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. She has won multiple competition lead climbing and competition bouldering events, two Olympic gold medals, and is widely regarded as the greatest competition climber of all time. In 2021, Garnbret became the first-ever female Olympic gold medalist in climbing, and successfully defended her title in 2024. With two gold medals, she is the most successful Slovenian athlete at the Summer Olympics. She is also the world's first-ever female climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) graded sport climbing route.
Margo Hayes is an American professional rock climber from Boulder, Colorado. In 2016, she won both the competition bouldering and the competition lead climbing events at the IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships in Guangzhou (China). In 2017, she became the first woman in history to climb a 9a+ (5.15a) graded route, and in 2019, became the first woman to complete the "9a+ Trilogy".
Reza Alipour Shenazandifard is an Iranian competition speed climber from Qazvin. He is nicknamed the "Persian Cheetah".
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.
Futaba Ito is a Japanese professional rock climber, sport climber and boulderer. She participates in both bouldering and lead climbing competitions. She won the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in lead and bouldering events in 2016, as well as Bouldering Japan Cup in 2017. She participated in combined and speed events at the 2018 Asian Games.
Aleksandra (Ola) Mirosław is a Polish soldier and competition speed climber. She is 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 2021 she won the IFSC World Championship in lead climbing. Seo is a two-time Olympian, having represented South Korea at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics.
Alannah Yip is a Canadian rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She was the national champion in her age category when she was twelve. She won a gold medal at the American Climbing Championships 2020 in Los Angeles, which qualified her for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
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.
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 took place 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 was doubled from two in the previous edition because the boulder-and-lead tandem had been separated from the speed format. Furthermore, the number of climbers increased from 40 to 68.
Emma Hunt is an American competition climber who specializes in competition speed climbing, and holds the American women's speed record with 6.301 seconds, set at the USA Climbing North American Cup in Salt Lake City in April 2024.
Aleksandra Kałucka is a Polish competition climber who specializes in competition speed climbing. She won the bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the speed climbing event. Kałucka also participated at the 2022 IFSC Climbing European Championships, being awarded the silver medal in the women's speed event. She is the twin sister of Natalia Kałucka.
Aniya Holder is a South African rock climber who specializes in competition climbing, particularly speed climbing. As of 2024, Holder is the reigning female African Continental Champion in women's speed climbing, and she is representing South Africa in that discipline at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Leslie Adriana Romero Pérez is a Venezuelan-born Spanish competition climber who specializes in competition speed climbing. She was a finalist for the 2024 Spanish Olympic team in the speed climbing event.
