Sport Climbing at the Summer Olympic Games 2020

[NearPup 3,052]

10 minutes ago, dcro said:

Disagree. It was very exciting for neutral audience.

I mean it was exciting but it felt like who won had more to do with luck than with skill and form on the day.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

Finally got a chance to watch some damn climbing at these Games. What a final that was 

 

I always knew sport climbing would provide some intrigue and entertainment, but that was an amazing Olympic debut for the sport. 
 

I would rate the combined format as “okay.” It’s not the ugly, evil demon that a lot of the climbing community makes it out to be, but it’s also not not the best format for sport climbing. In my opinion, too much of the results comes down to the efforts of others. It takes away from individual performances. Like most people within the climbing community, I’d prefer to see the disciplines separated.

 

I was pulling for Duffy  having watched him qualify for the Olympics in person. Unfortunately, the false start in speed cost him dearly. This format actually allowed for very few mistakes at all. Ondra  ultimately lost the competition on that dyno move at Boulder 2 for instance. Coleman  winning the Boulder phase was a huge surprise. He had shown good form on the World Cup circuit this year though, so it was nice to see his efforts rewarded. Likewise, Gines Lopez  winning the final was quite a shock as well. I never saw him winning speed, but to his credit, he took the opportunity when it came. I figured once he won speed he’d win the competition though, as he is a lead specialist. I was actually a bit surprised by his performance there, but he did enough to win and that’s what counts. I think Mawem  deserves a shoutout as well for his terrific performance on Speed and Boulder. Unfortunately, that 7th in lead and the way the combined format is scored left him without a medal. 
 

Interesting, the three winners of the individual disciplines (Gines Lopez , Coleman , Schubert ) were also the three medalists at the end of the day.  You can see how the multiplication method of scoring affects the eventual outcome in the combined event. 

 

 

[Monzanator 4,503]

@Olympian1010They have to separate the speed climb from endurance boulder. There is no other way. Making the final 8 only gives some of the handicap back since even if the speed winner finishes low in the other two events, he/she can still challenge for medals.

 

This seems to affect women more. Only four of Top 10 speed climbers made it past the qualifying while in lead & boulder 8 from Top 10! Huge difference.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

@Olympian1010They have to separate the speed climb from endurance boulder. There is no other way. Making the final 8 only gives some of the handicap back since even if the speed winner finishes low in the other two events, he/she can still challenge for medals.

 

This seems to affect women more. Only four of Top 10 speed climbers made it past the qualifying while in lead & boulder 8 from Top 10! Huge difference.

Not sure what “endurance boulder” is…but yes, the speed winner can stay competitive in this format because of the multiplication system used for the combined score. On one hand, it’s nice that speed specialists have a chance, on the other hand it’s a bit ridiculous since they tend to be towards the bottom of lead and boulder phases. Obviously, speed will be a separate event in Paris, so this won’t be an issue next cycle.

 

Lead and Boulder are generally regarded as being more similar to each other, than speed climbing is to either, so it’s not shocking that climbers stronger in Boulder and Lead might fair better in qualification. For example 2x16x17 (speed-boulder-lead) is still worse than than say 14x4x6.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

Also, just wanted to give a shoutout to OBS. I really liked how they choose to present sport climbing. Those 3D models of the walls are cool. Plus all the other fun graphics they used during the final (angle of wall, distance between holds, etc.)

[Monzanator 4,503]

7 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Not sure what “endurance boulder” is…but yes, the speed winner can stay competitive in this format because of the multiplication system used for the combined score. On one hand, it’s nice that speed specialists have a chance, on the other hand it’s a bit ridiculous since they tend to be towards the bottom of lead and boulder phases. Obviously, speed will be a separate event in Paris, so this won’t be an issue next cycle.

 

Lead and Boulder are generally regarded as being more similar to each other, than speed climbing is to either, so it’s not shocking that climbers stronger in Boulder and Lead might fair better in qualification. For example 2x16x17 (speed-boulder-lead) is still worse than than say 14x4x6.

The speed speciallists are lucky there are no 30 entries overall or else the entire Top 10 from speed climb wouldn't have made the final. So this combined event is unfair to them. It has to be separated like it is in the World Games. It's like in cycling when sprint speciallists will never contend for the overall Grand Tour or a mountain stage victory.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

16 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

The speed speciallists are lucky there are no 30 entries overall or else the entire Top 10 from speed climb wouldn't have made the final. So this combined event is unfair to them. It has to be separated like it is in the World Games. It's like in cycling when sprint speciallists will never contend for the overall Grand Tour or a mountain stage victory.

Which is exactly what the majority of the climbing community, myself included, wants of course. It’s just tough to get there when quotas are tight like there are currently.

[Monzanator 4,503]

7 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Which is exactly what the majority of the climbing community, myself included, wants of course. It’s just tough to get there when quotas are tight like there are currently.

 

Yeah, quotas are tight but one would have thought the new sports will get the glass half-full treatment and some of the old ones get trimmed down. But here they brought a new event and clearly butchered the concept already. If you want to keep the quotas in sport climbing low then why introduce this sport to the Games to begin with?

[Olympian1010 7,977]

22 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Yeah, quotas are tight but one would have thought the new sports will get the glass half-full treatment and some of the old ones get trimmed down. But here they brought a new event and clearly butchered the concept already. If you want to keep the quotas in sport climbing low then why introduce this sport to the Games to begin with?

Because some sport climbing is better than no sport climbing 

 

In fairness, quotas weren’t as tight for Tokyo as they are for Paris. There’s also a lot of rumors as to why the combined event was chosen for the Olympics instead of the individual disciplines, but that’s a loaded topic I don’t feel like getting into.

[Monzanator 4,503]

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

Because some sport climbing is better than no sport climbing 

 

In fairness, quotas weren’t as tight for Tokyo as they are for Paris. There’s also a lot of rumors as to why the combined event was chosen for the Olympics instead of the individual disciplines, but that’s a loaded topic I don’t feel like getting into.

I think we can safely presume the mixed events are there to cut down the quotas as chief reason. Gender diversity is just a convenient excuse. Getting rid of 470 class in sailing proves that. IOC will be making space for new "urban teenage" events and sailing remains an old school sport that isn't aimed at the teenagers whatsoever. I'm fairly sure we'll have e-sports as Olympic "sport" come 2032.