UKC

The Speed competition at the IFSC World Championships in Innsbruck proved more popular than ever, with the Combined Final event and Tokyo 2020 in sight. Top contenders from the IFSC World Cup circuit lined up on the starting pads alongside the best athletes in Boulder and Lead.

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In reply to UKC News:

Why is this a thing?

In reply to UKC News:

When is the IFSC going t get rid of this stupid discipline? 

In reply to UKC News:

Can someone please explain the scores? Some people appear to have faster times but are placed behind others with apparently slower times.

In reply to Aigen:

It's not. It's the only form of climbing where you can have a world record. Bet it's the most popular format in terms of viewers numbers at the Olympics in 2020. Bouldering is great but it's crap to watch as a none climber. 

In reply to UKC News:

My daughter and I tried to watch this on eurosport,  stopped after a few rounds, won't be watching it again. 

In reply to snoop6060:

All correct I suspect. Depressingly correct. It's sad that such a compromised form of climbing made it into the olympics, also, I suspect a lot of the folk at the top of the sport are pretty disappointed with the lead event timer being so short and necessitating extremely fast climbing that just isn't optimum technique for sport climbing. There are frankly masses of events in the olympics that I think are boring as sin to watch (while obviously still recognising that the people doing them are masters of their discipline and I wouldn't even get close after a lifetime of training), but I guess if you are trying to get into the olympics, rather than already being there, then you need to try and bring a crowd-pleaser.

Maybe they would replace the speed event with a deep water solo event in years to come if crowd pleasing needs to be taken care of.

You don't need to be able to set a world record for an event to be in the olympics, lots of sports don't have world records for the olympic event (e.g. canoeing, river rafting, Curling, bmx, football etc.).

 

In reply to henwardian:

The IOC would include knitting if it attracted a lot of sponsorship money.

In reply to henwardian:

I know you don't need to be able to have a world record but it certainly helps when trying to get in the door. I don't know for sure but I guess the inclusion of speed climbing was simply due to the fact that climbing would not have got in otherwise? 

They should change the format of speed climbing if it stays. Do it on a big overhanging route, which is actually quite hard, above a pool with no rope Be a bit more fun to watch as a climber then. The current route is so boring it's rediculous. 

In reply to SuperLee1985:

There are effectively 2 parts to a speed comp. The qualifiying part is on time; this gets you into the knockout part, which is head to head.

In reply to snoop6060:

Correct.

Bit gimmicky, that. But yes, I think a change of route would help it gain acceptance in the climbing world amonst non comp climbers. It does resemble sprinting up an extraordinarily steep hill.........

 

Interesting that the 6 climbers in the combined finals; both womans and mens were all boulderers and / or lead climbers. There weren't any who only competed in the speed climbing.

Even though I am not particularly pleased that speed climbing is included in the Olympics, I suspect that only boulderers and / or lead climbers will make it through to the Olympic finals. On current form, probably those in the combined finals or with some minor changes as form gets better or worse.

The speed climbers do not have the bouldering or lead ability to make it through, at present, if the World Championships are anything to go by. I do feel somewhat sorry for them. Whilst I don't like the speed climbing because it's not, in my opinion, what climbing is about, as a physical event the speed athletes do obviously train extremely hard and deserve to be taken seriously as a sport / event in it's own right. As a combined event with bouldering and lead, they won't get a look in for these Olympics.

 

In reply to Climber_Bill:

It would be quite interesting if the 2 best climbers end up getting ranked due to their speed scores. Imagine Ondra or whoever wins gold simply because they placed 130th in speed over someone else who placed 140th as they drew in lead/bouldering. It does somewhat make a mockery of the whole thing. 

In reply to snoop6060:

There are 20 climbers (per gender) in the qualifying round*, 6 per gender qualify. The final is then as per Innsbruck. 

*I've no idea on how you qualify for the Olympics. 

In reply to Aigen:

As I understand it, their hands were tied by the IOC only allowing one combined event. If the Olympics is a success (despite the speed bollocks), hopefully there will be separate events in the next Olympics and the speed bollocks can be consigned to the dustbin of history (apart from by the odd Russian or whatever). And then, most importantly, the currently waste of space speed wall at Ratho can be put to better training use for actual climbers.

In reply to galpinos:

And therein lies the problem for speed climbing; there is almost no chance of a really good speed climber qualifying (excepting that the current womens world record holder is also a bit handy at bouldering (Anouck Jaubert), and Sean McColl is pretty decent at all 3 disciplines..), and so the audience will be deprived of seeing the best speed climbers doing their thing. Whilst by olympic time, Ondra / Desgranges / Schubert may well be fairly swift, they still wont be able to hold a candle to the best speedsters. The only way of getting the best in the world at each discipline at the Olympics is to have separate medals. But for the foreseeable, its a combined event.

Graeme Alderson is your best bet for the latest on qualification format....

I think speed would be more popular if we would have speed comp walls in UK gyms. In London we don't have a single one actually.

In reply to snoop6060:

 

Maybe with a few sharks or other dangerous beasts?

In reply to nutme:

I've played on the one at Awesome, Sheffield; quite enjoyed it. It's usually deserted. I am entirely against its inclusion as an Olympic event. 

In reply to snoop6060:

I find the format for this extremely arbitrary: whoever climbs a minutely standardised 15m wall at F6b the fastest has the title. Bit like deciding that whoever climbs, say, the normal route of the Großglockner the fastest is the World Record Speed Alpinist.

 

In reply to McHeath:

Well yeah it's a bit weird but no more aribitary than running around in a circle jumping over stuff every 10m.  Or the friggin triple jump when did they come up with the hop, skip bit? Sounds like something from a sketch show.

In reply to snoop6060:

The title's so all-encompassing though. If it was "wall climbing" it would be more accurate. Then we could also have World Record Speed Offwidth/Slab/Overhanging Finger Crack Climbing Champions

In reply to nutme:

That's the right place for them - gyms.

They don't belong in Climbing Walls.

In reply to UKC News:

Watched both mens and womens semis and finals for Bouldering and Lead.  Really fascinating to watch.  Didn't even give the speed climbing a second thought.

Its such a shame that speed and climbing should be used in the same sentence.  Watching Jain Kim climb with a clock ticking should be outlawed.  Janja Garnbret losing a world title due to time and not difficulty is hard to stomach.  At least Ondra was beaten.

In reply to Andrew Kin:

Ondra is the only reason I would watch any competition climbing video. In fact the only reason I would watch any bouldering video - I love seeing the best climber in the world burn off the specialists at their own specialities.

 

In reply to UKC News:

Just finished watching the women's  combined. 2/3s of the way through, after speed and bouldering, Sol Sa lead with Janja Garnbret second. Janja was the only one to top out on all 4 boulder problems, the next best was 2 top outs, but Sol lead because she was 2 seconds faster in the speed climbing!