Olympian1010

Korda misses a put for birdie on 17. Might be heading to a gold medal playoff.

I dreamed an entire Olympic final last night. I thought I was still awake watching an event, only to realize that I’d been asleep for around 2 hours…

Yay! Finish for Firisua

I don’t think the aerodynamic advantage is huge, but there’s definitely less mental/physical ware when following someone. It’s easier to follow than to lead/run alone.

Seidel

I got caught off guard by the time change. Missed the first 20 minutes or so… Anyways, It’s marathon time

My wild guess is that this from the Go Pro/Teva Mountain Games…

Honestly, Miroslaw had a pretty decent chance at a medal here. All she needed to win a medal after that win in the speed was a zone hold in boulder or to beat Jaubert (another speed specialist) in the lead. It’s true the format didn’t favor her (or other speed climbers), but this wasn’t an impossible task for her.

Speed is very unpredictable at the top. Plus, they aren’t the only nation working on new beta. I’d say they have a decent chance, but it’s nowhere near certain.

Garnbret is such a beast! She ate those boulder problems for breakfast and then enjoyed that lead route for dessert. I’m also super happy for Nonaka and Noguchi . It was nice to see the Japanese climbers find some success at their home Olympics. The route setters did a great job setting intriguing boulders, but I think they could have ratcheted down the difficultly a notch. The green hold section of the lead route also proved to be quite a challenge. I think they could have made that top volume section (after the green holds) just a tad easier though, since it would have been nice to see someone top out during the final.

In fairness, the addition of those sports doesn’t really have much to do with the 50km Race Walk being dropped. It has entirely to due with the fact that there’s no Women’s 50km Race Walk. Plus, the IOC also didn’t like the lack of technological innovation if I remember their report correctly.

Visibility overcome with emotions at the finish. What an effort! A highlight of the Games for sure.

DUNFEE!!!

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.

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.

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.)

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 origin story of San Marino is definitely worth looking into if you’re not familiar with it… (European micro-states generally have great origin stories )

I watched hours of it during the 2017 GSSE

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.

The shot put podium is the exact same as it was in Rio 2016. Apparently this the first time a podium has been repeated like this.

Carrington gold once more

He had a lot of pressure on him. The pressure always increases that much more when you’re chasing your countries first medal at the Olympics. He seemed to be a collapsing a lot going into his third phase today. I think he was quite nervous and thus forgot some of the basics because he was trying so hard. It won’t be what he wanted, but it’s still a huge achievement.