| Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| IOC Code | CLB |
| Governing body | IFSC |
| Events | 4 (men: 2; women: 2) |
| Summer Olympics | |
Competition climbing has been held at two editions of theSummer Olympic Games. First selected as one of the discretionary sports at the2020 and2024 games, sport climbing will be inducted as one of the mandatory sports at the2028 games. Athletes compete in the disciplines ofbouldering,lead climbing, andspeed climbing. All three were contested as a single event in the 2020 programme, while speed climbing was spun off into its own event in the 2024 programme.Slovenia have won the most gold medals (2), whileAustria,Japan, and theUnited States have won the most medals overall (3 each).
The inclusion was proposed by theInternational Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) in 2015.[1] In September 2015, competition climbing was included in a shortlist along withbaseball,softball,skateboarding,surfing, andkarate to be considered for inclusion in the2020 Summer Olympics;[2] and in June 2016, the executive board of theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that they would support the proposal to include all of the shortlisted sports in the 2020 Games.[3] Finally, on August 3, 2016, all five sports (counting baseball and softball together as one sport) were approved for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program.[4]
At the2020 Summer Olympics, two climbing events were contested: men's combined and women's combined. The competition format combined three disciplines of competition climbing:competition speed climbing,competition bouldering, andcompetition lead climbing. This decision caused widespread criticism in the climbing community.[5]
Members of the IFSC explained that they were only granted one gold medal per gender by the Olympic committee, and they did not want to exclude speed climbing. The IFSC's goal for the 2020 Olympics was primarily to establish climbing and its three disciplines as Olympic sports; changes to the format could follow later. This tactic proved to be successful; the2024 Summer Olympics would expand sport climbing to separate boulder-and-lead and speed climbing events.[6][7][8]
Beginning at the2028 Summer Olympics, the boulder and lead disciplines will be split into separate medal events.[9]
For Olympic level sports climbing,route setters are instructed to set lead climbs at agrade of between8c (5.14b) and9a (5.14d) for both the men's and women's events. For boulder, men's routes are set between agrade ofV10 (7C+) andV14 (8B+), and women's routes betweenV9 (7C) andV12 (8A+).[10][11]
NB:
| Games | Events | Best nations |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 Summer Olympics | 2 |  Spain(1) Slovenia(1) |
| 2024 Summer Olympics | 4 |  Poland(1) |
| Current program | |||
| Event | 2020 | 2024 | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's combined (s, b, l) | X | 1 | |
| Men's combined (b, l) | X | 1 | |
| Men's speed | X | 1 | |
| Women's combined (s, b, l) | X | 1 | |
| Women's combined (b, l) | X | 1 | |
| Women's speed | X | 1 | |
| Events | 2 | 4 | |
The following nations have taken part in the Olympic climbing competition. The numbers in the table indicate the number of competitors sent to that year's Olympics.
| Nation | 2020 | 2024 | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
 Australia | 2 | 23 | 2 |
 Austria | 2 | 2 | 2 |
 Belgium | – | 11 | 1 |
 Canada | 2 | – | 1 |
 China | 2 | 7 | 2 |
 Czech Republic | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 France | 4 | 7 | 2 |
 Germany | 2 | 3 | 2 |
 Great Britain | 1 | 4 | 2 |
 Indonesia | – | 4 | 1 |
 Iran | – | 1 | 1 |
 Italy | 3 | 4 | 2 |
 Japan | 4 | 4 | 2 |
 Kazakhstan | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 New Zealand | – | 2 | 1 |
| Poland | 1 | 2 | 2 |
 ROC | 3 | – | 1 |
 Slovenia | 2 | 3 | 2 |
 South Africa | 2 | 4 | 2 |
 South Korea | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Spain | 1 | 2 | 2 |
 Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Ukraine | – | 2 | 1 |
 United States | 4 | 8 | 2 |
| Nations | 19 | 22 | 24 |
| Climbers | 40 | 68 | |
| Year | 2020 | 2024 | 2 |
| Event | Round | Climber | Nation | Time | Games | Date | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's combined (speed) | Qualification | Bassa Mawem | France | 5.45 | 2020 Tokyo | 3 August 2021 | OR[12] |
| Women's combined (speed) | Qualification | Aleksandra Mirosław | Poland | 6.97 | 4 August 2021 | OR[13] | |
| Final | Aleksandra Mirosław | Poland | 6.84 | 6 August 2021 | WR[14] | ||
| Women's speed | Qualification | Aleksandra Mirosław | Poland | 6.06 | 2024 Paris | 5 August 2024 | WR[15] |
| Men's speed | Bronze medal match | Sam Watson | United States | 4.74 | 8 August 2024 | WR |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slovenia (SLO) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | Poland (POL) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Great Britain (GBR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Indonesia (INA) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Spain (ESP) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 | Japan (JPN) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| United States (USA) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 8 | China (CHN) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Austria (AUT) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Totals (9 entries) | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Paris details | Veddriq Leonardo Indonesia | Wu Peng China | Sam Watson United States |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Tokyo details | Janja Garnbret Slovenia | Miho Nonaka Japan | Akiyo Noguchi Japan |
| 2024 Paris details | Janja Garnbret Slovenia | Brooke Raboutou United States | Jessica Pilz Austria |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Paris details | Aleksandra Mirosław Poland | Deng Lijuan China | Aleksandra Kałucka Poland |
| Summer sports | |
|---|---|
| Winter sports | |
| 2026 optional | |
| 2028 optional | |
| Past sports | |
| Demonstration sports | |
| Unofficial sports |
|
