Paris 2024 Olympics - Olympic climbing Stage
The Paris 2024 Olympic climbing stage is set!
EP have released the first images of the official wall which the Olympians will do battle on.
EP collaborated with the IFSC on developing the TITAN boulder for World Cups and climbing gyms, it makes its debut on the Olympic stage in fresh new pastel colours.
They have specifically designed the wall “to offer maximum range for route setting, provide the best viewing angles, and meet the needs of international competitors and amateur climbers alike.”
As for the Lead wall, it seems to be entirely new! Sporting a series of varying angles with a more pronounced prow shape compared to previous competition lead walls which in the past have utilised simpler angles.
We’ve asked our athletes for their unique perspectives on what might come up.
We got our sponsored athlete Sam Butterworth’s thoughts on the boulder wall:
“The corner panel after the big slab looks perfect for coordination moves and laches like in World Champs at Bern 2023”
Below are a couple images of the capabilities of the wall angles when you combine it with the most glamorous of holds from the likes of 360HOLDS, Blocz, Cheeta, eXpression, Flathold, ROCKCITY and Squadra. Photographs by Lena Drapella.
Seeing these images, we can imagine how the setters of the world will push the boat out at Paris 2024.
Climbing’s second feature in the Olympics is surely going to set the trends for the style of problems we’ll see in boulder gyms for years to come.
They will have to be inventive and experimental to split the competitors but it needs to be balanced and tested for maximum viewability since there will be much broader audience reach for the Olympics.
Our athlete Aiden Dunne, after training on the TITAN boulder at Parthian London with the rest of Team GB and other countries’ Teams had this to say:
“I think the slight overhang is the nicest to climb on, it can climb like a slab depending on the holds but can also climb like a punchy physical climb which can really test the breadth in ability of the athletes”
We asked our sponsored athlete Rich Winters, a well established and esteemed routesetter, to offer up his unique perspective on what could be set on the angles involved. Rich had a lot of great insight and potential ideas for some of the possible problems.
“There is a big section of slab. I can imagine them setting a tentative slow no hands traverse here. Or some form of coordination like a fast, high stand up or sideways jump with a sliding foot for example.
On the far right there is a very steep, roof-like section. I can imagine it being compression heavy there. Lots of squeezing, heel hooks. Maybe a small bit of coordination like a double slap move (these work well going for the lip of roofs)
In the middle right there looks like a big section of 45. This is a great angle, which will lend itself to whatever the setters want.
Middle left there looks like vert which blends into the prow feature. I can imagine there being a sideways jump or skip into a hold on the steep prow. Possible requiring a toe hook catch to stick the hold...or a 1,2 or 3 momentum move with the hands.
Can't wait to see what the setters come up with, I have no doubt it will be a spectacular show.”
We asked our athlete Jen Wood for her thoughts on the Lead wall:
“I like that the Lead wall doesn’t seem to resemble any other World Cup Walls. I like the simplicity of it. It has similarities to classic walls like Chamonix but with slight variations across the width, which should make each route feel a bit different angle wise. Setters have in the past struggled to create this at comps so this could be exciting”
One of the key differences to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is that the Boulder event now has two Zones for point scoring per boulder and points are deducted for falling (read more about the scoring format here).
The style of boulders set will be drastically different in this Olympic cycle; they’ll either be longer to accommodate both Zones or rely on two key cruxes to separate out the competitors. Along with the addition of possibly even more droppable moves to lean heavily on the point deduction to separate competitors even further.
Droppable moves can be created either by the use of difficult low percentage moves (a specific type of move that when attempted is difficult to execute consistently) or utilising very insecure large holds/volumes and the untextured sections of “dual tex” holds.
A yellow “Dual Tex” sloper from Rockcity below.
e.g. One of the ways a low percentage move can be achieved is by blocking holds which need to be latched dynamically - The one above in the left image didn’t trouble the competitors too much. Screenshot from IFSC Salt Lake City 2024 Men’s Final M1 boulder top.
The Lead wall looks like it could become more powerful in the moves required and the angles will certainly have been created with the new scoring format in mind (read about it here). As only the top 40 holds are point scoring, it’s difficult to say how many holds wouldn’t score points currently as the routes can meander around the wall. But we can say the setters either would set it relatively easily on the bottom to allow for all the climbers to get through to point scoring or they could be quite ruthless and set a stopper move prior to even entering the first scoring area. The latter is less likely considering the aim of increasing the viewability and entertainment of the sport.
One interesting point our team noticed was the minimal overhang of the roof protecting the walls! It’s hard to be sure with photos but we hope the roof above the walls protrudes sufficiently, even though the puddles and droplets on the matting provide stark colours and reflections for the reveal images, we can’t imagine they would particularly help the conditions during climbing. Maybe this is the next step up in difficulty? Wet top outs for 100 points.
