Today was the first day the Paris 2024 climbers got to touch the wall they will be competing on. Only seen in pictures, the athletes got to train and get a first taste of the competition venue.

Some climbers have been to Le Bourget, but their access has been limited to the warm-up area and Speed training wall which sits outside the new ‘Marie Paradis’ gym. After the media duties of headshots and name pronunciation (very important for the commentators around the world) it was time to climb.

So, what were the first impressions from the climbers?

Kazakhstan’s Amir Maimuratov was impressed and made a prediction after his Speed runs: “I think it’s the best wall I have ever seen and ever felt to race on. The friction is the best I’ve seen. I think there will be a lot of records on this wall.”

Maimuratov’s accreditation is already full with pins, and talking about his experience at Paris 2024 so far he said: “I’m lucky that a lot of people seem to be coming to me to exchange pins. The Olympic experience has to be like any other competition for me, but not every day is the Olympic Games so you have to enjoy it.”

Women’s Speed climber Rajiah Sallsabillah of Indonesia is also happy with the wall she will compete on “The friction on the wall is really good. It’s a bit like the Olympic Qualifier Series, but I think this one is better. The venue is really good, but it was a bit windy today, so when it’s not I’m sure it will be even better.”

Talking about the Olympic accommodation Sallsabillah said: “The Athlete Village is good, but there is a lot of people, it’s so busy. I can see how it would be a distraction for some people, but for me I think it is all good.”

For the Boulder & Lead climbers there was two new walls to test, and Slovenia’s Luka Potočar is a fan: “It’s amazing. I feel so lucky to be here. It feels amazing to be on the [Boulder] wall. The friction is good and today the weather is perfect for climbing so I hope it is like this during the competition. I was on the Lead wall as well and that was also good as well.”

Potočar has only just touched down in France, but initial reactions about the general Olympic experience is also promising: “I only arrived yesterday so I haven’t had much time to look around. I had some food, slept, checked it out a little bit, but I can’t really talk about it much yet, but initial reactions are good, it looks beautiful.”

Germany’s Lucia Dörffel also tried both the Boulder and Lead walls, but it was the latter which made her happy: “The venue looks good. I like the Lead wall, it’s not so steep, which I prefer. It looks really cool as well.”

As Sallsabillah said, for some the Athlete Village can be distracting, and for Dörffel, she was/is one of those people: “The Athlete’s Village is so cool, so many great athletes there and so many people. There’s so much food everywhere, I like it. The first two days I would say it was quite hard to focus as everything was so new and different, but now being here at the venue I can try and get focused and prepared for the competition.”

The focus and preparation will come to an end and the competition will begin on Monday 5 August with the men’s Boulder round of the Boulder & Lead semi-final.