Adam Ondra and Janja Garnbret, two of the world’s best climbers, are in the men’s and women’s finals, but can they succeed under the event’s quirky scoring system?
In sport climbing’s first appearance at the Olympics, eight men and eight women have advanced to the finals, scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Tokyo. Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic, widely considered the best indoor and outdoor climber in the world, is among them. The biggest question is whether he can convert that talent into a gold medal in the Olympics’ version of sport climbing. Outdoors, on real rocks, Ondra has scaled the most difficult routes ever climbed around the world. Indoors, on fake obstacles and holds, he has won a slew of world championships and World Cup events. But this is different, in a lot of important ways. Mainly, climbing’s entry into the Olympic program came with a compromise: Different disciplines were combined into one medal event. On the World Cup circuit, these are three distinct medal events. Most athletes excel in only one. Some, like Ondra, do well in both bouldering and lead, which have more traits in common. No one performs in all three — or no one did, until the Olympics came calling. Here’s the back story: The Olympics only offered climbing’s international federation one medal. They insisted that speed be part of the show, recognizing that its quick pace and easy-to-understand format make for good television. But speed is a quirky niche discipline in climbing, not emblematic of the boom in climbing gyms and outdoor climbing spots. The federation did not want to exclude either bouldering or lead. So it morphed all three into one medal event. It’s a bit like telling the world’s best swimmers, cyclists and runners that they can only compete in the triathlon. No one is happy about the format — including Ondra, who has struggled mightily to learn how to speed climb — but it is a one-time compromise.
