Welcome to Behind the Wall, your weekly digest on what is happening in the climbing competition world.
We explore how climbing is having its first ‘post-Olympic blues’ year in 2025.
It’s been a quiet week, so we will shortly recap the news and share my recommendations for what media to read or watch from the past week.
As usual, I will recap where you can buy tickets for upcoming international competitions and what competitions you can watch this week.
Climbing's First ‘post-Olympic blues’ year
It is 8 weeks into 2025, and it is clear that the ‘post-Olympics blues’ have fallen across the competition climbing scene.
Janja Garnbret, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest competitors of all time, will only attend 2 World Cups and the World Championship in 2025 as she focuses on rock climbing and taking a mental break. Brooke Raboutou, 2024 Olympic silver medalist, is looking forward to taking a break from competition climbing to focus on outdoor climbing. Oriane Bertone, France’s best hope for a medal in Paris, has said she won’t start competing until later this year. Many other athletes are taking a break to focus on climbing outdoors.
We have seen multiple athletes retire from competition climbing over the past few weeks. Others, including Adam Ondra and Alex Megos, have said they won’t compete in Bouldering World Cups anymore. Whether they compete at the next Olympics will depend on whether Lead climbing is split off from Bouldering in LA2028.
Competition Climbing is showing signs that 2025 will be a post-Olympics blues year, and that is not a bad thing.
Athletes are often left to manage the post-Olympic depression on their own. For many, it takes some time to deal with the climax of the Olympics and the inevitable crash, whether they win a medal or not. Olympic gymnast and medalist Nile Wilson talked about his downward spiral after winning his first Olympic medal.
This parallels many other Olympic sports, where many top athletes are resting in 2025 to recover from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The greatest surfer in the world at the moment, John John Florence, is skipping the top World Surfing League competition season in 2025, much to the annoyance of the surfing media. The Paris 2024 Butterfly gold medalist Sarah Sjostrom will also skip competing in 2025 as she looks towards her 6th Olympics in LA 2028. Ariarne Titmus, who won 2 golds and 2 silvers in Paris, is also taking a break.
However, many of the newer athletes are raring to go.
Sorato Anraku was dominant at the Boulder Japan Cup, becoming the youngest winner. Toby Roberts is excited to start competing again in 2025.
With some of the favourites taking a year off, many youngsters will have a new opportunity to gain valuable experience at the World Cup, especially with the reduced quota places.
News
It was a fairly quiet week this week.
- Speed Japan Cup Results.
- 1st – Karin Hayashi, 2nd – Ren Koyamatsu, 3rd – Fumika Kawakami
- 1st – Fujino Shuto, 2nd – Ryo Omasa, 3rd – Jun Yasukawa
- The IFSC announced a new partnership with sports advisory firm IRIS Sports Media for the next 2 Olympic cycles. With the Eurosport contract coming to an end soon, it will be interesting to see what changes happen.
Media Recommendations
Natalie Berry (former editor of UKClimbing) interviewed Erin McNeice about her breakout 2024 season, how she felt competing at the Olympics, and which Pokémon Go catch would have matched her 2024 season.
Hannah Morris and Lainy explore how routesetting has evolved over the past 35 years in Berlin. They do this by creating a series of 4 boulders, each typical of their era, from the 1990s to the present day.
Kyra and Dan dive into the details of slab climbing as part of a hard slab session.
Mejdi Schalck, Hamish McArthur, Max Milne and a few more of the UK’s best boulderers play on the Rock City competition wall.
Josh Rundle and Chris Hanke set a hard boulder for Alex Megos using holds made of rock.
Competition Tickets
- 15 – 16th March: Studio Block Masters 2025. Registration opens on February 1st.
- 12 – 16th March: USA National Team Trails. Tickets are now available.
- 22 – 23rd March: CWIF 2025. Registration starts on February 1st, and spectator tickets go on sale on March 3rd at noon.
- 23 – 29th June: Innsbruck 2025 World Cup. Tickets go on sale in early spring.
- 7 – 8th June: Prague Boulder World Cup. Tickets are on sale.
- 14 – 16th June: Bern Boulder World Cup. Tickets are on sale.
What to Watch?
The Oceania Speed Continental Cup and NZ Speed Championship are happening this weekend.
