Sport Climbing Proposed for Paris 2024 Olympics

Above photo courtesy of OIS/IOC

The Paris Organising Committee of the Olympic & Paralympic Games proposed adding sport climbing and bouldering to the 2024 Games, with a separate competition for speed climbing. That’s two climbing competitions.

Climbing will make its Olympic debut during the 2020 Games held in Tokyo, Japan. Many celebrated the move. But a large portion of the climbing community was upset by its inclusion — mostly due to format.

In Tokyo, climbers will combine performances in bouldering, sport, and speed climbing events for a grand total and a chance at one medal.

Announced on February 21, the Paris 2024 Olympics will consider competitions for lead and bouldering in addition to a separate speed climbing competition. This move, if accepted, would double the medal count available for climbing. It would also increase the amount of Olympic climbers to 72, up from 40 in 2020.

 

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‼️ Some amazing news just broke this morning; Paris 2024 has put forth “Sport Climbing” for one of their additional sports at the 2024 Olympic Games ????‍♀️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ More specifically, they have added a set of medals, doubling what we have for 2020! On top of the medal count, we will also almost double the number of Olympian Climbers to 72 athletes (up from 40 in 2020). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With the new number of medals and athlete count, they have proposed to split them in to the following: 1) Speed (16m +16f) ???????????? 2) Lead/Bouldering combined (20m + 20f) ???????????? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lots of discussion is sure to follow but I’m super happy we are still growing within the Olympic movement with more medals as well as athletes. With Speed being separated from the other two, the specialists in that discipline are sure to flourish.

A post shared by Sean McColl (@mccollsean) on Feb 21, 2019 at 3:11am PST

Sport Climbing & Bouldering Proposed for Paris 2024 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee considers new sports for every Olympic Games. They just need to go through a proposal process before the sports appear at the Games.

Breakdancing, skateboarding, and sport climbing were proposed today for the Paris 2024 Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will review the sports from March 26 to 28.

“It is again a great day: our climb goes on, and new challenges are taking shape beyond Tokyo,” said Marco Scolaris, president of the International Federation of Sport Climbing.

“We are happy to see that Paris 2024 is supporting the new wave, which is strengthening the Olympic movement. We are grateful for the proposal’s recognition of the value of Sport Climbing and the work the IFSC has done. We are proud to be part of this process, and we look forward to the next steps in the following months,” said Scolaris.

The proposal for new sports is part of the Olympics’ attempt to support the development of booming sports all over the world.

Problem With Climbing in Tokyo 2020

Speed climbing is an issue in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Most professional sport climbers and boulderers do not speed climb.

And lumping all three disciplines into one climbing medal is not accurate to the sport, many argue.

Yet many others applauded the move. The world’s biggest stage admitting climbing as a sport is a huge badge of recognition for the sport’s legitimacy.

If Paris 2024 holds climbing events in two separate competitions, the format will mirror that of professional climbing competitions held around the world.