Introduction

Having participated in 233 IFSC comps since his youth debut in 2004, Jakob Schubert is a living legend of the comp climbing scene. Since winning his first senior Gold in 2009, Jakob has won at least one Gold medal in eleven of the fourteen subsequent years.

He may be one of the older athletes in Paris, but Jakob doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, and his recent form should put all other competitors on notice. His 2023 was one of the most impressive all-round years of climbing there has ever been. In addition to a world class year climbing outside on the rock, he won Gold in Lead at both the Villars World Cup and the Bern World Championships, as well as Gold in the combined Boulder and Lead competition in Bern, which saw him claim the first ticket to Paris.

Jakob is a climber who loves the big stage, and he always seems to be at his best when it matters. As the final competitor out at the Tokyo Olympics, he fought his way to the top of the lead route, in doing so dragging himself from fifth place up into the Bronze medal position. He was the only person to top the route, and where others had failed, he made it look pretty straightforward. This time around he won’t have the speed - in which he finished seventh out of the seven competing finalists - holding him back.

Qualification route

IFSC World Championships Bern 2023: 1st Place (Boulder & Lead)

A (perhaps slightly surprising) second place in the Boulder left Jakob just 0.1 points off the top spot going into the Lead, where he confirmed his place with a convincing win.

Trivia

As well as being a top comp climber, Jakob is one of the best climbers in the world on rock. As of January 2024, he is the only climber to have climbed the top grade in both sport climbing (9c), bouldering (9A).

UKC prediction

2nd place

It’s hard to bet against Jakob, he always seems to come out with the goods in the big moments, and let’s not forget that he has Olympic pedigree, and that he won’t have the Speed pulling him back this time around. However, we think that someone else might just beat him to the No.1 spot…