Sport Climbing confirmed for 2024 Paris Olympics
- Tuesday 8th December 2020
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board confirmed yesterday that sport climbing has been included within the programme for the Paris 2024 Games.
However, unlike the Combined format adopted for the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021, the IOC Executive Board agreed to split the events into a Combined Boulder & Lead competition and a separate Speed competition thereby doubling the medal events to four. In addition, the number of participating athletes will increase to 68 for the Paris Games – a considerable increase from the 40 which will contest Tokyo in August 2021. It is believed that 40 athletes – 20 men and 20 women - will compete in the Combined Boulder and Lead and 28 athletes – 14 men and 14 women - in the Speed.
In addition to Sport Climbing a further three other sports were also added; breaking, skateboarding and surfing.
IFSC President Marco Scolaris said:
"We are grateful to the IOC Executive Board for confirming our inclusion in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. We would also like to thank the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for their constant support. On the IFSC side, this is the result of the hard work done in the last year by those who believed in the dream: the IFSC Executive Board, National Federations, athletes, officials and staff. We are going through the toughest time in our history due to COVID-19, but we have four intense and challenging years ahead of us. We are inspired and motivated. Being climbers, the harder the challenge we face, the better we perform."
Nick Colton from GB Climbing said:
“The confirmation that climbing is definitely in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 is great news for GB Climbing athletes who aspire to compete in the Olympics. Moving from one combined medal that incorporates Lead, Boulder and Speed in Tokyo to separate medals for Speed and another for Lead and Boulder allows more athletes to compete in the Paris Olympics.”
The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad are scheduled to take place in the French capital from July 26 to August 11, 2024.