A bumper IFSC World Cup will take place this week with both the Boulder and Lead disciplines in action in Innsbruck, Austria.

The Boulder discipline will have its sixth and final outing of the 2025 World Cup season and the Lead it’s third, both from the Kletterzentrum. The event follows quickly on from the successful Para Climbing event that concluded last night.

With two disciplines on offer the crowds that pack out the arena will once again be in for a climbing treat with the Olympic champion Janja Garnbret competing for the first time this year.

The Slovenian climber is more than used to winning gold, and more often than not that happens in Innsbruck. Garnbret is frequently on the top step in both Boulder and Lead and it will be interesting for all to see if the ‘competition rust’ needs to be shaken off or if she can pick up where she left off at Paris 2024 – with gold around her neck.

Another climber with happy Innsbruck memories is USA’s Colin Duffy. In 2022 Duffy became the first male climber to win both disciplines at the same event, but he was winning gold before that: “Innsbruck is one of my favourite venues. I did my first Youth World Championship here in 2017 and that comp was very memorable for me. I have a lot of great experiences here.”

Forgetting the history, what about the present: “I’m feeling good about this comp. I’m coming off a nice result in Bern and I’m ready to close out the Boulder season and see how my Lead shape is.”

With two disciplines to tackle, preparations are a bit different than the single discipline events: “My training hasn’t been as perfect as I would like but I’ve had some good training this week between competitions and I’m excited to test myself.”

With Innsbruck gold in both in his collection, which is Duffy’s favourite discipline?

“It’s hard to choose. Lead climbing in competition is much more stressful for me but at the same time I have had more success over the years in that discipline. I think I just like the different challenges of each of them equally. It’s a different experience competing in both I think.”

Duffy will be up against Olympian’s like Japan’s Anraku Sorato, France’s Paul Jenft and Sam Avezou, Belgium’s Hannes Van Duysen and the champion Toby Roberts of Great Britain in both disciplines.

Looking at the individual competitions the likes of Switzerland’s Sascha Lehmann and Spain’s Alberto Ginés López who favour the Lead discipline will be on the start list, while France’s Mejdi Schalck and Austria’s Nicolai Uznik lean more towards Boulder.

Japan’s Yoshida Satone has a Lead gold to his name this season in Bali, Indonesia and will compete again, and China’s Pan Yufei who took Boulder gold in Bern, Switzerland last time out will compete in both disciplines.

Looking across to the women’s competition and who will be looking to make sure Garnbret doesn’t have a winning return will be Boulder competitors like France’s Oriane Bertone and Japan’s Nakamura Mao.

South Korea’s Seo Chaehyun and Great Britain’s Erin McNeice have tasted World Cup success in 2025 even sharing a gold medal at the Lead World Cup in Wujiang at the start of the year. The pair will both go up against each other once more in both Boulder and Lead in Innsbruck.   

Another climber with a 2025 World Cup gold in USA’s Annie Sanders who claimed her win in Boulder in Keqiao, China. The American is another who will compete in both disciplines.

The Boulder discipline will kick things off with qualification for both men and women on Wednesday with the medals decided for the men first on Thursday and women on Friday.

Lead then takes over on Saturday with a full day of qualification and semi-finals before the event reaches a conclusion with men’s and women’s Lead finals on Sunday.

News and updates about all IFSC events will be available on the IFSC website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.