After its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020, sport climbing is back on the Olympic programme in Paris in 2024. An opportunity to discover or rediscover this fascinating and vertiginous discipline: its history, where to practice it in Paris, where and when the Olympic competition takes place, etc.
© Fotolia
Climbing is an age-old activity but as a sport it is much more recent. It wasn’t until 1985 that a first sports competition, called SportRoccia, was held in Bardonecchia, near Turin in Italy. This competition took place on natural cliffs. The following year, the town of Vaulx-en-Velin, near Lyon in France, hosted a sport climbing tournament, this time on an artificial wall, a first at that time.
In 1991, the first World Championships were organized. In 2007, the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) was created and organized two events at the Accor Arena, the European Championships in 2008 and then the World Championships in 2012. These two events left a lasting impression and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that sport climbing would make its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
In Japan, athletes competed in three different categories and the cumulative score was used to determine a final ranking, for both men and women:
At the Paris 2024 Games, the events are organized in a different way. Sport climbing will consist of two distinct disciplines: boulder & lead combined and speed. There will be therefore twice as many medals for sport climbing in Paris in 2024.
In Japan, Slovenia's Janja Garnbret (winner of 8 world championship gold medals) and Spain's Alberto Ginés made history by winning the first Olympic gold medals. They have every intention of retaining their title in Paris in summer 2024. But there will be plenty of competition:
All these athletes use specific equipment for their discipline: climbing shoes, magnesia (a talcum-like substance that dries the hands) and a rope or carabiner, depending on the type of event.
© Germain Hazard
Climbing as a sport is becoming more and more popular in Paris. The City of Paris has installed some twenty climbing walls, in public gymnasiums publics in different districts across the capital. To have access to them, you need to contact a specialist association or club, such as:
Another sign of the growing popularity of climbing is the emergence of private climbing gyms offering single, monthly, or annual rates and unlimited access:
© YNS PLT - Unsplash
The Paris 2024 Games take place across the entire Greater Paris region. The climbing events take place in Le Bourget, in Seine-Saint-Denis, to the north-east of the capital. The Le Bourget climbing venue consists of 5 climbing walls: one indoor for warm-ups 4 outdoor for competition. The indoor installations will be an enduring legacy of the Paris Games and will benefit the region and its inhabitants after the Games.
The speed events take place from 5 to 8 August 2024 and the boulder & lead combined events take place from 5 to 10 August 2024. The competitions will be enjoyed by 6,000 spectators.
© O. Taris
Oriane Bertone is a talented young climber. By the age of 11, she was already competing in international competitions. At 18, she became vice-champion of the bouldering world in August 2023. In the intervening period, she won a bronze medal at the European Championships in 2022 and her first World Cup title in June 2023.
So, everything is moving fast for Oriane Bertone, a native of Réunion now based in the Paris region. Her objective for 2024 is clear:Winning an Olympic medal on home ground at the 2024 Games, which would be the crowning glory of a dazzling ascent for this young athlete!
