Sport Climbing In Paris - Olympics Results And Reflection

14/8/24

As the chalk dust from the Olympics climbing event settles, it's a good time to reflect on the results and think back to Tokyo for some context. The separation of the Speed discipline from the Combined was certainly a success, we got to see dedicated Speed athletes perform this discipline at the highest level. Even better for New Zealand, we managed to qualify athletes in both the men's and women's fields, with Sarah Tetzlaff finishing 13th and Julian David capping off a remarkable run of results with an 8th place finish and breaking his own New Zealand record in the process.

Likewise, the main course of the Bouldering and Lead was a better event without the Speed included, as we weren't forced to watch speed climbers try and do the technically difficult events, nor the elite climbers bungle the speed. Tomoa Narasaki (JAP) was probably the only climber in the field who had a reduced medal chance with Speed excluded, so the separation seems like a great move, combined with an improved scoring system. How did it all play out?

Men

Semifinal

As noted in the primer, the men's field were hard to separate and while there was a favourite, there were also a good number who could win if they had their day. Enter the route setting team and the men's semifinal, where havoc ensued. 

The Boulder round was a hard set. As predicted, Sorato Anraku (JAP) took a decent lead (but with just 69 points), Tomoa Narasaki (JAP) and Toby Roberts (GBR) were within a few decimal places of each other on 54 points, but the next 13 athletes were close behind and only separated by small margins with a total points spread of 25. There were two ways of looking at this, on the bright side almost everyone was still in with a chance and the main contenders were loosely where you'd expect them to be in the order. But on the other hand, it put a lot of pressure on a good set in the Lead round and it was more likely that some expected to make the final were going to miss out. 

Unfortunately, the Lead round featured what can only be described as a miscalculation by the setting team. At the 12 point mark, six athletes fell due to footslips, effectively ending their chance at making the final. Another three athletes fell two moves later at the 14 point mark, including Lead specialists Alex Megos (GER) and Luka Potocar (SLO), both due to foot slips.

Some might argue that it is up to the athletes to perform well and take their own fate into their hands. Some athletes were able to climb through this section without falling, so the athletes that fell only have themselves to blame. There is always an element of this in sport, but it is important to look at the details here. It is the job of the route setters to provide a balanced contest for the athletes between the two disciplines and to let them show off their best climbing, while also providing enough separation for a clear outcome. It is by no means an easy job. There's no doubt the setters established this section with the intent of knocking out a few athletes not taking enough care early in the route, but there's no way they intended it to have as big an impact on the outcome as it did. 

The move in question was completed by athletes with three different sequences for the feet, and by and large the athletes who fell all used the most straightforward foot sequence, trading some complexity for a higher intensity, which is a legitimate tactic in the Lead semifinal of a combined event—where making the final is the goal and a moderately good Lead climb is the target, rather than risking it all for the win, with no medals awarded at this stage. Muddying the waters of the 'they read the route badly' argument, some who were very successful on the route used essentially the same sequence, while others who used the 'better' toe hook sequence were the athletes who fell shortly afterward. It was also a mix of Lead and Boulder specialists who fell here including five World Cup Lead medallists, so you can't really claim the 'better' route climbers read the route well and the others suffered. 

Use of this type of low percentage move is a legitimate tactic by the setters to give separation, but only appropriate higher on the route and thereby separating a smaller group of athletes. This point is demonstrated by the fact that every athlete who made it through this section climbed a decent way further on the route and all bar two (Yannick Flohe  of Germany and Yufei Pan of China) made the final. Those that made it through the move but missed the final were the climbers with the lowest boulder scores, excluding Alberto Gines Lopez (SPA), who had the best performance in the Lead and made it further than anyone, thereby deservedly earning a finals place. In a two discipline format where balanced performance across the two disciplines is supposed to be rewarded, success or failure was primarily due to a series of moves with awkward feet low on the Lead route. 

As a spectator, seeing athlete after athlete slip low on the Lead route, when they clearly weren't fatigued, was a frustrating watch. We were robbed of seeing the world's best competition climbers perform at their highest level on the ultimate stage of the Olympics. It can't be overstated how difficult the job of the route setters is and I have great sympathy for them, they should also be commended for doing an excellent job in the final round and in both Women's rounds. Nevertheless, for Tomoa Narasaki (JAP), Sam Avezou (FRA), Alex Megos (GER), Hannes van Duysen (BEL), Dohyun Lee (KOR), Luka Potocar (SLO), Sascha Lehmann (SUI), Jesse Grupper (USA) and Campbell Harrison (AUS) the Lead route must have been a huge frustration and disappointment after three or more years of lead-up. Some of these climbers were considered lock-ins for the final, even after the Boulder round.

Final

Thankfully, the final was a better spectacle. The Boulder round was exciting, with tops on all boulders and only one top on B2-4, but all by different athletes. This is an amazing outcome for the setters, clearly finding the limits of skill and strength of the whole field of athletes. The first boulder of the final was a confidence builder and a 'must top'. It was flashed by Anraku and completed in a handful of tries by Colin Duffy (USA), Roberts, surprise finalist Hamish McArthur (GBR) and Jakob Schubert (AUT). Adam Ondra (CZE) made it to the 10 point hold and narrowly missed a top, Paul Jenft (FRA) made it to the first zone hold and Alberto Gines Lopez registered no score. Pretty good separation.

Boulder Two was a devious slab, topped with apparent ease in the end by Anraku, where all else had failed. All the other athletes got the ten point hold (bar Alberto Gines Lopez, the weakest boulderer in the field) and were close to making the top, but couldn't find the right body position to stay in balance at the finish. The setters would have likely expected another top here and arguably the closest was Adam Ondra, who again left the stage at the end of his time with 15 more points going begging. I suspect when reviewing his performance after the event, he'll look at the 30 points he missed out on across B1 and B2 and see that was the difference between a silver medal and no medal at all.

Boulder Three was a steep and powerful problem with an incredibly awkward finish. Only Toby Roberts was able to squirm his way through the final move for a top, while Anraku, Duffy, McArthur and Gines Lopez were all eyeballing or touching the finishing volume but without the points to show for it.

Boulder Four was a more dynamic style, with a paddle dyno leading to a parkour pounce move that required perfect balance and accuracy to land on the foot and be able to stab the split-finger double-mono gfinish hold. I'm not sure there is an official name for this type of hold, but I've heard plenty on unofficial ones over the years, let's call it an 'eye poke' hold, as your front two fingers have to take the position of a double eye poke to grab the hold. Anraku fumbled the final hold several times, as did Paul Jenft, but it was USA's Colin Duffy that nailed the move perfectly, to the delight of the crowd. Everyone else made the second zone, bar Ondra and Roberts. 

Anraku's consistent performance and B1 flash had him sitting in first after Boulder, but only one point ahead of Colin Duffy who was on 68.3 after his B4 heroics. Roberts had triumphed on B3, but was five points back after not getting the second zone on B4. McArthur was another ten points back in 4th, while Schubert had been unspectacular in Boulder but done just enough to stay in contention with 43.6 points. Ondra, Jenft and Gines Lopez were all locked on 24 points and likely too far behind to medal, unless we once again had a strange turn of events in the Lead.

The Lead final was a good set, a resistance style route that rewarded efficient climbing across a range of different climbing styled sections. One advantage of the Boulder and Lead format is that Boulder can have its way with the new school parkour/paddle dyno/swing-a-ling fun and the Lead route doesn't have to pack any of this in, but can be an old school climbing skill and endurance test. As you might guess, the veteran savvy of Ondra and Schubert excelled here, both top-scoring with 96. Their mastery of this format and style of route was a joy to watch, both executing brilliantly under pressure. Close behind were the younger endurance crimping monsters Toby Roberts and Alberto Gines Lopez, both on 92. These guys perhaps didn't climb the route with as much skill and ease, but they sure know how to keep holding on. Those two pairs of climbers each had one who had done well enough in the Boulder round and one who hadn't, the better getting a medal. For Roberts it was the gold, pipping Anraku—whose Lead performance was below his usual standard, with just 76 points he was 5th in this discipline—who took silver. For Schubert, it was once again bronze (he was 3rd in Tokyo) and while he would have wanted gold after winning in Bern last year, it was still an outstanding result. Poor Colin Duffy was 4th, he scored a 68 in Lead as well as Boulder, while this is admirably consistent across formats, the Lead round was higher scoring and 68 in Lead was 7th, while it had been second in Boulder. You also have to feel for Ondra, who let 30 points slip through his fingers in Boulder, and would have taken silver ahead of Sorato with those points.

After the post-Tokyo speculation about the scoring system, I think it is clear that this system is better and gives fairer results (setting blemishes aside). But it is an interesting experiment to run these results through the old scoring system, where an athlete's placing in each discipline is multiplied to give a score, with the lowest winning. Admittedly, this scoring system makes even less sense in a two discipline event than across three, as it was in Tokyo. Nevertheless, depending on how you did a tiebreak for the Lead scores of Ondra and Schubert (=1st) as well as Roberts and Gines Lopez (=3rd), you'd have Schubert and Sorato winning out (5x1 and 1x5, respectively) ahead of Ondra in bronze (7x1). Roberts would have been unlucky in 4th (or maybe 3rd, depending on tiebreak). It just goes to show how close the Men's competition is.

Women

The Women's competition is, well, less close. Everyone expected Janja Garnbret (SLO) to win. How she would perform under this immense amount of pressure and expectation was really the story of the event, as well as how everyone else would go fighting for the other two medals available.

Semifinal

As expected, Janja reigned supreme in the Boulder semi, flashing the first two boulders and getting tops on the other two in a handful of attempts. There was perhaps a slight chink in the armour when she struggled to do a crux foot move on the final slab boulder, but in a gob-smacking display of her utter brilliance versus the rest of the field, she just eliminated the move by skipping it with a jump that no other athlete had even contemplated. Her score of 99.6 was followed at some distance by Oriane Bertone (FRA) and Brooke Raboutou (USA), both in the mod 80s, with perhaps the only surprise result being Oceana Mackenzie in 4th on 79. She was followed by a tight pack of seven other athletes in the 50-60s all with their eyes on the final: including Natalia Grossman (USA), Jessica Pilz (AUT), Miho Nonaka and Ai Mori (both JAP).

The Lead went largely to form, with Garnbret and Mori both getting very close to a top, with scores of 96.1 and a safe place in the final. In an echo of the Men's semi, we had four athletes all fall on the 45 point mark, and another three at 51 shortly after. As this was higher on the route, it was not as decisive as for the men, with Bertone and Mackenzie both falling foul at 45 but having enough points to make the final, while the other two athletes who fell here had poor boulder scores and did not. Arguably the most unlucky was Nonaka, who fell foul of the second trapdoor at 51 points and missed the final by less than a point. Another surprise omission from the final was Natalia Grossman, who didn't climb to her best ability in either round and finished well short of the final in 11th. In the primer I posed the question of whether those who qualified early (such as Grossman) would be best placed to do well at the Olympics, versus those who had to peak early and survive the gruelling Olympic Qualifier Series just to make it to the Olympics. With Grossman's compatriot Brooke Raboutou cruising through to the final in 3rd, after winning the OQS, an answer was starting to form. Other battle-hardened survivors of the OQS to final were Chaeyun Seo (KOR) and Erin McNeice (GBR), while Jessica Pilz (AUT) also made final in second place with a brilliant Lead round. Three OQS survivors in the Women's final and four in the Men's (Ondra, Jenft, Gines Lopez and McArthur) showed that series was crucial as part of the qualification process.

Final

The Women's Boulder final was a tight round, with less separation than the route setters would have ideally hoped for. Garnbret made mincemeat of the first three boulders, topping B1 in a way that made it look comfortably easier than her warm-ups. Five other women also topped B1, including flashes for Bertone and Mackenzie. Seo made it to the second zone, while only Mori failed to score a point (more on this later). The second boulder also got six tops, from the same six athletes, though interestingly McNeice snuck ahead of Garnbret by one decimal point with the only flash. More was somewhat redeemed by reaching the second zone and this time outperformed Seo, who only made it to Zone 1. On the third boulder things got really interesting. This was on the steepest part of the wall and looked similarly steep and powerful as it was in the Men's final. Athlete after athlete failed to reach even the second Zone, with Bertone and McNeice failing to register any points at all. Enter Ai Mori, who showed all the skill and determination that makes her a great Lead climber to fight (and rest) her way to the top. Raboutou also managed a second go top on a Boulder that suited her style, while Garnbret, climbing last, again showed her superiority with an impressive flash. On to the final boulder, where drama and tension really started to spool up. This swing-a-ling coordination problem proved too difficult for the athletes, even Janja Garnbret, who appeared to injure a finger in the attempt and left the stage distraught. Was this a sign that her victory wasn't assured after all? An injury during the final would be a cruel way to miss out.

Going in to the Lead round, Garnbret and Raboutou had a clear and deserved advantage over the rest of the field on 84.4 and 84 points, respectively. Behind them were Mackenzie, Bertone, McNeice and Pilz, all on 59 and attempts separating them by less than half a point. Mori and Seo were some way back, but both are fantastic Lead climbers and with a possible injury to Garnbret there was still everything to play for. 

The Final Lead route did a great job of separating the athletes and they placed mostly where you'd expect by ability. Boulder specialists Mackenzie and Bertone fell at the 45 point mark, leaving them 7th and 8th in the discipline and overall. Chaeyun Seo climbed well in Lead, but a 4th place score of 76 was only enough to sneak her ahead of Mackenzie in the overall to finish 6th. Erin McNeice had arguably been outperforming herself right through, but in the Lead she only managed 68 points, less than the remainder of the field and only good enough for 5th overall, despite a good boulder round. As anticipated, Ai Mori was brilliant on the Lead route, touching but not sticking the final hold for a score of 96.1. Would that be enough for a medal? Pilz also climbed incredibly, her score of 88 showing a lot of fight and dragging her ahead of the tight field of athletes on 59 after the Boulder and crucially ahead of Mori by 12. By this point Raboutou had climbed and scored 72, a great lead score for her and still nine points ahead of Pilz. With Garnbret still to climb, Raboutou and Pilz were assured medals and the tears and celebrations began before Janja could even touch the route. 

Be it the finger injury or the sheer tension of the moment, Garnbret didn't climb to her best on the Lead wall, but nor did she crumple and let the gold slip from her grasp. A score just short of Pilz still gave her a comfortable margin over Raboutou, but such are her high standards and because she hadn't topped the route she hadn't assured herself victory—she lowered to the ground uncertain. The nods of the other athletes and her coaches not only indicated she had done enough, but also the generosity of the contingent of athletes that knew she was the best performer and deserved the gold. Garnbret knelt on the stage and it was clear that the pressure of being such an overwhelming favourite had been a massive burden for her to carry all the way to the gold. The shared celebrations between the podium of Garnbret, Raboutou and Pilz was as fine an advert for the sport as you could hope for, with the mutual support and admiration for their other athletes really shining through. It was an emotional moment and even those rock climbers seeking to emulate the emotional state of their stony medium couldn't help but watch with a moistened eye.

A word for Ai Mori, who finished 4th (she would have been second under the Tokyo scoring system, with the rest staying otherwise in the Paris order). I've seen some commentary since the event that she was unfairly penalised for being short. While it is easy to feel sorry for Ai, especially given her shy, childlike demeanour and stature, the truth is that she simply isn't well-rounded enough to win in this combined format. She's absolutely brilliant on the Lead wall, but the attributes and skills that make her an amazing Lead climber are the same ones that hold her back in Boulder, this is why her scores are so uneven. The fact that the next shortest competitor in the final, Brooke Raboutou (they are 154cm and 158cm, depending on who you believe), finished second in the Boulder round by a tiny margin shows that it is a lack of dynamicism that was Mori's undoing in Boulder, rather than pure height. Yes, this was perhaps cruelly demonstrated with her struggling to do the starting jump on B1, but there were many other dynamic moves that she also failed to do at other parts of other boulders. Her measured, static and controlled style is a bonus on the Lead routes, but the point of the Combined format is that athletes must also be dynamic and powerful if they want to score well in Boulder.

-Tom Hoyle