Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics
Events	4 (men: 2; women: 2)
Games
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Medalists

Competition climbing made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. It is governed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC).

Bid for inclusion

The inclusion was proposed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) in 2015. 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; 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. 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.

Competition format

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.

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 as they were granted a second set of medals for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where speed climbing will be a separate event from the combined event of lead climbing and bouldering.

Summary

Games Year Events Best Nation 2020 2020 2  Spain/ Slovenia 2024 2024 4

Events

Participating nations

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.

Nation	2020	2024	Years
Australia	2
Austria	2
Canada	2
China	2
Czech Republic	1
France	4
Germany	2
Great Britain	1
Italy	3
Japan	4
Kazakhstan	1
Poland	1
ROC	3
Slovenia	2
South Africa	2
South Korea	2
Spain	1
Switzerland	1
United States	4
Nations	19
Climbers	40
Year	2020	2024

Olympic records history

Event	Round	Climber	Nation	Time	Games	Date	Record
Men's combined (speed)	Qualification	Bassa Mawem	France	5.45	2020 Tokyo	3 August 2021	OR
Women's combined (speed)	Qualification	Aleksandra Mirosław	Poland	6.97	2020 Tokyo	4 August 2021	OR
	Final	Aleksandra Mirosław	Poland	6.84	2020 Tokyo	6 August 2021	WR

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Slovenia (SLO)	1	0	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	1	0	0	1
3	Japan (JPN)	0	1	1	2
4	United States (USA)	0	1	0	1
5	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
Totals (5 nations)		2	2	2	6

Medalists

Men's combined

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2020 Tokyo details	Alberto Ginés López  Spain	Nathaniel Coleman  United States	Jakob Schubert  Austria
2024 Paris details

Speed

Women's combined

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2020 Tokyo details	Janja Garnbret  Slovenia	Miho Nonaka  Japan	Akiyo Noguchi  Japan
2024 Paris details

Women’s speed

See also

In Spanish: Escalada en los Juegos Olímpicos para niños

• IFSC Climbing World Championships
• IFSC Climbing World Cup