The women's Boulder semi-final took place today on yet another hot morning in the Bourget Sport Climbing venue. Reigning Olympic Champion Janja Garnbret of Slovenia was the only woman to complete all four boulders, achieving a score of 99.6. Home favourite Oriane Bertone (FRA) was second on 84.5 and Brooke Raboutou (USA) on 83.7. Team GB's Erin McNeice secured two Tops and finished in 10th place with 59.6 points ahead of the Lead round on Thursday morning, putting her in a strong position to make Combined finals. Molly Thompson-Smith put in a solid performance to secure two Low Zones and finish 19th with her best discipline yet to come. 

Although it was still a tough round overall, the women achieved a few more Tops than the men did in their event yesterday (30 Tops compared to 7 in the men's). The round played out as the reverse of the men's Boulder semi-final - where the stronger Lead climbers seemed to do unexpectedly well - with the best female boulder athletes taking the top ten places. The routesetting also provided perfect separation between the athletes and every Boulder was topped by at least one athlete. 

Boulder 1 was the hardest of the round physically, featuring burly moves in a roof on slopey undercuts. The first Top of the women's competition came from Erin McNeice (GBR) on B2 - a dynamic boulder that seemed to suit Erin's powerful and explosive style. Next, she claimed the first Top of B3, a complex boulder with jumps low down and a committing last move. At one point, she picked up her leg to place it in a high splits position between two volumes, which drew much admiration from the crowd. After her round, Erin said that she was disappointed not to top the B4 slab, but that she enjoyed the crowd: "For once I think it was crazier out here than [the athletes] behind the wall!" she said.

Her favourite boulder was B2. "The third was probably a little bit harder, but it felt good to get the first top of the round on Boulder 2, and sort of a bit of relief to top one of them!" she said.

Currently in 10th place, Erin stands a good chance of making Combined finals if she can perform well in Lead on Thursday.

On her hopes for Lead, she added: "I just hope to do my best and enjoy it. I would like to make finals - that's sort of a goal that I'm trying not to think about too much. But yeah, I want to do my best and enjoy the Lead round."

Erin has also been working hard in the athlete village to build a very impressive pinbadge collection on her lanyard. 

The first Top of B1 came from Australia's Oceana Mackenzie, whose talent was first signposted in the Meiringen Boulder World Cup final in 2019. Since finishing 19th in Tokyo 2020, Oceana has clearly worked hard in both disciplines, and despite having qualified through the Oceanian Qualifier, she would likely also have qualified through the Olympic Qualifier Series had she somehow needed to. With three tops overall and a 4th place finish on 79.6 points, Oceana has a bit less work to do compared to some stronger Lead climbers on Thursday in order to make the top eight and qualify for finals. 

On our way to the venue, we bumped into Molly Thompson-Smith (GBR)'s parents sporting 'Go Molly!' t-shirts. They explained how proud they were of her to qualify and that "whatever the result" she has achieved her biggest dream.

Molly achieved two Low Zones and told UKC afterwards that she was simply overjoyed to be here after a number of setbacks, including finger injuries, breaking her ankle and - remarkably - breaking her toe just five weeks ago. She explained how she has trained to adapt to the Combined format while overcoming her foot and ankle injuries, which had made dynamic coordination training on volumes more challenging.

"It was hard!" Molly commented after her round. "I think it basically highlighted everything that I struggle with in bouldering. I feel like a round can go one of two ways. It can be amazing and I can really show what I'm capable of in bouldering or it can be a bit of a disaster. I'd say today was a bit of a disaster - I had to fight for every single point. It's been a rocky road here. I broke my toe five weeks ago and hadn't really put a climbing shoe on since Budapest. So the first thing to go was all of the coordination, all of the slab, all of the standing on the feet. And that's basically what I got today.

"But this has been a dream of mine since being a little girl. I always wanted to be an Olympian. I didn't know in which sport because obviously climbing wasn't [an Olympic sport] back then. But I'm just so proud of myself for getting here. There have been so many bumps along the road, breaks, mental breakdowns - it's just been so tough and the standard is so high. This format doesn't suit my climbing style. And I felt like for the last eight years, I've been kind of banging my head against a brick wall trying to make myself fit into a box that doesn't feel like it fits me and so to overcome all of that and be rewarded with being able to call myself an Olympian is just amazing. I told myself that whatever happens happens, it doesn't matter. Just being here is the achievement and everything is a bonus from then on." 

Looking ahead to Lead, Molly commented on the challenges of the format and how it can impact an athlete's mindset:

"I always struggle having to do the Boulder around first. I think it's hard to go into your preferred discipline if it doesn't go well, having that on your mind and being tired. I've got some bleeding tips already. You want to be able to give your best in the thing that you're best at. So it's always a challenge, but I think on the flip side, if it goes really well then it's cool to go in and just go for Lead. But on the other hand, it didn't go so well today. So now the pressure's off. I think it's optimistic to expect to be in the final so hopefully I can just go Lead climbing and show everyone how good I am at that discipline."

Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Janja Garnbret (SLO) flashed the first two Boulders - breaking the beta on B1 by skipping a hold - and needed just two attempts on B3 and four attempts at B4. Nonetheless, the crowd gasped in surprise each time she fell off, showing just how rarely she falls off in general.

Janja enjoyed the round of boulders, describing them as "not too easy, not too hard - it was somewhere in the middle, which is, I think, great." Asked about the atmosphere in the venue, she said:

"It's absolutely phenomenal. Tokyo of course was different - no crowds or cheering, only fellow athletes and coaches. But here I already felt like I'm in the finals today because like the crowd was cheering so loud. And of course it's French. We have Oriane. We have Zélia - they are super strong and medal contenders, but I still felt support also. I'm not French, but I still felt support!"

On about her thoughts ahead of Lead semis, she added:

"I feel great. I qualified last year in Bern, so I've been waiting basically for one year for that moment. I just wanted to get it started with and I think Lead will be different now that we've already started with bouldering - we will know how it feels on the stage so maybe we will compete differently. I feel good in Lead, I've been training really hard and I made progress there too. So I hope I'm going to show that on Thursday."

French athlete Oriane Bertone finished 2nd in Boulder and attracted some of the loudest cheers of the day. When asked by French media whether she felt pressure to perform, she responded: "There wasn't pressure, honestly. I'm one of those people who benefits from these types of situations. It's also an opportunity. I like people, I like crowds, and I like performing for them too because they're here for me - or rather, they're here for us, and I'm here for them. It would be a shame not to have that little exchange with them, because that energy is cool and I can draw on it." Although Lead is her weaker discipline, she has worked hard to bring her level up in Lead - as demonstrated by her qualification in Laval.

2018 Lead World Champion Jessy Pilz of Austria showed her excellent potential in Boulder with a 6th place and two Tops. Having failed on the first two Boulders, she channelled her frustration into topping the next two. Jessy was one of only five athletes to top B3 and also managed the B4 slab.

"After that, I thought it was over," she said. "I was close to the top on both of them, but couldn't stick the finish. I knew that these were the two boulders that suit me best."

"Because I had a bad start to the round, the pressure was off and I didn't expect much from the fourth boulder. I also felt a bit angry because I didn't manage the first two, even though they were doable."

Ahead of the Lead round, Jessy looks like a solid bet to reach Combined finals - but, as she said, "anything can happen and I still have to deliver."

Japanese athletes and medal contenders Miho Nonaka and Ai Mori finished 7th and 11th respectively - not the strongest of starts ahead of Lead, but the scores are reasonably close with Ai's strongest discipline to come. 

Tomorrow will bring the men's Lead semi-final and the women's Speed finals - our first medal event in Sport Climbing at Paris 2024. Stay tuned! 

Boulder&lead Women