Sport climbing has become immensely popular in the past 20 years. It is a global phenomenon with over 25 million climbers from 150 countries worldwide. It originated in Italy in 1985, and the first artificial wall competition took place in France a year later.

At the Olympics, sport climbing includes bouldering, speed, and lead events. In bouldering, climbers scale 4.5m walls without ropes in the shortest time possible. Speed climbing involves racing up a 15m high, inclined wall in under six seconds for men and under seven seconds for women. In the lead event, climbers ascend as high as they can on a wall over 15m high in six minutes.

Paris 2024 will feature a combined bouldering and lead event and a separate speed event. Find out more at https://www.paris2024.org/en/sport/sport-climbing/

Sport climbing debuted at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics in 2018 and joined the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. It will also be part of the Olympic program in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, along with breaking, surfing, and skateboarding.

The 2024 competition will take place between August 5th and 10th for bouldering and lead, and between August 5th and 8th for speed climbing at the Le Bourget Climbing Venue.

International organisation

International Federation of Sport Climbing https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/