UKC

It seems impossible to find the Salt Lake City bouldering final on the Olympics channel. Has anyone else managed to do this or does anyone have another way to watch the final? (Apart from subscribing to Eurosport!)

Also... is it really the case that no one on UKC cares about these competitions? I don't see much written on the forums. It's not trad climbing, but I quite enjoy the finals, to be honest!

Legend has it that you can watch it on youtube if you VPN out of Europe first

We found it, but after returning from a short break after the first boulder it had apparently been taken down.

Also: the first thing we were confronted with when we had finally found it was the announcement of who had won, splashed all over the screen.

I know... so irritatingly oblivious of the audience. And especially in such a close final!

It seems the video was finally put back up over the weekend

Really easy to watch on YouTube. Download ExpressVPN app onto phone and when you want to watch just connect express VPN and the search YouTube and there it is. Select Canada as your destination of choice and works a treat.

Watched the recent Salt Lake City mens and womens boulder finals last night on Youtube (in France). The editing was much better than in the earlier round two weeks back....shorter clips but all the rests between attempts cut out (the previous round coverage was twice as long, with ads,  but didn't even have full coverage of the best climbers..... showing just a selection, including rests) . This latest shorter version had way more climbing and showed at least the best attempt from every climber on every problem. Sadly this newer format prevents the old drinking game (have a drink every time you spot Graeme )

As for UKC interest: I agree it's a sad reality that such outstanding performance isn't a keen discussion topic here.

I had a lot of dialogue with the Olympic channel about this issue and even emailed the IFSC to warn them that the final was not being made available by the channel. Long, boring, story short they sent me this link and I was able to watch it!

https://olympics.com/en/video/sport-climbing-women-s-men-s-boulder-finals-w...

It may well be risky publicising it, but there's a very good youtube channel called "All Climbing" that is uploading clipped versions of this years events eg. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCila6Nlcf99wrGs3qRX1nSA

It has low subscriber numbers at the minute but there's every chance it'll get taken down eventually. For now though, the guy is doing the lords work for those of us that haven't got round to sorting out the VPN faff.

Elsewhere the IFSC is currently 'testing' live streaming of the womens bouldering qualifications on their FB page here today: https://www.facebook.com/sportclimbing/videos/1747891338936661 - but it's a fixed camera with no commentary and is debatable whether it's much better than nothing tbh given how small the competitors are on the full-length shot of the wall.

After clarting on for hours trying to find a VPN that didn't require a years sub up front I bit the bullet and just subscribed to disney+/eurosport yesterday,

I watched the full 2 hours of womens and mens finals live. The commentary is really good (groom and an irish chap i dont cant remember), so I'd highly recommend it.

You can watch all past events too, even going back before the olympics.

Weirdly I found the mens boulder final live today on YouTube. Watched the whole thing in the UK. Don't know if this was a fluke or not.

A male brit gets to the final and still we have tumbleweed (no spoilers).

Yeah, I think they did that for one of the rounds in Salt Lake too. Good one to catch though.

In reply to Offwidth:

I do find the lack of discussion a bit weird. You don't get people that play lots of football that don't watch/talk about it, or with cricket, rugby etc. But it does seem for a whole forum of people that really like climbing, there's very little interest in watching it's competitions.

It was the same with The Wall film, one thread and maybe 6 posts in it.

Even the other channel had been quiet on the comps this summer (until Brixen).

The repeat of the womens' final had failed to record again when we sat down to watch it yesterday (from Eurosport.... their  schedule is shockingly  inaccurate..... finally recorded properly last night).

...and I'm glad it was as it was another nail biter. Good to see the UKC report is now up.