Mike Langley - BBC commentary 

As an experienced climbing commentator with all the lingo in your head, how do you go about the challenge of explaining concepts and what's going on to a mainstream audience? 

I think it's important that we stay true to the sport but strike the balance. You can do both – keep things legit for the climbers out there whilst not confusing new viewers. This is a huge moment for the indoor climbing industry, so we will work hard to make sure the viewers fully grasp what's going on. I will still be dropping a casual "flying toe hook gaston into triple dyno paddle" into the commentary. This is where the dynamic between Ed and I will really help as we can play off each other to get the balance right. I feel when you grasp some of the jargon in a sport it helps you feel a part of something.

How much research is involved beforehand? Will you have any access to information about the route setting, conditions, etc.?

A huge amount! Due to COVID-19 we are doing the coverage from the BBC studios in Manchester instead of in front of the wall in Tokyo. This is certainly going to bring its own challenges. We have been working with the IFSC, amongst others, to make sure we can get as much live information about the routes, boulders, weather conditions and inside stories from on-the-ground as possible. This information is really important to help paint the picture. And while we gather as much of it as we can, the setting team cannot divulge any information about the climbs until the athlete isolation area is closed, right before the round actually starts, even though everything is set around two weeks before kick off! I'm fully prepared for my WhatsApp to be red hot just as we get into it.  

Presenting live scores and understanding what athletes need to do has always been a challenge in climbing, especially in the Combined format. Will there be bespoke graphics on screen, and will there be any speculative/prediction element: 'X needs Zone to make final.' etc.?

This side of climbing commentary, until recently, has been back of an envelope stuff whilst we are live. It can be incredibly stressful – you don't want to call the wrong winner based on your quick calculations! As far as I'm aware there will be plenty of graphics on screen as a lot of work is going into this by the BBC and others. The Combined format, at times, does feel like a live maths competition, but Ed assures me he is a numbers wizard, so I will be concentrating on how small the crimps are whilst fully passing the buck on the numbers/ predictions to him...

You've commentated at the IFSC World Championships multiple times and the British Bouldering Championships, which is live streamed on the BBC. The numbers watching in Tokyo, though, will be far higher. Are you nervous/excited about bringing climbing to such a huge audience? No pressure!

Ha ha, yeah, no pressure! Of course there are plenty of nerves, but it doesn't change my approach or my focus if it is just one psyched person watching or one million. I'm there to get into the details of what is going on and I'll do that no matter how big or small the event is. Nerves aside, I'm so honoured to be in a position where I can contribute to this huge moment in climbing's history and I hope people enjoy it.

Have you had any practice runs with the team?

I have never worked alongside Ed, but he has so much experience across so many sports that it should be easy to drop into a flow. He is currently out in New Zealand, so we have been preparing on Zoom. We have a couple of days in person before the Olympics to run through the delegation of work, do some dry runs on previous events and settle into the rhythm of things. Exciting times! 

Ed Leigh - BBC commentary

Do you have any personal interest in climbing?

I grew up, like most kids climbing everything I could; haybale stacks, trees, building site scaffold... you name it, I wanted to get to the top of it. When they built a climbing gym in Gloucester my older brother and I were straight in there and learned to lead climb and got owned regularly by the bouldering wall. Through my late teens and 20s when I was focused on snowboarding and skating I drifted away from it. But as I arrived in my early thirties and started to push the alpine side of snowboarding I found myself coming back to climbing. Then as my kids grew it became something that we could all do together. I'm far from a regular and even further from being any good, but I still love to climb whenever I can… especially when it leads to a great snowboard descent.

How did the commentary gig come about?

When the so called 'urban' sports were introduced for Tokyo, Ron Chakraborty asked if I'd be interested in commentating on those new sports. I know some people will feel that I'm not the right person for the job or that I don't know enough about climbing, but there are limitations that need to be considered. When we were originally travelling out to cover the games from Tokyo there were only three accreditations available for commentators to cover Skate, Surf, BMX and Climbing because each person will cost in excess of £10K when you factor in travel, accommodation, per diems and fee. I have been commentating for the BBC for 15 years and Tokyo will be my sixth games for them. I have covered a multitude of sports and Red Bull TV actually use me as their jack of all trades host for action sports because I have developed a knack of breaking down action and adventure sports for mainstream audiences without alienating the core (yet…). So with experience across all the sports I will act as the lead commentator. My weakest sport is climbing, so Mike was the second name on the list, we then added Tim Warwood to work on the other three but it was a compromise. 

The moment it became clear that by going to Tokyo we wouldn't gain anything life actually became much easier. Tim Warwood is still going to Japan as our man on the ground which he is brilliant at, but it means we now have an expert in each sport now, which I'm really happy about because it's so important to be able to do each of these sports justice on this stage.

How have you approached learning about the format, rules, the athletes and their stories etc.? 

As I do with all sports, methodically, but it's important to acknowledge how much easier research is these days with the advent of social media, podcasts and live streamed events. These days you don't have to be on site and immersed in the scene for years to gather all the information you need. But that said you can't learn a sport in a couple of months. The key for me is to follow the story of the event as it unfolds and give Mike the platform to unpick the what, why and hows. 

The interesting bit is how you naturally build a rhythm as a partnership. I've watched a fair bit of climbing now and there is a temptation to fall in to the action sports trap of talking constantly, when in a sport like climbing the tennis or golf approach of using silence as a tool to build tension around the action works really well. We've got some warm up days so we'll be playing with how we work together in that time.

You won't be in Tokyo, but Salford. How will this impact your typical approach to commentary, with regard to having access to behind-the-scenes information and interviews with athletes etc.?

When Mike and I first sat down to work through everything we needed to do, this was the first bit of homework I gave Mike: get yourself in the WhatsApp groups for anyone you can on site: route setters, technical delegates, judges, coaches and athletes. Technology is our friend here and Mike's job is to be as connected to the venue as possible. He's done a brilliant job with that so far and because we've sorted this out so early it looks like we'll have better intel than if we were on site!