Sport climbing at the 2020 Summer Olympics


Sport climbing at the 2020 Summer Olympics is an event to be held in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. It will be the first time that climbing has been an event in the Summer Olympics. Two events will be held, one for men and one for women. The proposed format will consist of three disciplines: lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering. The winner will be determined based on who performs best in all three disciplines. This format was previously tested at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Format

On August 3, 2016, the International Olympic Committee formally announced that sport climbing would be a medal sport in the 2020 Summer Olympics. The inclusion was proposed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing in 2015.
The decision to combine three disciplines—lead climbing, bouldering, and speed climbing—with one set of medals per gender—caused widespread criticism in the climbing world.
Climber Lynn Hill said the decision to include speed climbing was like "asking a middle distance runner to compete in the sprint." Climber Adam Ondra voiced similar sentiments, saying in an interview that anything would be better than this combination. There is some overlap between athletes in the categories of lead climbing and bouldering, but speed climbing is usually seen as a separate climbing discipline that is practiced by specialized athletes. Climber Shauna Coxsey stated, "No boulderer has transitioned to speed and lead, and no speed climber has done it to bouldering and lead."
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: they were granted a second set of medals for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and in 2024 speed climbing will be a separate event from the event combining lead climbing and bouldering.
Final rankings will be calculated by taking the multiplication of the climbers' rankings in each climbing discipline, with the best score being the lowest one.

Qualification

There are 40 quota spots available for sport climbing. Each National Olympic Committee can obtain a maximum of 2 spots in each event. Each event will have 20 competitors qualify: 18 from qualification, 1 from the host, and 1 from Tripartite Commission invitations.
The 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships served as one qualification event with 7 spots per gender being awarded to the top finishers of the combined event.

Schedule

QQualificationFFinals

S = Speed, B = Bouldering, L = Lead

Medal summary

Medal table

Medalists