The women's Speed and men's Boulder & Lead were in action on day one
Records were broken and shattered on the first day of the Paris 2024 climbing competition in Le Bourget with a new benchmark set by Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw.
The statisticians had to work quicker than the competitors up a 15m wall to keep up with the amount of personal best, continental, Olympic and world records from the first Speed session of the Games.
Nine personal bests. Four continental records. Olympic record broken four times. World record broken twice.
In a change to the usual World Cup format, the fourteen climbers first raced for seeding before moving into the qualification elimination phase. After a technical issue at the start which paused competition, China’s Zhou Yafei broke the Olympic record with a 6.54. Then world champion Desak Dewi of Indonesia went 6.52. Then USA’s Emma Hunt did a 6.36 PB and new Pan American record. All were Olympic records.
But then, Miroslaw stepped up with a 6.21 world, European and Olympic record. She wasn’t stopping there though. In her next run she smashed all records with a 6.06 for a new world’s best.
Miroslaw’s opponent in both races Aniya Holder of South Africa also lowered her PB and African record from 9.61 in the first race to 9.12 in the second.
New Zealand’s Sarah Tetzlaff also lowered the Oceania record with a PB of 8.39.
Both French climbers made it through into the qualification elimination round, but unfortunately that’s where Capucine Viglione and Manon Lebon’s Olympic dreams ended in front of an adorning crowd.
Lebon said: “It was just amazing. It felt like everyone here just came to see us and it was magic. I’m a bit disappointed in myself though because I didn’t perform the way I know I can, but that’s sport sometimes. In four years, I’m sure I will be better.”
Miroslaw and Polish teammate Aleksandra Kalucka both made it through to the finals – Kalucka with a new PB from seeding of 6.38. Chinese pair of Zhou and Deng Lijuan also made it through, and once again there was a PB from Deng this time in seeding – 6.40s.
Hunt and Dewi joined them, and then it was down to the final race of elimination to decide the finals places. Italy’s Beatrice Colli was in the ‘fastest loser’ hotseat and had to watch Indonesia’s Rajiah Sallsabillah and Spain’s Leslie Romero Perez fight it out for the last spot.
Romero Perez won the race to go through, but Sallsabillah displaced Colli with her PB of 6.58s in qualification seeding beating Colli’s 6.84s PB in qualification elimination.
After making finals Romero Perez said: “It’s crazy. It’s amazing for me to be here and I love this moment. Before the race with Rajiah I just focussed on myself, my race, it’s all about me as I can’t control what anyone else does.”
Women’s Speed finals will now take place on Wednesday 7 August.
The men’s Boulder & Lead competitors actually got Paris 2024 climbing underway earlier in the morning when they took to the Boulder wall in their semi-final round.
And first out was South African Mel Janse van Rensberg: “It’s been a pretty wild day. It’s been an incredible experience so far and I’m just really grateful to be here. It was quite tough but it’s how it goes sometimes.
“For sure the biggest crowd I’ve climbed in front of by quite a margin. It was cool. I don’t really know how it affected me, maybe put a bit more expectation to deliver, but it was fun at least.”
The crowd had to wait for a top on the Boulders with Austria’s Jakob Schubert the first to get the ball rolling. The French crowd were cheering every time Paul Jenft and Sam Avezou took to the mats, and Avezou got them going even more with a top on his final Boulder.
Describing his round, Great Britain’s Toby Roberts summed up what a lot of the climbers were feeling: “It was a savage round,” he continued, “I’m gutted about the first one, I feel I could have got that if I had just matched into the volume, but it was a super hard round. You just have to keep your head because you don’t know how others have done. Coming out to the slab and being able to top that I’m really happy with, and third place is pretty solid going into the Lead round.”
Describing the noise from the arena Roberts said: “The crowd was mental, and it was only the first round. I can’t even imagine what finals will be like, but you just have to take it step by step. When I first came out I think I definitely got a bit flustered and it affected my first few attempts but then I managed to snap back pretty quickly and put in a decent performance.”
In a ‘savage’ round, Germany’s Alexander Megos was lost for ideas to solve the problems he faced: “I couldn’t do anything with Boulder three and four. Like if you had given me a whole day, I don’t think I would have climbed either of them.”
Sitting in 15th overall, Megos was deflated in his second Games appearance: “I don’t want to say anything is impossible, but t’s not looking great. I think I have to climb to the top and everyone else has to suck. It’s one of the worst performances I’ve had all year in Boulder and it’s not great that it happens in the Olympics. My mindset wasn’t even that bad, last time in Tokyo I was nervous, but my headspace was much better, but I just couldn’t perform at all.”
The top three climbers to move into the Lead round of the men’s Boulder & Lead semi-finals were Japan’s Sorato Anraku in first and teammate Tomoa Narasaki in second ahead of Roberts in third.
Anraku topped two Boulders with Narasaki, Roberts, Avezou in fourth and Czechia’s Adam Ondra in fifth all topping the fourth as their only success. Austria’s Jakob Schubert was the only other climber to top a Boulder doing so on the first.
The men continue their competition with the Lead round of their semi-finals on the same day as the women’s Speed – Wednesday 7 August.
Full results can be found on the IFSC website homepage: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org