Sport Climbing Discussion | Qualification to Summer Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 Road to LA 2028

[Totallympics 84]

Edited August 4, 2025 by Sindo

[Rafa Maciel 1,704]

This weekend saw the European and Asian seasons opening with the Continental Cup events taking place in Munich and Hong Kong.

 

IFSC European Cup - Munich: Boulder

 

Men's Results:

1.)  Thomas Lemagner - 3T/4Z (84.5)

2.)  Jack MacDougall - 2T/4Z (69.1)

3.)  Leo Favot - 2T/3Z (59.8)

4.)  Antoine Girard - 2T/2Z (49.9)

5.)  Thorben Perry Bloem - 0T/4Z (38.7)

6.)  Samuel Richard - 0T/3Z (29.5)

7.)  Ido Fidel - 0T/2Z (19.7)

8.)  Lukas Mokrolusky - 0T/2Z (19.7)

 

Women's Results:

1.)  Afra Honig - 3T/4Z (84.3)

2.)  Flora Oblasser - 3T/3Z (74.9)

3.)  Lucia Dorffel - 3T/3Z (74.8)

4.)  Lily Abriat - 3T/3Z (74.7)

5.)  Lucile Saurel - 2T/4Z (69.4)

6.)  Sandra Lettner - 2T/3Z (59.7)

7.)  Zoe Peetermans - 2T/3Z (59.6)

8.)  Stella Giacani - 0T/3Z (30.0)

 

Edited March 9, 2025 by Rafa Maciel

[justony 509]

Finally some common sense. IOC decides to put all 3 disciplines in programme for LA28. 

 

So now, we will see Speed, Lead and Boulder separate, with quota of 38 athletes per gender all together.

[intoronto 6,880]

Not too familiar with this sport, but do the same athletes compete in boulder and lead?

[Illya 590]

1 hour ago, intoronto said:

Not too familiar with this sport, but do the same athletes compete in boulder and lead?

Absolutely, there was at first all-around with 3 disciplines, where lead/boulder specialists were favorites, then it was replaced by Lead+Boulder combined, where lead specialists was favorites because of greater gaps that can be achieved in lead climbing, and now these are separate disciplines where it depends only on what each climber could do best (or who is Janja Garnbret who will win 2 golds)

[phelps 8,658]

2 hours ago, intoronto said:

Not too familiar with this sport, but do the same athletes compete in boulder and lead?

until Sport Climbing became part of the Olympic schedule, the "combined event" didn't exist and it was quite an oddity to see the same people being at the top of both boulder and lead, even if boulder was basically invented as a form of (indoor) training for the lead specialists

 

in the last 10 years, with this "combined event" included in the Olympic program, many things have changed and of course the strongest specialists in both disciplines started to develop also the skills required by "the other one" to be competitive in the new event

 

actually, also the design of the boulder and lead walls has changed to allow all the top athletes to become better all-arounders than true specialists of a single event

 

but, despite that, there are still a very good number of those and if you're not Janja Garnbret, it's very difficult to be a medal candidate in both disciplines

 

most likely, with boulder and lead being now separated also at the Olympics, I hope everything will be back to basics, with boulder and lead walls being way more complicated for the non-specialists, requiring different skills (and physical characteristics) that can't easily match one with the others

[phelps 8,658]

 Laura Rogora is the first woman in history to complete a onsight mode* route of 8c+  (the following step, 9a, is the most difficult degree of climbing ever completed in the onsight mode -and only 2 male climbers did it; 9c is the most difficult degree of climbing overall...just to give you an idea of how amazing is the result achieved by Rogora)

 

she did it in France, at Les Gorges du Loup on the route called Ultimate Sacrifice

 

*technically, it means that the climber has never watched anybody else attempting the climb, that he/she has never tested/had a warmup on it before and he/she's done it entirely straight at the first attempt (no second chances on any passage)

[clemsonbeav 488]

It's official.  Erin McNeice is my favorite athlete.  . (Never thought I'd see a T-Rex climbing a boulder.)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA3MN4NLkjo

 

Edited November 6, 2025 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 488]

Since this is my favorite Olympic sport, let's try and predict who the qualifiers will be (or at least the NOCs).

 

Boulder: 12 athletes per gender, 2 max per NOC, 1 host quota, 1 universality, quota is to the athlete by name

Lead: Same as Boulder

Speed: 14 athletes per gender, same other restrictions

 

Continental Restrictions (same for each discipline, below is listed per gender):

1 definite from Americas (from PanAm games in 2027)

1 definite from Europe (from European Games in 2027)

1 definite each from Asia, Africa, Oceania (from separate World Climbing Qualifiers in 2027)

 

The others come from the winners of the disciplines at the WCh in 2027, and then the top 4 (B/L) or 6 (S) from the OQS in 2028.

 

Then add host and universality.  (If either of these go unused, then it goes to the next highest from the OQS.

 

One thing I haven't quite understood is what happens if the same athlete wins a quota in, for instance, both Boulder and Lead.  Will it be just that athlete to compete in both, or will the athlete be able to compete in both, and another quota is available to the NOC or the next highest?

 

	Boulder		Lead		Speed
	M	F	M	F	M	F
PanAm	Colin Duffy	Brooke Raboutou	Colin Duffy	Brooke Raboutou	Sam Watson	Emma Hunt
European	Mejdi Schalk	Janja Garnbret	Alberto Ginés López	Janja Garnbret	Yaroslav Tkach	One of the Kaluckas
Asia				Chaehyun Seo
Africa
Oceania		Oceania McKenzie		Oceania McKenzie
World Champs	Toby Roberts	Erin McNeice		Annie Sanders
OQS			Toby Roberts	Laura Rogora	Zach Hammer
OQS					Aimur Maimuratov
OQS			Max Bertone
OQS		Oriane Bertone
OQS	x	x	x	x
OQS	x	x	x	x
Host (Reallocate)		Annie Sanders		Erin McNeice
Universality	Reallocate	Reallocate	Reallocate	Reallocate	Nassar Borjaib	Reallocate

 

 

How terribly did I do? :)

Edited 3 hours ago by clemsonbeav