Sport climbing made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 as one of the Games’ new urban sports.
Here is all you need to know about the sport at Paris 2024.
Sport climbing schedule and venue at Paris 2024
The sport climbing events run from 5-10 August. They are taking place at Le Bourget Climbing venue, which has been specifically built for the sport climbing events.
There are four medal events – men’s and women’s speed climbing and men’s and women’s boulder and lead.
The women’s speed final takes place on 7 August with the men’s on 8 August.
The men’s boulder and lead final takes place on 9 August with the women’s on 10 August.
Scoring and rules in sport climbing
Olympic sport climbing is split into three formats – speed, boulder and lead climbing where boulder and lead combine to create one medal event and speed is a separate medal event.
In the boulder event, athletes climb 4.5m walls without ropes, aiming to complete the climb in the shortest amount of time and fewest attempts.
In lead climbing, athletes must try to make it to the top of a wall – which is over 15m with an overhang – within six minutes. Athletes are given six minutes to look at the wall before they begin climbing in order to gauge potential routes.
Points are awarded to the climber for reaching zones on the wall in lead and for completing moves or ‘holds’ in boulder with a maximum points tally of 200 available. Points are deducted if the climber falls off.
In speed climbing, athletes race up a 15m high wall against each other in one-on-one knockout rounds.
Who has won the most medals in Olympic sport climbing?
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics all three sport climbing formats were grouped into one combined medal event for each gender.
Spain’s Alberto Gines Lopez took gold in the men’s event while Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret won the women’s.
Great Britain’s Toby Roberts has already qualified for the Paris 2024 boulder and lead event with further Olympic places available at the Olympic Qualifier Series on 20-23 June.
