The IFSC have shared photos of the Paris 2024 Olympic Sport Climbing venue at Le Bourget ahead of the Speed and Boulder & Lead events taking place between 5-10 August.
The outdoor climbing venue designed and built by Entre-Prises at Le Bourget is one of only two sports facilities to be built specifically for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Following the Games, the four walls – three for competition, one for warm-up – will be redeployed, benefitting local associations and communities.
Painted in shades of pink and green, the colourful walls are a departure from the typical grey panels used in IFSC World Cups.
A legacy indoor climbing facility has also been built at Le Bourget for use by schools and sports clubs.
This summer, 68 athletes will compete in Sport Climbing's second Olympic showing, with Speed as a single event and Boulder & Lead as a combined medal.
28 athletes will compete in Speed and 40 in Boulder & Lead, split equally between men and women (14 and 20 per sex).
The Sport Climbing event will take place during the final week of the Olympic Games. The competition will begin with Women's Speed qualification and the Men's Boulder semifinal on 5 August and culminate in the Women's Boulder & Lead final on 10 August.
The final qualification event takes place in Budapest, Hungary from 20-23 June.
Schedule:
Monday, 5 August:
Men's Boulder & Lead semi-final, Boulder round
Women's Speed qualification
Tuesday, 6 August:
Women's Boulder & Lead semi-final, Boulder round
Men's Speed qualification
Wednesday, 7 August:
Men's Boulder & Lead semi-final, Lead round
Women's Speed final
Thursday, 8 August:
Women's Boulder & Lead semi-final, Lead round
Men's Speed final
Friday, 9 August:
Men's Boulder & Lead final
Saturday, 10 August:
Women's Boulder & Lead final
Comments
This reminded me of a fiction short story I wrote way back in 1987, about comp climbing and the importance of the wall design. Rereading it, I'm amazed at how forward-thinking it was for its day, as it was written before a single commercial training wall was built in the UK and before a single UK comp had taken place - certainly before anything major.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bVo-uX3TuC1uqxojVAxwducNZ6lP2DGTpO9plo-qdVM/edit?usp=sharing
But I didn't get everything right!
Edit: It was so long ago I had to type it out on a friend's typewriter!
Nice read John, and impressively far-sighted
Thank you, McHeath. I must admit to being a bit surprised when I unearthed it last month, having not seen it for the best part of 30 years and it having been written a fair bit longer ago even than that!
Nice one
With regards to the Paris walls - green and pink? - looks more like blue and pink to me
If you only have one X chromosome you’re not qualified to judge, as I have learnt the hard way!