The IOC confirmed yesterday that Sport Climbing will be included in the list of Olympic sports at the Paris 2024 Games. On 25 June 2019, the IOC unanimously voted to provisionally include Sport Climbing in the line-up for Paris in what will be the discipline's second Olympic showing after Tokyo 2020. A separation of Speed from a Combined Boulder & Lead event in the Paris Games will also double the medal count and the number of climbing events, while more athletes will be able to compete.

While the current triple discipline Combined format of Speed, Boulder Lead - with just 40 places and six medals in total for men and women - has received a mixed reception from athletes and fans, the Paris 2024 Games will include a Boulder & Lead Combined event and a separate Speed event, increasing the athlete quota to 68 (unconfirmed as yet, but likely breaking down to 20 men and 20 women in the Combined as in Tokyo, and 14 men and 14 women in Speed, given the initial proposal of 20 and 14 athletes per discipline) and doubling the medal count to 12 (Gold, Silver, Bronze in two events, for men and women).

The separation of Speed from the more popular and arguably more compatible disciplines of Boulder and Lead has been welcomed by athletes as a positive step towards a potential 3-way split with individual medals for each discipline - and possibly one for Combined - in the future.

Paris 2024 will also be the first Games with an equal 50-50 split between men and women.

IFSC President Marco Scolaris said:

"We are grateful to the IOC Executive Board for confirming our inclusion in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. We would also like to thank the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for their constant support. On the IFSC side, this is the result of the hard work done in the last year by those who believed in the dream: the IFSC Executive Board, National Federations, athletes, officials and staff. We are going through the toughest time in our history due to COVID-19, but we have four intense and challenging years ahead of us. We are inspired and motivated. Being climbers, the harder the challenge we face, the better we perform."

Nick Colton from GB Climbing said:

"The confirmation that climbing is definitely in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 is great news for GB Climbing athletes who aspire to compete in the Olympics. Moving from one combined medal that incorporates Lead, Boulder and Speed in Tokyo to separate medals for Speed and another for Lead and Boulder allows more athletes to compete in the Paris Olympics."

The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad are scheduled to take place in the French capital from July 26 to August 11, 2024.