The final day of Olympic Sport Climbing action saw the top eight women compete in the combined Boulder & Lead final. Slovenian Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion Janja Garnbret defended her title to win a hard-earned back-to-back gold ahead of two-time Olympians Brooke Raboutou of the USA and Jessy Pilz of Austria - despite an injury incurred in the Boulder round. All three women were also Olympic finalists in Tokyo 2020.

The Boulder round saw more Tops than in the men's event yesterday - fifteen overall - which resulted in a high-scoring round. B1 was an "electric" crowd-pleaser with a jump into a toe-hook before a dynamic move to a pocket and a double clutch finish, which six athletes topped - just Ai Mori (JPN) and Chaehyun Seo (KOR) failing to complete it, with Chaehyun scoring 9.5 for the low zone and Ai not managing to put any points on the board.

Next, the B2 slab boulder involved a 360-spin move to face the crowd before a reach to the finish hold. Erin McNeice (GBR) managed an impressive flash - the only woman to do so, setting herself up well for the rest of the event. This Boulder received the most tops of the round by six women.

The burly B3 Boulder involved a powerful jump into a start position before some steep feet-first moves under a roof and a strenuous layback finish on volumes up to a finishing crimp. Oriane Bertone (FRA) and Erin McNeice failed to progress to the difficult-to-reach 5-point hold, giving an indication of the difficulty of the problem. Oceana Mackenzie (AUS) was the first to reach this low zone, but couldn't progress further. Chaehyun Seo also reached the hold, while Jessy Pilz put in an impressive flash to this point.

The first Top came from Ai Mori (JPN), who made up valuable points after her first two failures to keep in contention for a medal ahead of Lead. Brooke Raboutou (USA) managed an impressive second-go Top to jump into the lead, before Janja Garnbret (SLO) achieved the first flash, looking only mildly troubled in the roof.

B4 received no Tops, but Erin McNeice secured a quick high zone to boost her points. She made attempts to the Top hold - in a dynamic swing and jump move - but couldn't stick it. Erin, Oriane, Brooke and Janja all managed the same score of 9.6 on this boulder, with Chaehyun Seo just behind in 9.8. After one of her attempts on B4, Janja looked in pain and was massaging her finger. She later explained that her finger had become stuck between two holds on the first move. 

Japanese medal favourite Ai Mori fought hard in a dynamic round that did not suit her static climbing style, scoring 39 points and making up for a lack of Tops on B1 and B2 by securing an impressive Top of B3 - as one of only three athletes to do so alongside Janja Garnbret and Brooke Raboutou (USA). Chaehyun Seo (KOR) also struggled to put points on the scoreboard in her weaker discipline, scoring 28.9 points. 

Janja was in 1st place after Boulder with three Tops and a high zone, scoring 84.4 - just 0.4 points (4 attempts) ahead of the USA's Brooke Raboutou, who also reached three Tops and a high zone. The pair had a healthy lead of 20+ points ahead of Oceana Mackenzie (AUS), Oriane Bertone (FRA), Erin McNeice (GBR) and Jessy Pilz (AUT), who were all clustered around a score of 59 and separated only by decimal points/attempts.

While Janja and Brooke seemed to be the top picks for gold and silver before the Lead round, the fight for bronze was wide open.

First to climb was Chaehyun Seo (KOR), who reached the high-scoring blue section on the headwall, scoring 76.1. Erin McNeice was up next and looked unsure of her sequences low down, but fought hard to reach 68.1 with a gutsy climb to put her in provisional 1st place. Oceana Mackenzie (AUS) fell lower than Erin and due to their similar score in Boulder, could not surpass her. French favourite Oriane Bertone walked out to the biggest cheer of the competition, but could only reach 45 points - Erin remained in the Lead for the time being.

After a tough Boulder round, Ai put in a huge performance, needing 88.6 to beat Erin, but reaching even further and slapping the last hold to score 96.1 and finish on 135.1 overall ahead of Erin. Ai moved into provisional 1st place and was guaranteed at least 4th place. Erin needed two of the remaining three women - Brooke, Jessy and Janja - to score below her in total to secure a bronze.

Brooke climbed efficiently and fell at 72 to claim provisional 1st place and guarantee herself at least a bronze medal. Jessy needed to Top to surpass Brooke's score and be in contention for silver or gold. The Austrian pulled off a stunning fight on the headwall to reach 88.1, ensuring silver as a minimum for Brooke and guaranteeing her country a second bronze medal after Jakob Schubert's performance on Friday. She immediately ran off stage to hug her support team, overjoyed at earning an Olympic medal and improving on her 7th place finish in Tokyo.

Janja looked upset and not her usual confident self as she walked out. There were questions about her injury and whether it would impact her climb in Lead. She looked at ease on the wall, only starting to fight in the final few moves as she clinched the hold required to push Brooke into second place and become a back-to-back Olympic Champion. She fell at 84.1, one hold below Jessy and three below Ai, to rank third in Lead - an unusual position for the Slovenian - but take the victory on 168.5/100 overall with a 12.5 point advantage.

A scary inverted whipper landed her back on the stage. After she searched for familiar faces who revealed her fate, she fell to the floor in tears of joy and relief, before hugging her competitors. She then ran off stage into the arms of her coach Roman Krajnik and the Slovenian support team.

"I feel tired!" was her first comment to the media - but she was beaming and visibly on cloud nine. Janja reported that her finger got stuck between two holds, which was the cause of her pain at the end of the boulder round. "I was crying, crying for some time, then said Janja, just focus!"

Asked how the feeling of winning this medal compared to her gold from Tokyo, she said:

"I cannot compare them. I will forever be the first ever Olympic gold medalist in climbing, but defending the title is also sweet, if not even sweeter. It's shining so bright, this one! So I'm really happy that I got it. Honestly, I came here for one medal only, and that was gold! Anything else would mean an unsuccessful Olympics to me. So I'm just so proud of myself that I could pull it off."

She explained what had happened to her finger and how it impacted her: "There was scary moment on B4 because my finger got stuck in between two holds, and I was scared I fractured something, but still, I didn't care if I was missing a hand or a finger - I said I will go out there and climb the lead route! I cried three times today. The first time was from pressure, second time was because I was scared of my finger and third time of joy. I don't have any tears left."

Speaking about the pressure she felt to retain her title, she said: "In the past three years, I learned a lot about myself, about training. I had an injury last year, and I came back just before the World Championships and won that and I think all that experience was visible today on the mat and on the Lead route, and there was definitely a lot of pressure. I mean, mostly I put it on myself, but I just wanted that gold medal so bad, and I was training hard for it. So I'm just incredibly happy!"

On the rising standards of Brooke and the women's field in general making her medal especially hard-earned, she said: "Every year and in the past I've shown what's possible and how strong can you get. So of course, girls want to beat me, and they're training hard, but I'm also training hard, so I'm just always trying to be two steps ahead of them and today was enough!"

An emotional Brooke Raboutou had also ran off the stage into the arms of her mother, '90s climbing competition legend Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou. After a 5th place in Tokyo, where a foot slip had ended her chance of a podium finish following a strong boulder Round, Brooke later told us that she had focused on her mindset in particular:

"I think what I'm most proud of is that I've spent a lot of time working on my mind, not just for competition, but just to be happy in life and I am incredibly happy and I live an incredible life and I'm so grateful for everyone who has supported me on that journey, and that I get to share it with them. It feels good to be out here no matter what and then to have the silver medal and just have things worked out feels even better." 

She added that she was intentionally unaware of her specific score after Boulder: "I honestly didn't look at any scores after the boulder round and I obviously knew I'd done really well and I was very happy with my climbing, but I felt pretty calm before and after."

Having won the Olympic Qualifier Series this summer after falling short in the first two opportunities to qualify last year, Brooke demonstrated her good form and gained valuable experience. She said: "I did learn a lot from the qualifying events in Shanghai and Budapest as well. It's easy to celebrate [a good Boulder score] then lose focus, so I just wanted to take the Lead climb as it was, no matter what happened before, good or bad, and just climb relaxed.

"I definitely wouldn't have changed anything. I don't think I'd be standing here today if I had qualified at any other stage." 

For Brooke, winning a medal in Paris is extra special because of her French father, '90s international competition climbing medallist Didier Raboutou. She said: "I have a bunch of French family here that came from Toulouse, and I got to spend time there the week before here. France is in my blood, so to be here and have everyone supporting me is really incredible."

This was the second Paris 2024 medal for USA Climbing after Sam Watson's bronze in Speed. Brooke's performance certainly made Janja work harder than she usually has to in order to win. 

Bronze medallist Jessy Pilz commented after the event: "I'm overjoyed that it worked out like that. I have to say, behind the wall (she felt pressure), clearly. But once I was on the wall, I just realised that this was my thing. I just feel comfortable on the lead wall. I feel comfortable there and always much more excited. You don't know exactly what's coming, but in Lead, I knew that if I climbed as easily as I did in the semi and could simply deliver my performance, then I could go far. I'm just happy that it worked out that way."

"I knew that I had to concentrate on myself and just get everything out of it. I also knew that Ai Mori could catch up. She was 20 points behind, but you know that she can get to the Top in Lead. I concentrated fully on myself and made sure I climbed as far up as possible." 

Ai finished in 4th place overall, but essentially won the Lead portion of the competition.

Erin McNeice finished 5th in her first Olympics, matching Hamish McArthur's performance in the men's event on Friday and concluding a successful Games for GB Climbing as the only nation to have three athletes in finals - with a gold medal to boot. Erin commented on her Lead climb:

"I don't think I could have got further. I made quite a few mistakes, so I wasn't climbing it very efficiently. I'm just quite surprised that I managed to fight my way up, because I thought I was off, four clips below. I was just happy that I managed to get that far."

On how she felt about her climbing throughout the competition, she said:

"The result is really good. I think my performance was, overall, really good as well. There are lots of small takeaways, but I'm going to try and not think about that and enjoy the rest of the event first."

Reflecting on Toby's win and how much his progress and win have inspired her, she said: "He's very inspiring. Not a lot of people can say that they have someone that consistent and that strong on their team. I've sort of pestered him and his dad for answers about stuff, and they've been really helpful and a lot of my changes in training have been come from seeing him making massive gains and following in that."

Asked whether she thinks she can return to win a medal in Los Angeles 2028, Erin said: "I hope so. I think there's so many things that I can improve on. I don't feel like I'm at the top of my game at all yet, so I'm excited to see what that is like, being at the top." She added that she is taking a third gap year in order to continue her focus on training for climbing to see where it takes her. Watch this space...

More reflections on the event as a whole to follow...