It’s a big day for competition climbing. Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee officially confirmed that Sport Climbing has been included on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The decision marks a high watermark in the history of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), following on from the sport’s inclusion at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 and coming just eight months before its highly anticipated debut at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan.
Excitingly, the IOC Executive Board also agreed to split the current Combined event (which combines Boulder, Lead and Speed) into two events: Boulder & Lead and Speed. This brings the total number of medal events for Sport Climbing at Paris 2024 to four – two more than at Tokyo 2021.
The number of participating athletes will grow to 68 for Paris 2024, a significant increase from the 40 that will compete at Tokyo 2021 next August.
In addition to Sport Climbing, three other sports — breaking, skateboarding and surfing —were also added to the Paris 2024 sports programme.
