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.
Sean McColl is a professional rock climber from North Vancouver, Canada. In competition climbing, he competes in the competition lead climbing, competition speed climbing, and competition bouldering disciplines, and has won major competitions in all three. He is also notable for his outdoor sport climbing and bouldering ascents.
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.
Shauna Coxsey is an English professional rock climber. She is the most successful competition climber in the UK, having won the IFSC Bouldering World Cup Season in both 2016 and 2017. She retired from competition climbing after competing in the 2020 Olympics.
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 one of the greatest competition climbers of all time. She is also the world's first-ever female climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) graded sport climbing route. As of 2023, Garnbret had won the most IFSC gold medals of any competition climber in history.
Competition climbing made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Two events were held, one each for men and women. The format controversially consisted of one combined event with three disciplines: lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering. The medals were determined based on best performance across all three disciplines. This format was previously tested at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. The Olympic code for sports climbing is CLB.
Akiyo Noguchi is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in competition bouldering as well as outdoor bouldering and sport climbing.
Sport climbing at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics was held from 7 to 10 October. The competition took place at the Parque Urbano in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. This marked the debut of the sport at the Youth Olympics.
Jan Hojer is a German professional rock climber specializing in sport climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. He is known for winning one World Cup and two European Championships in competition bouldering. In May 2010, he climbed Action Directe, one of the most difficult sport climbing routes in the world. From 2013 to 2015, he sent several 8C (V15) boulder problems.
Jessica Pilz is an Austrian professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She won the 2018 IFSC Climbing World Championships for competition lead climbing.
Tomoa Narasaki is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in bouldering and competition bouldering.
Competition climbing made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The Olympics was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic. It is governed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC).
Ai Mori is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing and the disciplines of competition lead climbing and competition bouldering. At the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships, she became the youngest Japanese athlete to finish in a podium place in the competition, third in lead. She has won Japan Cup titles in both bouldering and lead disciplines and has multiple IFSC Climbing World Cup podium finishes, including three gold medals in World Cup events in the 2022 season. At the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Championships, Mori won the gold medal in lead, becoming the first Japanese athlete to win a World Championships lead title.
The men's combined event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was a climbing competition combining three disciplines. It was held from August 3 to August 5, 2021 at the Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. A total of 20 athletes from 15 nations competed. Sport climbing was one of four new sports added to the Olympic program for 2020.
The women's combined event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was a climbing competition combining three disciplines. It took place between 4 and 6 August 2021 at the Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. 20 athletes from 15 nations competed. Sport climbing was one of four new sports added to the Olympic program for 2020.
Alberto Ginés López is a Spanish professional rock climber, specializing in competition lead climbing and competition bouldering. He placed second in the 2019 Lead Climbing World Cup and won a silver medal at the 2019 Lead Climbing European Championship. In August 2021, he won gold at the first Olympic sport climbing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
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 16, he became the youngest climber to qualify to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, and the second American male climber to do so, after winning the 2020 IFSC Pan American Championships in March 2020.
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.
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, separating the boulder-and-lead tandem from the speed format. Furthermore, Paris 2024 will witness a significant rise in the number of sport climbers competing contrary to Tokyo 2020, expanding the roster size from 40 to 68.
