If fans were craving more heart-pounding tension after yesterday’s nail-biting , they got it this morning as the women’s of the Combined discipline funneled into the Lead climax. Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret was leading the field, but just barely
 some struggles from Garnbret on the last boulder (and, worrisomely, a potential finger injury) meant that other competitors were within striking distance on the scorecards. Team USA’s Brooke Raboutou, for example, was only trailing Garnbret by 0.4 points after the Boulder portion; the quartet of Australia’s Oceana Mackenzie, France’s Oriane Bertone, Great Britain’s Erin McNeice, and Austria’s Jessica Pilz were all hovering around 59 points apiece and still in the mix too. Such close scores set a story in motion for a that will be remembered and revered for years to come.

Here are the highlights.

Chaehyun Seo Sets an Early High Point

Someone had to set the early standard on the lead route of black boomerangs, white hexagons, and blue half-sphere volumes, and South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo did so with aplomb. In fact, even before she set the high point, she confidently cut feet several times to cheers from the crowd. She eventually cruised onto the headwall and fell with a route score of 76.1 (out of 100); it would stand as the mark to beat on the wall for several subsequent competitors’ attempts.

The Combined Scores Come into Play

Great Britain’s Erin McNeice was not able to reach Seo’s robust high point—McNeice fell significantly lower on the wall while attempting a right-hand cross-move. But McNeice’s attempt, even if inferior to Seo’s, gave everyone a reality check, of sorts; it reminded us all of the unique scoring of the Combined event, since McNeice surged to first place on the scorecards when her 68.1 Lead mark was added to her Boulder points (59.5). It’s unlikely we will see this unique Boulder and Lead Combined format ever again, but McNeice’s performance throughout the finals was a perfect example of why it’s an exhilarating way to structure a competition.

The Crowd Provided a Big Home-Court Advantage

It’s worth acknowledging how much the crowd of 6,000 spectators added to the vibe, which was also evident in the men’s final yesterday. Take, for example, the way the crowd clapped rhythmically in support of Oceana Mackenzie, or the way they chanted in unison for Oriane Bertone—“Or-i-ane! Or-i-ane! Or-i-ane!” Sure, both Mackenzie and Bertone probably would have liked to crank a little higher on the lead route (each fell below the headwall), but a highlight for each of their performances was the vociferous support from the audience. It’s not something normally heard at World Cups—at least not to such a loud and unified degree—perhaps because the Olympic crowd was comprised of just as many “casual” climbing fans as hardcore fans. Whatever the reason and impetus for such enthusiastic crowd noise, it was really cool.

Japan’s Ai Mori Proved Her Lead-Climbing Prowess

It’s hard to pick a single highlight for Japan’s Ai Mori. At a pure entertainment level, she fell while launching for the top hold—the closest that any finalist would come to sending the route. But by the numbers, such a jaw-dropping performance (a) established a new high point on the route by a significant margin and (b) gave Mori the lead on the Combined scorecards. It’s probably best to package all of that together and say that Mori’s attempt on the lead route was one of the most memorable parts of the women’s final. And it’s worth noting that if Lead was it’s own medal event—which it may well be soon—she would have taken Gold.

The Final Showdown

One could make an argument that the last 20 minutes of the final—with the successive attempts of Brooke Raboutou, Jessica Pilz, and Janja Garnbret—were among the most thrilling and intense moments in the history of the sport. That’s not a statement that should be made lightly, but consider how everything transpired:

First, Brooke Raboutou took a commanding lead on the Combined scores, her attempt on the lead route only coming to an end when she tried to stabilize and match on a hold in order to clip on the headwall.

Second, Jessica Pilz, in electrifying comparison, was able to make that tricky clip on the headwall, but was not able to overtake Raboutou in the Combined’s arithmetic of points.

Finally, Janja Garnbret came out and climbed masterfully—her finger, perhaps tweaked, seemed fine, and her nerves, perhaps rattled by some bouldering woes, seemed as calm as ever. She did not quite send the route; she fell when her fingertips sloughed off the edge of a hold a few moves shy of the top. But her Combined score resulted in a gold medal—making Garnbret the sport’s first back-to-back Olympic gold medalist. Raboutou and Pilz earned silver and bronze, respectively.

It felt like a storybook ending after a long week of toil and drama, highs and lows, happiness and heartbreak for so many competitors. And for the three women atop the podium at the end, it was a surefire passage into comp climbing’s storied history.

Women’s Combined Boulder & Lead Sport Climbing final results

1. Janja Garnbret (SLO): 168.5 (Boulder: 84.4, Lead: 84.1)
2. Brooke Raboutou (USA) 156.0 (Boulder: 84.0, Lead 72.0)
3. Jessica Pilz (AUT) 147.4 (Boulder 59.3, Lead 88.1)
4. Ai Mori (JPN) 135.1 (Boulder 39.0, Lead 96.1)
5. Erin McNeice (GBR) 127.6 (Boulder 59.5, Lead 68.1)
6. Chaehyun Seo (KOR) 105.0 (Boulder 28.9, Lead 76.1)
7. Oceana Mackenzie (AUS) 104.8 (Boulder 59.7, Lead 45.1)
8. Oriane Bertone (FRA) 104.5 (Boulder 59.5, Lead 45.0)

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Even before Tuesday’s speed climbing seeding heats at the Paris Olympics, the sport regularly produced jaw-dropping video clips.

Two climbers stand at the base of a 49-foot wall and then rocket upward like Spider Man on a sugar high. The TV camera is stationed behind the climbers, so they look as though they are galloping on all fours across flat ground. But oh no, they’re ascending a sheer man-made rock wall, and boy do they make it look easy.

The latest speed climbing video clip is even more eye-popping than the rest. During the preliminary rounds, American wunderkind Sam Watson broke the world record in the event, reaching the top in 4.75 seconds. The time was 0.04 seconds faster than the previous world record, set by Watson himself back in April. The 18-year-old looks destined to battle for a medal when speed climbing holds its finals in ParisÌęon Thursday, August 8.

SAM WATSON IS DIFFERENT

He broke HIS OWN WORLD RECORD to advance to the quarterfinals of men’s speed climbing!

: &

— Team USA (@TeamUSA)

Watson’s time boggles the mind: 4.75 seconds is a tiny duration of time for any physical task, let alone ascending a 50-foot wall.

To add context to Watson’s feat, we at șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű grabbed our stopwatches and set out to determine which banal everyday tasks take longer to complete than this amazing ascent.

1. Texting “What u feel like 4 dinner” to your spouse
2. Putting on a climbing harness
3. Tying both sneakers one sneaker
4. Logging into Peacock
5. Watching an Olympic kayaker paddle around an upstream gate
6. Washing one dirty dinner plate by hand
7. Scraping enough snow off your boot to click into your bindings after a hot chocolate break
8. Lubing your bike chain
9. Chalking up before a climb
10. Downloading the latest Chrome update
11. Explaining the saga of and his unfortunate flop to your bewildered parent
12. Setting up a permanent “Do Not Disturb” status for your work Slack
13. Rocking out to the opening guitar riff of Live Wire by Mötley CrĂŒe
14. Scanning a sweet potato in the self-checkout aisle at Whole Foods
15. Shotgunning a Coors Light La Croix
16. Getting on a chairlift
17. Getting off a chairlift
18. Googling “Simone Biles cute kid video”
19. Uploading the video of your own basic and unimpressive rock climb to Instagram

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Ahead of the 2024 season, the International Federation of Sport Climbing has released a to prevent eating disorders among competition climbers. The policy, developed by scientific experts based on the findings of an International Olympic Committee, marks the first time any international federation has taken an active step to limit the pervasiveness of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. Ultimately, it will require athletes to submit to several questionnaires and tests before competing.

“The new system underscores our commitment to the health of our athletes,” stated IFSC President Marco Scolaris in a press release. “The policy will not only help us determine which athletes are most at risk, it will also help raise awareness of the issue, provide help to those who need it, and ensure the rights of each athlete are protected.”

The topic of eating disorders is a long-standing issue within our community. In this very magazine, the topic was addressed by . FortĂ© was likely the first American woman climber to write about the topic. In a follow-up email conversation with her two years ago, she wrote: “If I wrote that essay today, the ending would not be tied up in a bow. The impact of an eating disorder on my life has been far-reaching and multi-layered.”

It’s been nearly 30 years since Forté’s article, and many more climbers have since raised their voices regarding the issue. While it’s hard to know the exact number of climbers impacted, it’s clear that the problem is simply not going away. Consequently, many have demanded that the IFSC institute regulations which would enforce healthier standards. Last year, demands reached a boiling point; in July, IFSC Medical Commission President Dr. Eugen Burtscher and IFSC medical committee member Dr. Volker Schoeffl , reporting frustration over the body’s prolonged inaction. Furthermore, several of the world’s top climbers, including Janja Garnbret, Alex Megos, and Alannah Yip, also critiqued the IFSC’s inaction on social media,

“We have to ask ourselves: what kind of message do we want to send to others?” Garnbret said in an interview at an IFSC Summit. “Do we want to raise the next generation of skeletons?”

RED-S occurs when an athlete is not consuming enough calories for their activity level. It is a syndrome that may occur unintentionally and go unnoticed by athletes and coaches alike.

The IOC subcommittee noted, “[RED-S] may be unintentionally exacerbated by ‘sports culture’ due to the perceived short-term performance gains from limiting calorie intake.”

Over time, a person with RED-S may have an increased risk of bone fractures or early-onset osteoporosis. They may have a slowed metabolism or exhibit a slower heart rate, both of which may lead to long-term organ damage. Sex hormone production may also decrease; men may experience lower levels of testosterone, while women may lose the ability to menstruate. Thinking can also slow. Studies show malnourished individuals lose gray matter, the brain’s outermost layer. Additionally, myriad psychological effects may occur as well, and individuals may become irritable, anxious, or depressed.

The default methodology for flagging RED-S is BMI, which is low-cost and easy to apply. However, no singular test, questionnaire, or vital sign may diagnose RED-S. “There have been calls for BMI to be used as a yardstick for RED-S, but on its own, a simple BMI test does not provide an accurate picture of a person’s health and, importantly, would also not be legally defensible,” said IFSC General Director Piero Rebaudengo. “In addition, BMI varies greatly from one country to another. Excluding athletes from competition based only on a BMI reading would, therefore be a gross violation of their rights.”

The new policy, therefore, requires various data points from each athlete to be used in initial health assessments. National Federations work in tandem with the IFSC to collect the medical information. To receive their annual international athlete license—which is a requirement for participation in any IFSC-sanctioned event—athletes must submit two questionnaires (one on low energy availability and another on eating disorders) and provide their height, weight, BMI, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Athletes who present signs of an eating disorder or RED-S, named “Athletes of Concern,” are identified by the following criteria:

• RED-S Questionnaire scores: If an athlete’s score on either or both questionnaires is equal to or higher than a specific value, it could indicate a problem.
• BMI (Body Mass Index):
  • Males 18 years and older: BMI < 18.5
  • Males 15 – 17 years old: BMI < 18
  • Females 18 years and older: BMI < 18
  • Females 15 – 17 years old: BMI < 17.5
• Heart Rate:
  • 18 years and older: Resting heart rate < 40 bpm
  • Under 18 years old: Resting heart rate < 50 bpm
• Blood Pressure:
  • Blood pressure < 90/60 mm Hg

After being identified, athletes of concern will be required to submit to further testing, including for bone mineral density, total or free testosterone for males, total or free triiodothyronine, total or LDL cholesterol, and, for those under 18, a review for abnormalities of their growth chart. Using this additional data, the athlete will be assigned a final score. Athletes classified as green (no or very low health risk) or yellow (mild health risk) will then be granted a competition license. Athletes classified as orange (moderate to high health risk) will require further evaluation and treatment by the National Federation medical personnel before IFSC events and throughout the season. Those athletes classified as red (very high health risk) will be ineligible for participation in IFSC events until they have demonstrated sufficient recovery and have been cleared to participate by National Federation medical personnel.

The IFSC will also perform random health screenings before events. These screenings may also be used to identify athletes of concern. All athletes of concern will ultimately be reviewed by an external commission composed of two medical doctors with RED-S expertise and one health professional with specific expertise in Climbing.

The full policy may be found . It will be fully implemented for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and the Olympic Qualifier Series.

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Over the past four decades, climbing has gone from a countercultural activity taking place entirely on natural rock walls to a highly competitive sport that, for the most part, happens inside. And yet the scene in a climbing gym is very different than a yoga studio or a spinning class. There’s something special about roping up, even if there is a ceiling over your head. We dispatched our intrepid producer, Maren Larsen, to spend 16 hours straight in a popular Denver climbing gym to understand what exactly keeps people coming back.

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California has been hit with unprecedented blizzards, floods, avalanches, and atmospheric rivers this winter. Some ski resorts near Lake Tahoe have received so much snow that they have temporarily closed due to the moisture. While this is good news for California’s drought status (and for skiers and snowboarders), rock climbers are not so lucky. One of the state’s most famous climbing towns, Bishop, is likely to be off-limits this spring due to flooding.Ìę

Located on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range, Bishop is a climbing mecca. Most famously known for its , Bishop has plenty more to offer, including the Happys and Sads and Rock Creek bouldering areas, and the Owens River Gorge for sport. This time of year, temperatures in town are typically in the high 60s, making it the perfect destination for spring break—those itching to get on the rocks after a winter indoors. A using data collected from 2019 and 2020 estimates that Bishop and Inyo County receive 88,890 climber-visitors annually (noting that this estimate is visits, not persons, and that one person can account for more than one visit per year).

On March 11, when many climbers were preparing for spring break trips to Bishop or to attend the following weekend’s annual Flash Foxy Climbing Festival, the area was hit with extensive rain. Floods closed many climbing-access roads, including Buttermilk Road, Chalk Bluff Road (used to access the Happys and Sads), and Lower Rock Creek Road (used to access Rock Creek bouldering). The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also closed all access to the Owens River Gorge area.

The Bishop Climbing Rangers posted devastating photos of each of these roads, first advising where to park if one wanted to walk several miles to the crags, then ultimately sharing that there was nowhere to park to access climbing and advising visitors not to even try. As Inyo County and Bishop are still under disaster declaration at the time of this article’s publication, several local agencies, including Bishop Climbing Rangers, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department, Visit Bishop, and Bishop Area Climbers Coalition, are taking to social media to ask that people stay off of these roads. Despite the shocking photos, the city’s hashtag #TurnAroundDontDrown, and pleas to not strain emergency-personnel resources during this time, people are still attempting to drive on closed roads and in flooded areas.Ìę

Carma Roper, Public Information Officer for Inyo County, says they are trying to mitigate traffic by informing drivers of the risks of crossing flooded roads. Bishop Climbing Rangers on March 20 of off-road tire tracks in the Tablelands area by those attempting to drive around flooded and rutted-out areas, which damages the fragile desert vegetation.

As one of two climbing festivals to take place annually in Bishop, the Flash Foxy Climbing Festival (formerly known as the Women’s Climbing Festival) has a big impact on Bishop, both physically and economically. As the days to the festival counted down this year, attendees (myself included) waited to see if it would be canceled and the tickets refunded like it was in 2020 due to the pandemic. Ultimately, Flash Foxy confirmed on March 13 that the festival would not be canceled, but rather just not include any outdoor climbing. Organizers emphasized that their festival is about so much more than climbing—namely community, learning, and fun.Ìę

While climbing festivals without any actual rock climbing due to weather aren’t a new phenomenon, Flash Foxy ultimately decided not to issue any refunds, which is rarer. There were many (including myself, ten hours away) who decided that the long journey to Bishop wasn’t worth it without any climbing, while others decided that the community aspects and events that would still take place made it worthwhile.Ìę

One Flash Foxy ticket holder who ultimately decided not to attend said she was a bit taken aback at the refusal for refunds. “After a couple back-and-forth emails with them, I almost felt like they were guilting me [for] even requesting a refund in the first place,” the ticket holder, who asked to remain anonymous, said. Climbing was unable to reach Flash Foxy for comment.

Other climbers felt the festival was still worth attending. Hannah Hawley traveled all the way from Vermont, booking both a plane ticket and a rental car for driving around Bishop. This was her first time attending the festival, which she ultimately decided to attend “because climbing is about more than just climbing. It’s about community, it’s about respecting the land and being a good steward. I was able to experience all of that, talk climbing, watch climbing movies, and learn about the land we were choosing to protect by not climbing this weekend.”Ìę

The importance of climbers and events like the Flash Foxy Festival to the local economy is certainly noteworthy; the report, conducted by Eastern Kentucky University’s Division of Regional Economic Assessment and Modeling (DREAM) with support from the Access Fund and Bishop Climbers Coalition, estimates that climbers visiting Bishop spend an estimated $15.6 million annually and that climber expenditures support $5.1 million in local wages in a typical year. Tawni Thomson, Executive Director of the Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “We are very grateful that the organizers of Flash Foxy decided to go ahead with the festival. It definitely helps the local businesses and also gives people something fun to do downtown that’s climbing related, but does not send them out to the areas that have been impacted by flooding, rockslides, etc. It actually helps keep our emergency personnel from having to rescue stranded climbers.”

It’s doubtful that many more climbers will travel to Bishop this spring considering the lack of, well, climbing, so this spring’s weather is sure to negatively impact the local economy. As for when the roads to the crags will be repaired and accessible, representatives for the county could not estimate or ballpark a timeline, as there are still storm systems coming in and the county is still in a state of emergency. Current road statuses can be found on Inyo County’s website with daily updates.Ìę

“Most of the roads to the most popular climbing areas are not passable right now,” said Thomson. “Most of the campgrounds utilized by climbers are closed. It’s just not a good time to be out there on the rocks.”

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Dan Boozan had an arm paralyzed in a cycling accident. Enock Glidden was born with Spina Bifida—a rare disease that resulted in waist-down paralysis. Aika Yoshida broke her neck in an acrobatic accident and was confronted with a long and uncertain road back to athletics.

What do these athletes have in common? They, like thousands of others, found healing and strength through climbing with the help of Paradox Sports.

Since its founding in 2007, Paradox Sports, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has worked tirelessly to expand accessibility in our sport. They do this by hosting for adaptive climbers and veterans’ groups, introducing hundreds of people with disabilities to the sport every year; they run designed to help adaptive climbers increase their skills in a community setting; they for gyms, guiding services, veterans-affairs facilities, and university programs around the country, sharing the latest adaptive climbing practices so these organizations can better serve their local adaptive communities; and they sponsor individual athletes through their Adaptive șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Fund.

Thanks to Paradox, Dan Boozan has found a new sport he’s passionate about and a community to go with it. Aika Yoshida returned to climbing and is pulling harder than ever. And Enock Glidden ascended Zodiac on El Cap—a process that, for him,

Each year, Paradox touches roughly 350 people with physical disabilities, including—but not limited to—people with amputation or limb difference, blindness, hearing impairment, spinal cord injuries, neurological conditions, traumatic brain injuries, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Paradox achieves this with the help of a variety of funding sources—but roughly 10% of their revenue comes from individual donations. With this in mind, Climbing has partnered with Paradox Sports through șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű’s program. Our goal: to help them do what they do.

We urge you to consider or your time.

The post How Paradox Sports Is Making Climbing a More Inclusive Space appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

A kid with a thick tuft of dark hair and large brown eyes pulled onto the wall at Movement Climbing, Yoga, & Fitness, located in Denver, Colorado’s trendy River North neighborhood. He muscled into a move, rocked over his foot, and then stabbed out for the crimp. He fell just shy of it, coming off with a thud. From the ground, he placed his hands on his hips and eyed the move. He chalked up and prepared to try again.

Given the boy’s age and size—he stood just 4-foot-11—I might not have taken note. But the kid was working the problem alongside veteran climbers Jimmy Webb and Daniel Woods, who were also struggling to stick it. Something cool was happening. I was watching 12-year-old Beckett Hsin crush it alongside adults.Ìę

“They’re kind of his heroes,” his dad, John Hsin, later told me.

Beckett routinely climbs boulders that most grown climbers can only dream of ascending. On Monday, September 12, at Colorado’s Lincoln Lake, he marked a new personal milestone by completing the route Spatial Awareness Low,Ìęwhich is rated V14.Ìę

Beckett’s ascent came a week after he sent Spatial Awareness (V13). He’s also completed a slew of other Lincoln Lake classics, such as Sugar free Haribo (V10), Sparrowhawk (V10), Overcling Traverse (V12), and Honey Badger (V11).

When I spoke to him on a video chat, he was quiet and shy and incredibly humble about his accomplishments. “I feel like my send of Spatial Awareness Low is controversial,” he said, “because it’s a little hole that you crawl out of, and I can fit into it a little better than most people.”Ìę

It’s true—due to his size, Beckett Beckett can keep crawling through the space where other climbers have to diverge right. While building up the ascent, he dabbed a lot, stepping off 15 before finally sticking it later that day. “So, the way I do it’s probably easier
 And it has only had like two previous sends, so maybe it’s not V14,” he said.Ìę

The two previous ascents, however, were done by seasoned professional climbers Drew Ruana and Griffin Whiteside. The grade withstanding, Beckett is just the second 12-year-old climber to manage it, after Frech climber Oriane Bertone, who sent

Beckett traces his love of climbing back to his father. Growing up, John Tsin was a competitive gymnast. Later, in college, he started climbing recreationally and enjoyed the natural crossovers—the body movement control, the proprioceptive demands. When his oldest son, Sam, injured his back in gymnastics, John suggested he give climbing a try. Sam fell in love, and Beckett soon followed.Ìę

Beckett joined the competitive youth team at Thorton, Colorado’s gym ROCK’n & JAM’n. At first, climbing was just about fun. “I kind of just goofed around a lot and ran around bothering all of the team kids,” he said. But in the last few years, Beckett started taking training more seriously, with competing on the USA Team at international competitions being one of the end goals. He’s well on his way—earlier this year he placed second in Sport and third in Bouldering in his category at the U.S. youth national championships.Ìę

Bouldering, Beckett says, has been his preferred discipline. But lately he’s been getting more into lead climbing, something made easier by the fact that he’s now actually old enough to lead in the gym. With the next competition season beginning in October, he says plastic is currently the primary focus. But outside of competition season, Beckett tries to get outside every weekend. His favorite crags are located in Lincoln Lake, and in Rifle, Colorado, where his hardest send to date is Fluff Boy (5.13c). He also has a project in Boulder Canyon, Midnight Express (V14), that he’s hoping to return to soon. Beckett’s dream is to complete The Game (V15), also in Boulder Canyon. But that’s for the distant, far-away future, he stresses.

When I asked him what it is that he loves about the sport, Beckett said he didn’t want to pick apart the reasons. “To me, it’s just climbing,” he said.

The post Beckett Hsin Is Only 12 Years Old. He Already Climbs Like a Pro. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

If you’re serious about climbing harder grades, then you need better footwork. In our șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Learn online course , master technician Paige Claassen teaches tips and drills to power your movement from your toes up through your legs and core to send your very best.

If you watch the video of you’ll see she never readjusts her feet. She stabs her shoes into the limestone with precision, placing them correctly every time. And if you watch Janja Garnbret climbing in a World Cup event, you’ll notice that every time her feet swing away from the wall, they return to the volumes effortlessly, without readjustment. Or perhaps your moment of realization will be at the local crag, where a strongwoman will dance up her project without much upper-body effort, weighting her feet the entire way.

When my foot slipped below the first clip at the 2004 Youth Nationals in Sacramento, costing me a spot in finals, I knew I had to devote serious attention to my footwork. In the past 15 years, I’ve worked hard to keep my feet from skittering and skating around the wall in search of the next foothold. It all comes down to the following six fundamental practices.

Watch: Improve your footwork with Paige Claassen’s online course on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Learn.

Warm Up With Quiet Feet

Poorly placed feet bang against the wall—you can hear them scraping and knocking, especially at the gym. To climb with quiet feet is to climb with efficiently placed feet. This means you place your feet correctly the first time, rather than needing to readjust. To practice, watch each foot as you slowly place it on a specific point on each foothold. This intentional placement, while slow at first, will become more natural and will ensure you can trust your feet. Your climbing will also become noticeably quieter.

The best time to practice new skills, such as quiet feet, is while warming up, when you’re not physically or mentally fatigued. So next time you’re at the gym, try it: engage your core to place your foot in a slow, controlled manner, rather than letting gravity pull your foot toward its next placement—i.e. don’t let your foot ooze down the wall. You’ll find your foot has to hover over a foothold for just a moment before making gentle contact.

Weight Your Toes

While new climbers often rely on their arms to pull, seasoned climbers use their legs to push. Our legs are the strongest parts of our body and are accustomed to supporting our body weight, unlike the weaker and more injury-prone upper body. By weighting our toes while climbing, we recruit our stronger lower half to do the hard work, conserving crucial upper-body energy for the crux and protecting our fingers and shoulders.

As you climb, consciously keep your weight on your feet and your arms relaxed. Loosen your grip in order to force your feet to learn what it feels like to support your body weight. (This is easier to practice on a vertical wall than in a cave.) As you move, push with your legs, as though the pressure created by your toes—and in particular your big toe—might push the foothold into the ground.

Plan Your Moves

Tunnel vision can prevent you from knowing where to move next, and whether your hands or feet need to make the next play. As a result, you may walk your feet all over in search of the optimal body position. Although moving your feet before your hands is smart, it’s important to have a plan so you don’t wear yourself out experimenting. If you’re in a stable position, take a moment to look around, observe potential footholds to either side, and formulate a simple plan before making experimental movements.

For example, if your next handhold is up and left, then look for footholds out right to push off of, or for a high left footholdÌęyou can wrap your left toe around to pull yourself up and left. Understanding body position will help you plan your next steps in order to transition your weight intentionally and with maximum efficiency.

Engage Your Core

On steep terrain, do you find that once your feet either slip off or swing away, they dangle limply before you lose your grip and fall? Careful foot placements and core engagement will prevent your feet from slipping in the first place. However, some moves require intentional foot cuts, in which your feet must leave a foothold after helping launch your body toward the next handhold. In this latter scenario, use the momentum generated by the launch to swing your feet back in to the wall—it may sound counterintuitive, but the farther back your feet swing, the more momentum you’ll have to swing them back in. As you swing, bend your knees to keep your hips close to the wall while giving your feet maximum airtime to generate momentum. Avoid going “limp noodle” (a slow foot cut with straight legs), as this position fails to generate the needed momentum.

When your feet return to the wall, your toes will ideally latch onto their target hold on the first try. To ensure this happens, pull your belly button toward your spine in pulses to flex your lower abdominals; also engage this quick pulse the moment your toes touch the wall. If you fail to make contact on your first swing, kick and generateÌęmomentum from your core to keep swinging until you stick the target foot—exactly like crossing the monkey bars when you were a kid.

Use All of Your Foot

The inside edge beneath your big-toe knuckle is the most intuitive part of the foot for new climbers to use, because the “frog leg” position allows us to get the most rubber on a hold. And while standing on your big toe feels secure, if you look at your shoe, it’s covered in rubber! This means almost every part of it is meant to come in contact with the rock.

So educate yourself on the many foot techniques. Toe hooks employ your toe knuckles to hook under a hold. The heel is meant for heel hooks, at many different angles, to help lock you into the wall and suck your hip in to make long reaches. You can even press the top—the lace or Velcro area—into the wall in a toe drag to help keep your hips in when making long reaches.

Take a look at your go-to shoe. Does it have a hard edge surrounding the toe, a soft heel that could slot into a narrow hook, or rubber on the uppers you could use to toe hook? Your shoes can give you clues about how you should be using your feet. Your feet are strong and can be used creatively beyond basic edging to help relieve strain on your upper body. So experiment with placing different parts of your feet on holds—as with “quiet feet,” a good time is while warming up. Use your heel, hook your toe beneath an undercling, or stand on your shoe’s outer edge (the pinky-toe side) to give your arches a break.

Size for Success

When I first transitioned into wearing high-performance, downturned shoes, I took the tight-fit mantra too literally—close to foot-binding torture. I crammed my foot into a European size 35, two sizes down from what I wear now. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a nasty case of bursitis that required intensive stretching and ultimately surgery to alleviate. So avoid my mistake by sizing correctly.

While sending or redpoint shoesÌęshould feel tight and slightly constraining, with no air pockets around the shoe and your toes pushed into a powerful (slightly bent) position, there shouldn’t be pain, especially surrounding the Achilles heel. Think of a well-fitting glove, but for your feet. If walking a few steps from your lace-up seat to the climb leaves you wincing, bump up a half-size. Remember, pain will distract you from your footwork—aim for uncomfortable, not torturous. Additionally, overly tight shoes tend to stretch more, so the pain may not even be worth it. Crunch the toes but don’t bind them.

Paige Claassen is a Colorado-based professional climber with 5.14+ redpoints to her name, including Shadowboxing (5.14d) in Rifle, Colorado.

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Brutal. That’s the word that comes to mind to describe the women’s combined sport climbing finals competition in its debut in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Brutal route setting—with exceptionally difficult, shoulder-y movements. And brutal conditions—with the hottest temperatures and highest humidity of the week. But ultimately, the competition produced predictable results as Janja Garnbret, 22, of Slovenia, arguably the most dominant comp climber of all time, won the gold medal. Garnbret took first place in the bouldering and lead climbing events, and fifth in speed, for a total score of 5 (5 x 1 x 1).

Miho Nonaka, 24, and Akiyo Noguchi, 32, both of Japan and favorites to make the podium, took the silver and bronze medals, respectively. Nonaka went third, third, and fifth in speed, bouldering, and lead for a score of 45, and Noguchi took fourth place in all three events for a final score of 64. For Noguchi, the bronze medal marks the end of her career,Ìęas she announced her retirement from competition climbing with these Games.

Brooke Raboutou, the only American woman to make finals, came in fifth overall after some unfortunate slips in both bouldering and lead. While Garnbret was technically the only woman to reach the top of two of the three boulder problems in the bouldering round, Raboutou was right there with her—getting to the final holds on those same first two problems but then slipping off before she could show control. Raboutou’s finishing score in the bouldering event belies her performance—she climbed incredibly well.

If the boulder problems seemed too difficult to really make the event interesting and competitive, the lead route appeared even harder. Not even Garnbret could come all that close to the top, despite putting up an incredible fight and reaching the highest of any competitor. Raboutou appeared to rush a move low on the route, and came up short on a hard-to-hit two-finger pocket, leaving her visibly disappointed. Chaehyun Seo of South Korea, a lead-climbing specialist, came in second in the lead event, nearly matching Garbret’s high point. Seo’s eighth-and seventh-place finishes in speed and bouldering, respectively, weren’t good enough for Seo to make much use of this impressive second-place finish in lead.

After watching the men’s sport climbing finals yesterday, it appeared that a first-place finish in any of the events guaranteed you a medal. Alberto Gines Lopez got first place in speed and did well enough in bouldering and lead climbing that the math worked out in his favor to award him the gold medal. The same almost held true on the women’s side. Aleksandra Miroslaw, a speed climbing specialist from Poland, set a new world record to win the speed event with a time of 6.84 seconds. Miroslaw then came in eighth place in both bouldering and lead. Still, the math worked out to give her 64 points—tying Noguchi for third place. However, the combined format rules dictate that an athlete’s performance in the qualifying round acts as the tiebreaker, which is why Noguchi got the medal.

The brutal route setting led to a women’s finals that lacked much of the drama of yesterday’s men’s finals, where the gold medal came down to the very last competitor’s performance. But it’s hard to argue that Garnbret, Nonaka, and Noguchi don’t deserve their spots on the podium.

As climbing’s Olympic debut draws to a close, the conversation will inevitably turn to evaluating how the spotlight of this stage will affect the sport going forward. This week, sport climbing became the top-trending Olympic sport, according to Google Trends. And with climbing returning to the Olympics in Paris in 2024, there will be much to look forward to.

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After three grueling rounds of competition in speed climbing, bouldering, and lead, the male climber who would take home the gold medal in sport climbing’s Olympic debut all came down to the final competitor of the night: Jakob Schubert.

Schubert, 30, is Austria’s best competition climber, a three-time world champion with at least 22 World Cup victories. Alongside Tomoa Narasaki of Japan and Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic, Schubert was considered a favorite to win it all. However, due to the unpredictable nature of the controversial combined format—in which the final results of all three disciplines are multiplied together to determine the ultimate results—no one was precisely sure who would win.

If Schubert managed to surpass the highpoint of Spain’s Alberto GinĂ©s Lopez on the lead wall, but then fell below Ondra’s high point, then Ondra would win gold. If he fell below GinĂ©s Lopez, then the Spanish climber would win. (If this , you’re .) Instead, Schubert crushed the route and became the only person to reach the top.

Yet even Schubert had no idea what his successful ascent meant: “After I topped out, I didn’t even know that I had the medal. Only after our national coach Reini Scherer pointed out to me that I was third could I believe it. What a moment. I won’t forget anytime soon,” he said in a press release.

Schubert’s incredible effort in the lead event earned him a bronze medal, meaning GinĂ©s Lopez took home the gold, and Nathaniel Coleman, the American climber from Salt Lake City, won silver.

It’s hard to say what is more shocking: that 18-year-old GinĂ©s Lopez—a relative unknown on the comp scene with one seventh-place and two fifth-place finishes in World Cups earlier this year—is the first-ever sport-climbing Olympic champion, or the conspicuous absence from the podium of Ondra, who is widely considered the best rock climber in the world, and Narasaki, an absolute monster with a world championship title and the holder of the Japanese speed record with 5.73 seconds.

This surprising result is a function of the combined format—which many climbers grumbled about when it was first announced in 2016. In response to the International Olympic Committee allotting sport climbing only one medal for the 2020 Games, the International Federation of Sport Climbing created the combined format as a way to showcase all three disciplines as opposed to choosing just one. The format would mean that speed climbing, considered somewhat gimmicky by most comp climbers, would be given equal weight to the more revered and established disciplines of sport climbing and bouldering.

Indeed, Ginés Lopez was the person who won the speed event. He came in seventh in bouldering and fourth in lead, which is a total score of 28 (1 x 7 x 4). Coleman came in sixth in speed, first in bouldering, and fifth in lead for 30 points. Schubert went seventh, fifth, and first for 35 points.

It’s easy to see how the results could’ve been totally different had a number of factors gone in another direction. If, for example, Bassa Mawem—who took first place in speed in the qualifying event on Tuesday and, in doing so, set the current Olympics speed-climbing record of 5.45 seconds—hadn’t torn his biceps later on during the qualifying lead event and thus withdrew from the finals, or if Narasaki, perhaps the best speed climber of the remaining finalists, hadn’t slipped and false-started in the final speed round, it’s unlikely that GinĂ©s Lopez would be wearing the gold medal.

“There were so many elements, like Bassa not being there, that affected the results,” said Schubert in his press release.

Another irony is that Ondra, for whom speed climbing is a notorious weakness, had his personal best performance in that event with 7.03 seconds and a solid fourth-place finish. But then a sixth-place finish in bouldering and second in lead kept him off the podium.

“The route was really interesting and created emotion, but it required a lot of endurance, and Jakob Schubert had more,” said Ondra, according to by Natalie Berry of UKClimbing. Ondra praised the Japanese for organizing a great event. “It’s been a really nice time.”

This was the way the chips (and climbers) fell, creating an objectively exciting—if difficult to follow and seemingly capricious—event.

A few of the climbers who didn’t make finals hinted, albeit as graciously as possible, that they were miffed by the format.

On Instagram, German climber Alex Megos Ìę“The Olympics are over for me. With a 9th place I’m the first one who didn’t make finals. Frustration and disappointment are the first two words that come to mind when I think about my performance. And for now there is not much else to say. At some point I’ll probably write more about the whole process, my doubts about the Olympics and the format and the time in Japan itself. Good bye Japan.”

“I waited [for] this moment for two years and now it is finished leaving a sour taste,” Italian Laura Rogora on her Instagram.

For better or worse, this will be the last time we see the combined format in the Olympics. In 2024, each discipline will receive its own medal.

Tomorrow is the women’s finals. And if what we just saw is any indication, it’s anyone’s Games to win or lose.

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