BOULDER & LEAD: IFSC OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC FORMAT
The new Boulder & Lead (B&L) format to be used at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will make its official competitive debut at the European Championships Munich 2022.
Unlike the Combined format that featured at Sport Climbing’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 last summer, Paris 2024 will see medals awarded to Speed athletes separately, as well as to climbers in the new B&L discipline, the rules for which were officially published earlier this year in the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC)’s Rules 2022.
The B&L events in Munich will feature the top eight climbers from this weekend’s individual Boulder and Lead competitions, based on their cumulative performances in both disciplines.
The women are up first tomorrow, with the Boulder round starting at 3:00 pm (UTC+2) and the Lead round beginning at 5:00 pm. The eight competing athletes are:
The men are set to follow on Thursday, the last day of Sport Climbing at Munich 2022, with the Boulder round starting at 3:00 pm (UTC+2) and the Lead round beginning at 5:00 pm. The eight competing athletes are:
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
The B&L scoring system is performance-based. The final score of an athlete will be a sum of the points collected in Boulder and the points collected in Lead.
The maximum point total achievable in B&L is 200: 100 points in Boulder and 100 points in Lead. There will be four Boulder problems in total, each offering a maximum 25 points. Each Boulder will be composed of one TOP (25 points) and two zones – HZ, or Highest Zone (6 points), and LZ, or Lowest Zone (3 points), with each section clearly marked on the wall for athlete and spectator clarity.
On the Lead wall, meanwhile, only the top 30 moves will be scored. For example, beginning from the top of the wall and moving down, the top 15 moves are worth 5 points each, the next 10 are worth 2 points each, and the next 5 are worth 1 point, for a maximum total of 100 points.
The B&L format will next be featured at the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Morioka, Japan this 20-22 October.
SPORT CLIMBING AT PARIS 2024
Qualifying for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in Speed and B&L will begin in 2023. With a Speed event and a B&L event in Paris, the total number of medal events for Sport Climbing will double from two at the Tokyo Games to four in Paris.
The 2024 Games will also see a significant increase in the number of Sport Climbing athletes participating in comparison to the Tokyo Games, from 40 athletes in Tokyo to 68 in Paris.
The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad are scheduled to take place in the French capital from 26 July to 11 August 2024.
News and updates about the events are available on the IFSC website, and on the Federation’s social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
