Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics

The inclusion was proposed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) in 2015.^[1] In September 2015, competition climbing was included in a shortlist along with baseball, softball, skateboarding, surfing, and karate to be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics;^[2] and in June 2016, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that they would support the proposal to include all of the shortlisted sports in the 2020 Games.^[3] Finally, on August 3, 2016, all five sports (counting baseball and softball together as one sport) were approved for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program.^[4]

At the 2020 Summer Olympics, two climbing events were contested: men's combined and women's combined. The competition format combined three disciplines of competition climbing: competition speed climbing, competition bouldering, and competition lead climbing. This decision caused widespread criticism in the climbing community.^[5]

Members of the IFSC explained that they were only granted one gold medal per gender by the Olympic committee, and they did not want to exclude speed climbing. The IFSC's goal for the 2020 Olympics was primarily to establish climbing and its three disciplines as Olympic sports; changes to the format could follow later. This tactic proved to be successful; the 2024 Summer Olympics would expand sport climbing to separate boulder-and-lead and speed climbing events.^[6][7][8]

Beginning at the 2028 Summer Olympics, the boulder and lead disciplines will be split into separate medal events.^[9]

For Olympic level sports climbing, route setters are instructed to set lead climbs at a grade of between 8c (5.14b) and 9a (5.14d) for both the men's and women's events. For boulder, men's routes are set between a grade of V10 (7C+) and V14 (8B+), and women's routes between V9 (7C) and V12 (8A+).^[10][11]

NB:

• Lead grades are given in French Numerical and grades in brackets () are in American YDS.
• Boulder grade are given in V-Grades and grades in brackets () are in Fb-Grades.
• Due to the climbing routes being at the highest level, routes cannot be sufficiently tested, therefore the exact grade of each route is unknown, and may not reflect the target range.

The following nations have taken part in the Olympic climbing competition. The numbers in the table indicate the number of competitors sent to that year's Olympics.

More information Nation, Years ...

Nation	2020	2024	Years
Australia	2	2	2
Austria	2	2	2
Belgium	–	1	1
Canada	2	–	1
China	2	7	2
Czech Republic	1	1	2
France	4	7	2
Germany	2	3	2
Great Britain	1	4	2
Indonesia	–	4	1
Iran	–	1	1
Italy	3	4	2
Japan	4	4	2
Kazakhstan	1	1	2
New Zealand	–	2	1
Poland	1	2	2
ROC	3	–	1
Slovenia	2	3	2
South Africa	2	4	2
South Korea	2	3	2
Spain	1	2	2
Switzerland	1	1	2
Ukraine	–	2	1
United States	4	8	2
Nations	19	22	24
Climbers	40	68
Year	2020	2024	2

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As of the women's combined event of 2024 Olympics^[16]

More information Rank, Nation ...

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Slovenia	2	0	0	2
2	Poland	1	0	1	2
3	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
	Indonesia	1	0	0	1
	Spain	1	0	0	1
6	Japan	0	2	1	3
	United States	0	2	1	3
8	China	0	2	0	2
9	Austria	0	0	3	3
Totals (9 entries)		6	6	6	18

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• IFSC Climbing World Championships
• IFSC Climbing World Cup