It seems like just the other day climbers around the world were gathered together eagerly anticipating the 2021 Olympic debut of our beloved sport in Tokyo. Now, we’ve got less than a year to go before we once again settle in to cheer on our athletes in a completely different event format from 5 to 10 August 2024.
Read on to see who will be taking part in the IFSC African Qualifier from 7 to 9 December and find out all about sport climbing’s road to the Paris ’24 Olympic Games…
THE ATHLETES
The IFSC African Qualifier serves as the Olympic qualification event not just for South Africa, but for the entire African continent.
South Africa will be allowed to fill all 20 male and 20 female athlete spots depending on how many athletes from fellow African countries join the competition. SANCF has announced the selected athletes who will be filling South Africa’s allocated slots; however, since it’s possible that there will be a few more up for grabs, everyone who competed in the Open Combined and Open Speed at the 2023 SANCF Nationals could be eligible to qualify!
Visit SANCF’s website to learn more, take a look at the selected athletes who will be strutting their stuff in Pretoria this December, and keep an eye on this post and our Facebook and Instagram pages for more updates …
THE OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION PATH
The most significant change to the Olympic climbing format for 2024 is the splitting of the 3 disciplines into two separate events: speed climbing, and combined lead and bouldering. This differs from the Tokyo 2020 format which required climbers to compete in all 3 disciplines for a shot at the podium, largely due to the limited number of medals (3 for each gender) allocated to sport climbing by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
2020’s event, while thrilling, was widely criticised for the combined format as all 3 disciplines are very different and asking athletes to compete across the board is comparable to requiring runners to compete in the 100m, 200m and 400m events all in one. The result was a confused and convoluted ranking system that saw many unexpected wins and losses, particularly in the male category.
Now, with twice as many medals up for grabs and a revised format that should work much better for competitors and spectators, anticipation is higher than ever as the qualification process begins.
The above qualification path diagram may look a little confusing, but it’s quite simple when you break it down. In a nutshell, there is a total of 68 athlete spots for sport climbing: 40 for lead & boulder (20 per gender) and 28 for speed (14 per gender). These spots will be awarded to athletes through the below national and international competitions:
● IFSC Climbing World Championships
6 spots: Boulder & Lead podium (Women and Men)
4 spots: Speed gold and silver medallist (Women and Men)
● IFSC Continental Qualifiers (Africa, Asia, Europe B&L and Speed, Oceania) and Pan American Games
10 spots: Boulder & Lead gold medallist (Women and Men)
10 spots: Speed gold medallist (Women and Men)
● Olympic Qualifier Series (3 events)
20 spots: Boulder & Lead best 10 (Women and Men)
10 spots: Speed best 5 (Women and Men)
● Host country quota
2 spots: Boulder & Lead French athletes (Women and Men)
2 spots: Speed French athletes (Women and Men)
● Universality Places
2 spots: Boulder & Lead (Women and Men)
2 spots: Speed (Women and Men)
Sixteen spots have already been snatched up by the top dogs at the Bern IFSC World Championships, Santiago Pan American Games and Rome IFSC European Qualifier. The climbers who have secured their tickets are:
SPEED CLIMBING (FEMALE)
● Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi (Indonesia)
● Emma Hunt (United States)
● Aleksandra Miroslaw (Poland)
● Piper Kelly (USA)
BOULDER & LEAD (FEMALE)
● Janja Garnbret (Slovenia)
● Ai Mori (Japan)
● Jessica Pilz (Austria)
● Natalia Grossman (USA)
● Oriane Bertone(France)
SPEED CLIMBING (MALE)
● Matteo Zurloni (Italy)
● Jinbao Long (China)
● Bassa Mawem (France)
● Samuel Watson (USA)
BOULDER & LEAD (MALE)
● Jakob Schubert (Austria)
● Colin Duffy (United States)
● Tomoa Narasaki (Japan)
● Jesse Grupper (United States)
● Toby (Roberts)
The IFSC has announced that the African Qualifier will take place at Loftus Versfeld Park in Pretoria from 7 to 9 December. Keep an eye on GoodBETA’s home page, Facebook and Instagram for more updates as they become available, and check out the below to learn more about Olympic Climbing at Paris 2024:
● Official IFSC Event Page
● IFSC Qualifications Page
● Official Olympics Event Page
● Olympics Qualification Guide (Speed)
● Olympics Qualification Guide (Boulder & Lead)
● Olympic Format Explainer
● UK Climbing’s Scoring Explainer
● Inside Climbing’s Qualification Explainer
