As the World Cup Series switches continents once again, we take a look at some of the highlights from the events held in the Americas
Three IFSC World Cups started the season in Asia, before moving on to the Americas for Boulder, Speed and the first Para Climbing World Cup of the year.
The next stage of the season will see Europe take centre stage with events in familiar surroundings like Innsbruck, Prague and Chamonix and also some new venues like Madrid and back to Bern – the city of the 2023 IFSC Climbing and Para Climbing World Championships.
Before moving on, let’s take a look at some of the talking points from the events held in the Americas.
Starting off in Brazil, Curitiba held the very first IFSC World Cup in South America. At the Boulder event, France’s Naïlé Meignan will remember it for the place she won her first World Cup gold medal winning on the very last climb by the tightest margin over her teammate Oriane Bertone.
For everyone else, they will remember it for the noise. Many athletes commented on the noise made by the crowd when they shouted and roared every climber no matter where they were from in the world.
From a first in South America to the first Para Climbing event of the season. Salt Lake City, USA has opened the season for the Para Climbers on many occasions and did so once again.
There were medals for 20 countries from all five continents that took part, but most notably would be Belgium’s Pavitra Vandenhoven who took a bronze medal in the very first mixed podium at an IFSC Para Climbing World Cup.
Vandenhoven made the podium next to Austria’s Angelino Zeller and Markus Pösendorfer in the AL1 sport class.
There we serial gold medal winners like France’s Lucie Jarrige, Solenne Piret and Aloïs Pottier, Japan’s Aita Sho, Italy’s Nadia Bredice and Austria’s Linda Le Bon.
The home nation excelled with 14 medals in total and the event welcomed a new nation to the Para Climbing ranks – El Salvador.
A day after the Para Climbing concluded in Salt Lake City, the Boulder World Cup started.
Japan’s Anraku Sorato continued his gold medal winning streak taking the top spot once again in 2025 meaning he is now three from three in the Boulder discipline.
Anraku was joined by Nakamura Mao in winning gold. Nakamura had come close on multiple occasions finishing in fourth spot, and when she finally secured her first win, her teammates, and her rivals all hugged and embraced the popular and effervescent climber. The Japanese athlete now has a gold to match her ever present smile.
There was another first to finish things off in the Americas. A first World Cup in Denver, USA.
At the heart of the city in the downtown region of the Colorado capital, climbers competed for the third Speed World Cup medals of the season.
USA’s Zach Hammer claimed his first ever World Cup medal with a silver in the men’s competition, USA’s Emma Hunt got her second gold, and Indonesia’s Kiromal Katibin also got his second gold of his career and the third medal of 2025.
As we move onto Europe, will Katibin and Anraku continue their medal winning streaks? With the climbing queen Janja Garnbret expected back on the circuit, will she pick up where she left off – with gold? Can Nakamura win even more now she has got her fourth spot syndrome out of her system? Will we see even more mixed podiums in Para Climbing?
We have a lot of events to find out all of the answers, and more.
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