Sport Climbing makes its Olympic debut

Sport climbing brings the challenge of scaling steep ascents to a whole new level in its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and will feature mainly three disciplines: Speed, Bouldering and Lead.

Top climbers from twenty countries excelled in their first appearance on the Olympic arena earlier today at the Aomi Urban Sports Park with fans absent amid strict pandemic restrictions.

Only the top eight athletes with the best combined score across three climbing events will reach Thursday's final.

Here’s what you need to know of the sporting event that will compete in the Olympics for the first time and who to watch out for.

What is Sport Climbing?

• Sport climbing is, at its essence, competitive rock climbing, with no equipment permitted other than safety ropes and climbing shoes.

• With just the use of their hands and feet, the athletes climb up using a range of hand and foot holds of different shapes and sizes on a vertical wall.

• The wall may feature varying angles of either positive (known in climbing as a slab) or negative (steep, overhanging) sections.

• To earn the gold medal, athletes have to excel in three climbing disciplines: speed, lead, and bouldering. This combination of events is new to competition climbing and has caused waves of anxiety among some of the best climbers in the world, all because of speed climbing.

The sport is categorised in three distinctive sections:

Bouldering – athletes are required to complete several fixed routes (also called “problems”) on a 4.5meter wall in a specified time.

Lead – athletes are required to climb as high as possible on a 15-meter wall within 6-minutes.

Speed – pits two climbers against each to climb as fast as possible on a 15-meter wall within a specified time.

• At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, each athlete is required to compete in all three categories.

• The final rankings will be decided by multiplying the positioning in each discipline, out of which, the athletes achieving the lowest scores will be the winner.

Athletes to watch for the men's Sport Climbing event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Jakob Schubert of Austria in action during the bouldering qualification, Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Sport Climbing - Men's Combined - Qualification - Aomi Urban Sports Park - Tokyo, Japan - August 3, 2021. -REUTERS

JAKOB SCHUBERT

• Jakob Schubert, born on the December 31, 1990, started climbing when he was 12 years old.

• With over 15 years of competition, he is more consistent than any other climber and is one of just six people to have climbed 9b+ Sport Climb.

• He has won 23 medals in Climbing World Cups and World Championships, of which ten were gold medals.

• Schubert is known as one of the best competition climbers in the world.

• He is representing Austria at the Olympics and is top pick to win gold at Tokyo in 2020

Adam Ondra of Czech Republic during the bouldering qualificationTokyo 2020 Olympics - Sport Climbing - Men's Combined - Qualification - Aomi Urban Sports Park - Tokyo, Japan - August 3, 2021.-REUTERS

ADAM ONDRA

• Adam Ondra Ondra was born on February 5, 1993 to climber parents. His life revolved around the sport from as early as six-years-old.

• At eight-years-old he onsighted (climbed first time without seeing it before) 7b+ / 5.12c routes, by nine onsighting 7c / 5.12d, and then at ten, he was onsighting 8a / 5.13b.

• At thirteen years of age, Ondra scaled 5.14d/9a - a difficulty level attempted by top climbers.

• He is the only male athlete to have ever won the world championships in both categories of lead and bouldering, achieving the feats in a single year (2014).

• In 2009, 2015 and 2019, Ondra also won the World Cup series in both categories of lead and bouldering, with three victories in lead and one in bouldering (2010).

• The Czech lad who holds a degree in Economics and is fluent in five languages namely, Czech, Spanish, English, Italian and German.

• Earlier today at the Aomi Urban Sports Park, Ondra finished in 18th place.

Tomoa Narasaki of Japan in action, Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Sport Climbing - Men's Combined - Qualification - Aomi Urban Sports Park - Tokyo, Japan - August 3, 2021. -REUTERS

TAMOA NARASAKI

• Tomoa Narasaki was born on June 22, 1996 in Utsunomiya in the Tochigi prefecture, an hour from Tokyo.

• He started climbing at the age of 10 in the gym.

• Narasaki has been competing for nearly 10 years and was the first person to officially qualify for Olympic Climbing when he won the IFSC Combined Championships in 2019. • Originally a gymnast, Narasaki is Japan’s top male climber and the nation's best hope for an Olympic medal. • In 2018, he pushed himself past the third hold on the category of speed wall with a move which has only been seen in the category of bouldering. • Over the years, in the World Championships and Cups, he has achieved multiple gold placings in the categories of Bouldering Combined. • Earlier today, in the speed section of the Tokyo Games climbing competition, Narasaki recorded his fastest time of 5.94, coming in second after Bassa.

Mikael Mawem (left) and Bassa Mawem (right) of France in action, Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Sport Climbing - Men's Combined - Qualification - Aomi Urban Sports Park - Tokyo, Japan - August 3, 2021. -REUTERS

THE MAWEM BROTHERS • Siblings Mawem brothers Mickael and Bassa from France, are the only siblings competing in Sport Climbing at Tokyo 2020. • Bassa was born on the November 9,1984, while Mickael who was born on the August 3, 1990 turns 31 today. • The brothers have appeared on the Ultimate Beastmaker, a TV obstacle course show in the vein of Ninja Warrior. • In 2018, Bassa won silver in Speed at the World Climbing Championships. • In the same year, Bassa also took the first place in both 2018 and 2019 in the Climbing World Cup series. • Bassa has so far won eleven medals from different World Cup and Championship events, making him the climber with the most medals in Speed compared to the other Olympic climbers. • In the last IFSC Speed competition prior to the Olympics, Bassa took second place with a 5.56 seconds in qualifying, 5.41 seconds in the finals. • According to REUTERS, Bassa, who is competing alongside his brother Mickael and is the oldest contender in the field at 36, ‘hit a personal best of 5.45 seconds, just short of the world record of 5.20 seconds. * The brothers are looking to open their own climbing gym.