After three IFSC World Cup events in Asia, the 2025 series now moves on to the Americas with three World Cups and one Para Climbing World Cup.

The first will be a true first. It will be the first time that an IFSC World Cup will take place in South America with Curitiba, Brazil the hosts for the Boulder discipline.

After that its trip to the USA where Salt Lake City, Utah will first host a Para Climbing World Cup before another Boulder World Cup. To finish the Americas trip, and before heading onto Europe, a trip to Denver, Colorado for another new host city and a Speed competition.

Before we head to the Americas, let’s take a look at some of the talking points from the events in China and Indonesia.

In no particular order…

USA’s Sam Watson defied gravity breaking his Speed world record twice. The world’s best time for the men now stands at 4.64s which he set in the gold medal race in Bali.

Great Britain’s Erin McNeice and South Korea’s Seo Chaehyun shared a gold medal in the Lead discipline in Wujiang, and they renewed the rivalry immediately at the next event in Bali – that time McNeice was outright gold and Seo silver.

There was a first World Cup gold medal for Japan’s Yoshida Satone when he made the top step of the Lead podium in Bali. He was joined by France’s Max Bertone who won his first World Cup medal of any colour.

There was also first World Cup medals for Ukraine’s Hryhorii Ilchyshyn from men’s Speed in Wujiang and Indonesia’s Adi Asih Kadek in front of her home crowd in Bali for women’s Speed – that was also her first World Cup appearance!

Another climber to win a first medal, and make it even more memorable, was Japan’s Suzuki Neo. He took silver in Lead in Wujiang after climbing the final route twice following a belay error.

There were a host of multiple medallists from the Asian events, but it was McNeice who is the early season pace setter. Her two golds and silver from three competitions puts her out in front, and they are from two disciplines – Boulder and Lead.

Seo has two medals, including a gold from the three events, as does Japan’s Anraku Sorato. Spain’s Alberto Ginés López has two bronze medals, but he has only participated in the two Lead events, so a good return for him.

From two events and 12 possible medals in Speed, there has been 11 different people on the podium – the only one to make two was Indonesia’s Kiromal Katibin who has two men’s Speed bronze medals.

What will we see as we move on to Brazil and the USA? Will Sam Watson break another world record in front a home crowd in Denver? Will there be more first-time World Cup medallists? Will a first event in South America inspire the climbers from the region to make a podium?

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.