With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just weeks away, the qualification process wrapped up and the test event completed, here's a look at who and what will be in store in Sport Climbing's second showing. Will the sequel be as good - or better than - the debut?

68 athletes and five new nations represented 

In Paris, 68 athletes will compete for Gold - an increase on the 40 who participated in Tokyo. Ukraine, Indonesia, New Zealand, Belgium and Iran have earned their first ever quota places in Sport Climbing among a total of 22 countries represented in Paris, compared to 19 in Tokyo. Canada and Russia (due to the IOC/IFSC sanction) were the only nations not to qualify climbing athletes for a second Games. The USA is the only nation to have qualified a full 8-strong team across both events.

Two defending Olympic champions

Slovenia's Janja Garnbret and Alberto Ginés-López of Spain will be aiming to win back-to-back gold. Four out of the six Tokyo medallists will be present in Paris, with silver medallist Miho Nonaka (JPN) and bronze medallist Jakob Schubert (AUT) completing this elite group.

25% of Sport Climbing athletes competing in their second Games

17 out of the 68 qualified athletes also competed in Tokyo 2020 and will become double Olympians. We hope that this time, though, they'll benefit from having a crowd and enjoy a more 'normal' Games than the ill-fated COVID-Olympics in Tokyo.

New Olympic Speed Records

Speed athletes will compete to become the historic first-ever Olympic champions in the discipline. With the current world records standing at 4.79 and 6.24 seconds for men and women respectively and being regularly beaten in World Cup qualification rounds, expect the existing Olympic records from Tokyo (5.45 seconds, Bassa Mawem (FRA); 6.84 seconds, Aleksandra Miroslaw (POL)) to be smashed from the first runs. 

A new and improved format and scoring system

The new Boulder & Lead discipline format required a fairer scoring system than the multiplication of rank method, which caused some upsets in Tokyo. In the new Combined events to date, the Low and High Zones on the four boulders and the gradual points increase between sections of the single Lead route seem to be both simpler to understand and produce fair results. A lot depends on the routesetting, but so far teams appear to be able to gauge the appropriate difficulty level well across both disciplines in what can be a marathon event for the climbers.

New moves: 360 spins and handstands?

Since Tokyo, a few new moves have arrived on the World Cup circuit and might make an appearance in Paris. First: the 360-degree spin, which was showcased for the first time in the IFSC Boulder World Cup in Innsbruck in 2023 and even made its way high on the wall in the Lead World Cup in Villars later in the season. There's no doubt that this crowd-pleasing move would fit right in at the Olympics, along with the increasingly common swinging lachés and any combination of dynamic coordination dynos. Athletes will pray that any ideas for handstand/cartwheel boulders - as seen at the CWIF this year - remain firmly inside the setters' heads...

The new route-setting team chiefed by Garrett Gregor (Boulder) and Martin Hammerer (Lead) also features two women: Olga Niemiec (POL, Boulder) and Tsukasa Mizuguchi (JPN, Boulder). In Tokyo, the team was all-male following the withdrawal of Katja Vidmar. The team have also had the advantage on working across multiple Boulder & Lead events - including the OQS - to gauge the perfect difficulty level for this new format.

See the full list of officials here.

Crack climbing again (potentially) - but no transparent no-tex holds

The routesetters treated athletes to a crack boulder in the men's semi-final round in Tokyo and another crack volume is in the IFSC's official P24 holds catalogue featuring equipment from a range of manufacturers which could be used in Paris. Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately for the athletes - the transparent 'jellyfish' no-texture hold which debuted at the World Championships in Bern is not included in the official list. On a satisfying side-note, it looks like the colours of the smaller holds chosen mimic the pink-blue-purple colours of the Paris 2024 walls. 

A custom-built venue - with crowds this time - and an Olympic legacy climbing centre

While the outdoor Sport Climbing structures for the competitions will be temporary, a legacy indoor climbing centre has been built at the same venue (which will double as a warm-up wall for the athletes). Along with the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, the Le Bourget Climbing Centre is one of only two permanent sports facilities to be built specifically for Paris 2024, part of the Games' plan to introduce local people to the sport after the Games. 

Here's hoping that the crowd makes up for the relative silence of the crowdless COVID edition that was Tokyo 2020 and cheers twice as loud!

See photos of the Olympic walls:

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Thrice the Olympic Dads

Bassa Mawem (FRA) was the only father in the Tokyo 2020 Sport Climbing roster. Now Adam Ondra (CZE) and Tomoa Narasaki (JPN) will be returning to their second Olympics as part of this dad gang. Jain Kim (KOR), who gave birth to a daughter in March 2021, narrowly missed out on qualifying by one place in the Olympic Qualifier Series. A new generation of climbing stars could already be on their way to the 2040 Olympics...

An even broader age range

In Tokyo, Colin Duffy (USA) was the youngest competitor at 17, while Bassa Mawem (FRA) was the oldest at 36. In Paris, Japan's Sorato Anraku will be the baby of the event at 17 - with Olympic gold medal potential no less - while Bassa will be the oldest once again at 39.

Another French sibling pair...on home turf

Speaking of Bassa Mawem - Bassa and his brother Mickaël competed together in Tokyo 2020. Unfortunately only Bassa has qualified for Paris (in Speed) this time, but the French team has produced a second Olympic sibling pairing in Sam and Zélia Avezou, whose mother is the French competition climber and international medallist Cécile Avezou. They are based in Igny, just south of Paris.

Five athletes from competition climbing dynasties

In Tokyo, one in three Olympians were second-generation climbers. While we are unsure as to the exact proportion for Paris, there will be five climbers from competition climbing dynasties: third-generation Ukrainian climber Jenya Kazbekova, daughter of world cup winners Serik Kazbekov and Nataliia Perlova and whose grandmother competed for the USSR in speed multi-pitching events; Tokyo Olympian Brooke Raboutou, born to French-American competition couple Didier Raboutou and Robyn Erbesfield; Chaehyun Seo, whose father Jong-kuk Seo competed in UIAA ice climbing events and mother So-yeong Jeon also competed for Korea, plus the Avezou siblings.

A full Team GB Boulder & Lead roster!

After Toby Roberts led the way late last year, three new athletes have joined Team GB since the completion of the Olympic Qualifier Series: Erin McNeice, Hamish McArthur and Molly Thompson-Smith. In Tokyo 2020, Shauna Coxsey was the sole Team GB representative in Sport Climbing and finished in 10th place. 

The event will be broadcast on BBC Sport, Eurosport and the Olympic Channel. Stay tuned for more information.