aguilar Amoedo	Daniil Lisichenko
	B2	Sho Aita	Justin Salas	Richard Slocock
	B3	Cosmin Florin Candoi	Lux Losey Sail	Motohiro Ejiri
	AL-2	Thierry Delarue	Urko Carmona Barandiaran	Albert Guardia Ferrer
	RP1	Bastien Thomas	Alessio Cornamusini	Korbinian Franck
	RP2	Behnam Khalaji	Benjamin Mayforth	Manikandan Kumar
	RP3	Romain Pagnoux	Mathieu Besnard	Gregor Selak
2021 [22]	B1	Sho Aita	Razvan Nedu	Jesse Dufton
	B2	Fumiya Hamanoue	Richard Slocock	Raul Simon Franco
	RP1	Angelino Zeller  [ de ]	Tanner Cislaw	Korbinian Franck
	RP2	Mor Michael Sapir	Benjamin Mayforth	Bastien Thomas
	RP3	Romain Pagnoux	Mathieu Besnard	Iman Edrisi
	AL1	Thierry Delarue	Frederik Leys	Shuhei Yuki
	AU2	Matthew Phillips	Brian Zarzuela	Kevin Bartke
2023	B1	Sho Aita	Francisco Javier Aguilar Amoedo	Răzvan Nedu
	B2	Fumiya Hamanoue	Richard Slocock	Guillermo Pelegrín Gómez
	B3	Cosmin Florin Candoi	Kazuhiro Minowada	Lux Losey Sail
	AL1	Angelino Zeller  [ de ]	Markus Pösendorfer	Tanner Cislaw
	AL2	Thierry Delarue	Ethan Zilz	Albert Guardia Ferrer
	AU2	Isak Ripman	Kevin Bartke	Brian Zarzuela
	AU3	Mor Michael Sapir	Nobuhiro Yusaraoka	Dominic Geisseler
	RP1	Aloïs Pottier	Elliott Nguyen	Takuya Okada
	RP2	Mor Michael Sapir	Benjamin Mayforth	Bastien Thomas
	RP3	Iván Muñoz Escolar	Benjamin Mayforth	Manikandan Kumar

Women's Results

Speed

Year	Category	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011 [20]	Amputee Arm PD	Paula De la Calle Pizarro	-	-
	Arthritis+Neurological PD	Valentyna Kurshakova	-	-
	Visual Impairment B1	Silvia Parente	Dilyara Rakhmankulova	-
	Visual Impairment B2	Tatiana Panova	-	-

Lead

Year	Category	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011 [21]	Amputee Arm PD	Paula De la Calle Pizarro	-	-
	Arthritis+Neurological PD	Valentyna Kurshakova	-	-
	Visual Impairment B1	Dilyara Rakhmankulova	Silvia Parente	-
	Visual Impairment B2	Tatiana Panova	-	-
2012	Visual Impairment	Dilyara Rakhmankulova	Silvia Parente	Giulia Poggioli
	Physical Disability	Frances Brown	Silvia Giacobbo Dal Prà	Valentyna Kurshakova
2014	Amputee Leg PD	Christa Brelsford	Kate Sawford	Esme Harte
	Visual Impairment B2	Alessia Refolo	Tanja Glusic	Giulia Poggioli
	Neurological Physical Disability A	Elodie Orbaen	Tiziana Paolini	Oriane Moreno
2016	AU-2	Maureen Beck	Melinda Vigh	Lucia Capovilla
	AL-2	Lucie Jarrige	Kate Sawford	Esme Harte
	RP3	Elodie Orbaen	Oriane Moreno	Aika Yoshida
2018	AU-2	Solenne Piret  [ fr; de ]	Melinda Vigh	Maureen Beck
	B2	Abigail Robinson	Whiteny Pesek	Tanja Glusic
	AL-2	Lucie Jarrige	Kate Sawford	Emily Stephenson
	RP2	Hannah Baldwin	Marlene Prat	Anita Aggarwal
	RP3	Aika Yoshida	Momoko Yoshida	Elodie Orbaen
2019	AU-2	Solenne Piret  [ fr; de ]	Maureen Beck	Melinda Vigh
	B2	Abigail Robinson	Yumi Ejiri	Edith Scheinecker
	AL-2	Lucie Jarrige	Joanna Newton	Jaqueline Fritz
	RP2	Hannah Baldwin	Anita Aggarwal	Leanora Volpe
	RP3	Aika Yoshida	Momoko Yoshida	Martha Evans
2021	B2	Abigail Robinson	Edith Scheinecker	Nadia Bredice
	B3	Ionela Grecu	Tanja Glusic	Sunita Dhondappanavar
	RP1	Pavitra Vandenhoven	Eva Mol	Marta Peche Salinero
	RP2	Solenne Piret  [ fr; de ]	Leanora Volpe	Lucia Capovilla
	RP3	Lucie Jarrige	Martha Evans	Katharina Ritt
2023	B1	in B2
	B2	Abigail Robinson	Seneida Biendarra	Edith Scheinecker
	B3	Sunita Dhondappanavar	Mika Maeoka	Yumi Ejiri
	AL1	in RP1
	AL2	Lucie Jarrige	Sarah Larcombe	Rachel Maia
	AU2	Solenne Piret  [ fr; de ]	Lucia Capovilla	Maureen Beck
	AU3	in RP3
	RP1	Pavitra Vandenhoven	Melissa Ruiz	Marta Peche Salinero
	RP2	Dina Eivik	Jasmin Plank	Anna Devries
	RP3	Marina Dias	Christiane Luttikhuizen	Martha Evans

References

1. "IFSC Climbing World Championships – Arco (ITA) 2011". ifsc-climbing.org. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
2. "IFSC Climbing World Championship – Paris (FRA) 2012". ifsc-climbing.org. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
3. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2012 – Overall rankings" (PDF). [e-mail]. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
4. "World Championships".
5. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2014 – Combined rankings". IFSC. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
6. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2016". IFSC. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
7. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2016 – Overall rankings" (PDF). IFSC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
8. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2016 – Overall rankings" (PDF). [e-mail]. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
9. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2018". IFSC. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
10. "IFSC Climbing World Championship 2018 – Combined results". IFSC. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
11. "IFSC announce Paraclimbing World Championships 2019 will take place in Briançon, France". www.thebmc.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
12. "IFSC PARACLIMBING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - BRIANÇON (FRA) 2019".
13. "IFSC Plenary Assembly 2019 – A full recap". IFSC. 16 March 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
14. "World champs to be valuable experience for climber". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
15. "ARTICLE: The Rise of the UK Paraclimbing Community". www.ukclimbing.com. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
16. "Hiking Mt. Whitney is tough. With a spinal cord injury, it's an endless suffer-fest". Los Angeles Times. 2021-09-22. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
17. "Classification". Paraclimbing News. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
18. "Paraclimbing routesetting guidelines - updated march 2023" (PDF). International Federation of Sport Climbing . 2023.
19. "Paraclimbing routesetting guidelines - updated march 2023" (PDF). International Federation of Sport Climbing . 2023.
20. "The 1st IFSC PARACLIMBING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - ARCO (ITA) - July 18-19, 2011 - SPEED" (PDF).
21. "The 1st IFSC PARACLIMBING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - ARCO (ITA) - July 18-19, 2011 - LEAD" (PDF).
22. "IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships Moscow 2021" . Retrieved 2023-08-12.

External links

• "Calendar of IFSC competitions". www.ifsc-climbing.org.
• "IFSC Rules". www.ifsc-climbing.org.