Your Guide to the 2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup Circuit

Welcome to Behind the Wall, your weekly digest on what is happening in the climbing competition world.

The 2025 World Cup circuit starts in 23 days in Keqiao, so we look over where the World Cup circuit goes this year.

As usual, I recap the news over the last couple of weeks and share my favourite media. I also recap where you can buy tickets for upcoming international competitions and what competitions you can watch this weekend.

2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup

While the Olympics and the Olympic Qualifier Series dominated 2024, the 2025 season feels like a return to “normal”. That is not to say the Olympics won’t have an impact. Many athletes are using the year to rest and recover after the stress of 2024.

The Olympics and the Olympic Qualifier Series meant that last year the World Cup circuit only had 9 World Cups, with 5 Boulder, 5 Speed and 6 Lead competitions. They were all grouped in three periods of time: before the OQS events in May, in July between the OQS events and the Olympics, and in September after the Olympics were all over.

In 2025, we have 14 World Cups with only 10 single disciplinary events. These are split up into 6 Boulder, 6 Lead, and 6 Speed events. They are spread out more than last year, with the disciplines interwoven. All of the athletes will need to be ready to start competing in April in Keqaio for Boulder, and Wujiang for Lead and Speed.

The 2025 season ends with the 19th World Championship, which is held in Seoul, South Korea, months after the Boulder and Speed World Cup circuits have finished and 3 weeks after the final Lead World Cup in Koper. The World Championship will be a great climax to the season, and the gap may allow athletes the chance to recover over the summer a little before the season ends, 6 months after it starts.

The Competition Calendar

The IFSC 2025 World Cup calendar consists of 17 different events, including 12 World Cups, the Youth World Championship, the 12th World Games, and the World Championship, which is held every two years.

The World Cup circuit begins in Asia, visiting Keqiao and Wujiang in China, like it did last year. Hopefully, there will be a better roof for the athletes in Keqiao after the men’s qualification round was cancelled due to bad weather.

The Asian leg of the World Cup circuit ends in Bali, Indonesia. This year will be the 3rd time the World Cup circuit has visited Indonesia, but the first time in Bali. The competition is being hosted on Peninsula Island, near the popular Nusa Dua Beach.

The World Cup circuit will visit South America for the first time. The city of Curitiba will host the first Boulder World Cup on the continent. Curitiba (pronounced something like koo-ree-CHEE-bah) is home to 2 million people and is the capital city of the southern Paraná state of Brazil.

Curitiba has previously hosted continental competitions in 2023 and 2024 as part of the IFSC South American Continental Cup series. The World Cup represents an important step for the IFSC, expanding the sport to the 7th most populated country in the world.

IFSC President Marco Scolaris said during the press conference of the announcement,

“A stop in South America represents a milestone in our development, reflecting the community growth, stronger and more widespread on every continent.”

The World Cup circuit has visited many different countries over the years. Only time will tell if the Brazilian World Cup becomes a regular stop, or if it will disappear from the circuit like many others after one or two visits.

List of countries with the lowest number of World Cups

After Brazil, the circuit moves to the USA for two World Cups. For the first time since 2012, when Vail (Colorado) and Atlanta (Georgia) both held World Cups, two different locations will host events. The first will be in Salt Lake City (Utah) and the second in Denver (Colorado), which hosts its first Speed World Cup.

The circuit then returns to Europe for the remainder of the World Cup circuit, starting in Prague (Czechia) for Prague’s 5th World Cup (1997, 2003, 2023, 2024 & 2025).

The circuit returns to Bern in Switzerland, where the World Championship was held in 2023, for the first World Cup since 2008. The Meiringen World Cup in Switzerland was a much loved regular spot on the circuit, so it will be interesting to see what happens with Bern.

The following World Cup is in Innsbruck at the end of June. Innsbruck will be one of three competitions in which Janja Garnbret’s is likely to compete. Innsbruck will be the last Boulder World Cup of the season.

The circuit then goes to Krakow, Poland, for the 3rd Polish Speed World Cup, and the first in 16 years. The Polish women’s speed climbers have dominated the circuit since 2021, winning 2 overall titles. Aleksandra Miroslaw and Aleksandra Kalucka won gold and bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The circuit then visits Chamonix, France, for the 23rd time. Chamonix is the smallest location on the 2025 circuit, with a population of around 8,500. However, it pulled in over 15,000 spectators last year for the event.

Instead of next visiting Briançon in France, which has hosted World Cups since 2012, the World Cup will be in Madrid, Spain, for the first time. The last World Cup held in Spain was back in 2012 in Barcelona.

The final Speed World Cup of the season had been schedule to be in Klagenfurt, Austria, but the IFSC has had to cancel it due to a sponsor pulling out. They are looking to find a replacement Speed World Cup.

There is then a break in the World Cup circuit for the Youth World Championship in Helsinki, Finland, from 28th July to 3rd August. This is the first time the Youth World Championship will be held in Europe since 2021.

The 12th World Games in Chengdu, China, are held from 7th August to 17th August, and they have 3 different speed disciplines: standard 2-lane Speed Climbing, 4-lane Speed Climbing, and a 4-lane Team Relay. 36 men and 36 women will compete across the 6 medal events. These new disciplines were demonstrated last October at the Madrid 4 event.

The final Lead World Cup of the season will be hosted in Koper, Slovenia, on the 5th of September. Slovenia has hosted a World Cup every year (except for 2020) since 1996. Janja Garnbret’s coach has said she is likely to compete in Koper.

The season ends with the 19th World Championship in Seoul, South Korea. This is the first time that South Korea has hosted a World Championship. Seoul previously hosted the 2023 Youth World Championship and the final World Cup in 2024, with all three disciplines.

Paraclimbing World Cup Calendar

There are 3 Paraclimbing World Cups and the Paraclimbing World Championship this year. There have been 3 Paraclimbing World Cups every year for the last 4 years.

This year the circuit returns to Salt Lake City and Innsbruck for Paraclimbing World Cups. Innsbruck has held a Paraclimbing World Cup every year since 2021. Salt Lake City has hosted one every year since 2022. There is also a Paraclimbing World Cup in Laval (France) at the end of the season in October.

News

It has been a quiet week this week, news-wise.

• Kirsty Coventry was elected the 10th IOC President on 20 March. Coventry is the first woman and African to serve as IOC President. President-elect Coventry competed at five different Olympic Games as a swimmer. She won seven Olympic medals: two gold, four silver, and one bronze, between her debut at Sydney 2000 and her final Olympics in Rio 2016. No other African athlete has won more Olympic medals.
• CWIF 2025 Results. You can re-watch the semi-finals and finals on YouTube.
  • Women: Eugenie Lee, Isabella Edgington, Fae MacDougall.
  • Men: Max Milne, Sohta Amagasa, Sam Butterworth.

Media Recommendations

There has been a lot of media released over the past week, but here are 5 of my favourites.

Toby Roberts shares 9 strategies to improve your competition game.

RunOut #144: Life After Competition: Hannah Schubert and Eating Disorders in Climbing – The RunOut Podcast

Hannah Schubert is an Austrian climber who has podiumed at the World Cup and the World Championships. Now retired from professional competition, Hannah was recently profiled in Der Spiegel, one of Germanys’ largest publications, where she opened up about her struggles with eating disorders during the height of her competitive career. Our conversation traces Hannah’s career, from climbing alongside her brother Jakob, to the hyper competitive world of Austrian climbing, and what it meant to stand on a World Cup podium. We look at how eating disorders can spread through taking silent cues, comparing yourself to others, and the comments made by coaches. We talk about how easy eating disorders are to hide from others, making it hard to talk about and address. And we hear about the ultimate breaking point for Hannah, and her years long recovery back to mental and physical health. But first, Chris has a confession to make to Andrew ... and needless to say, Andrew is NOT happy about it. Our final bit is some classic Winona shit. Show Notes  Follow Hannah Schubert on Instagram Profile in Der Spiegel Guest Blog by Hannah Schubert: Why I Think Vulnerability Matters Young Women with Anorexia Nervosa Speak Out about Hospital Experiences Michigan Ice Festival Winona Ice Festival Matthew Drazkowski rant Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more! Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcast

Chris Kalous

Chris and Andrew talk with Hannah Schubert about her competition career and her battle with eating disorders.

Kyra explains the IFSC and USA Climbing quota rules to explain why she is able to compete at World Cups this year despite not being on the National Team.

37: Tijl Smitz, IFSC Presidential Candidate — That’s Not Real Climbing Podcast

Tijl is currently the IFSC Europe president but he is now running for the president of IFSC with elections taking place in April. In this episode, we’ll learn about how IFSC politics works, hear about the changes he wants to make within the IFSC, and get his take on some hot topic issues like nation

That's Not Real Climbing PodcastJinni Xia

Jinni talks to Tijl Smitz, current IFSC Europe President, about his own climbing, how he got involved in the political side of the IFSC and what he thinks the IFSC should focus on after being in two Olympics.

The Bouldering Bobat crew go highball climbing on Yonder’s new 8 metre high wall, getting scared along the way.

Competition Tickets

• 23rd – 29th June Innsbruck 2025 World Cup Tickets go on sale in April and June:
  • April 7th: World Cup Passes for the whole event.
  • April 28th: Single Day Tickets - early phase.
  • June 16th: Single Day Tickets - late phase.
• 7th – 8th June Prague Boulder World Cup Tickets are on sale until the end of the month.
• 14th – 16th June Bern Boulder World Cup Tickets are on sale.

What to Watch

Nothing to watch this week.

27 Mar 2025 20:14 (UTC): Updated the article with the news that the Klagenfurt Speed World Cup has been cancelled.