[jwi]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

[SA Chris]

exactly.

Whereas Ondra potentially had it on a plate, but threw it.

[Duma]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

this.

[Wellsy]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

Totally agree. He did his job, can't say fairer than that.

[remus]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

He won, but did he deliver? He was very lucky in the speed, Duffy's false start and Tomoa's slip giving him a relatively easy 1st in that event which due to the multiplicative scoring was a massive advantage. I feel if the same had happened to most of the rest of the finals field they would also have had a good stab at the gold.

That comes across as pretty harsh, and obviously there's a huge amount of work and skill to get to the final in the first place, but I think it's fair to say there was luck involved (which is ultimately why the 2020 format was a bit shit).

[Will Hunt]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

This suggests that he played some sort of strategic blinder which others didn't. Fair play, he went out and did his best in each event, as did all the others, he was just very very lucky and benefitted from the broken head-to-head format in the speed. Let us not forget that out of the eight finalists he was the 5th fastest speed climber, the worst boulderer, and the 4th best lead climber.

[Bradders]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

Rubbish. The winner of a lottery has delivered nothing beyond paying the entry fee (which, in fairness and with the greatest respect to him, in this case clearly involved an awful lot of hard work).

[Fiend]

Ginez was one of the few who both understood the assignment and could deliver on the assignment.  A worthy champion.

He won, but did he deliver? He was very lucky in the speed, Duffy's false start and Tomoa's slip giving him a relatively easy 1st in that event which due to the multiplicative scoring was a massive advantage. I feel if the same had happened to most of the rest of the finals field they would also have had a good stab at the gold.

That comes across as pretty harsh, and obviously there's a huge amount of work and skill to get to the final in the first place, but I think it's fair to say there was luck involved (which is ultimately why the 2020 format was a bit shit).

this

[spidermonkey09]

I think the best you can say in Lopez's defence is that he was handed a golden opportunity (lol) and did what he needed to do to take advantage. I think denying the role of luck is a bit much though. The below is perhaps analogous. Was Bradbury a worthy champion because he stayed on his feet to the end? I don't begrudge him the go,d but I'm sure he would admit it was extremely lucky!

[Duma]

No one should have to defend AGL!

All the (frankly yes they do sound very harsh) comments below boil down to "I don't like the speed format/combined scoring"

Lets keep talking about the 2024 event please (and I think results three years ago are unlikely to be much use as guidance tbh)

[Duma]

Innsbruck interesting so far:

Men's Q boulders too easy (14 got 5+5), but AGL looking good despite coming straight off Budapest. Toby through tied with AGL in 11th, Jakob 21st and out of semis.

Women's 2 rounds so far is a good illustration of how the setting influences thing - Janja 3rd in her half of the draw on a fairly "easy" qualifying set, then well clear of the whole field in a (very) "hard" semi.

[jwi]

Gines did predictably well in Speed climbing, something he and his coaches focused on, as there were no good facilities in Spain for bouldering. That he would be top five in lead, if in shape, was a given.

Anyway, here are my predictions for the men.

1. Sorato ANRAKU. Based on last 12 months performances it is difficult to bet on anyone else for the gold. Ranked #1 in lead, #1 in bouldering.
2. Dohyun LEE. To weak in lead to win, but if the problems are physical enough he should win the bouldering. Much better lead climber than other bouldering specialists.
3. Sam AVEZOU. Very good in bouldering, very good in lead. No apparent weaknesses. Homecrowd. A sister in the olympics as well. Family support.

The rest of the best: Jacob SCHUBERT (best placed veteran, no injuries I think), Toby ROBERTS (good on lead, a bit shaky in bouldering -- might have improved? as he's had a long time to prepare), Adam ONDRA (depending on injuries...), Alberto GINÉS (has improved a lot in bouldering, probably top 3 in lead on current form) and... eh.... some US climber full of steroids maybe? Duffy say.


For Women:

1. Duh. I'd give her more than 50% chance to win against the field. 75% even.
2. Natalia GROSSMAN. Very good in both disiplines. American, so probably medically improved in time for the championships.
3. Brooke RABOUTOU. Ibid. Worse in lead.
The rest: Ai MORI (will probably face at least one boulder that is impossible to establish on the start holds for somone her height, will be top two on lead), Miho NONAKA (too weak in lead, I think?), Jessica PILZ (yeah, too weak in bouldering), Oriane BERTONE (could win the bouldering in front of a home crowd, unlikely to do well in lead), KAZBEKOVA/ROGORA dunno...

[teestub]

Innsbruck interesting so far:

Men's Q boulders too easy (14 got 5+5), but AGL looking good despite coming straight off Budapest. Toby through tied with AGL in 11th, Jakob 21st and out of semis.

Women's 2 rounds so far is a good illustration of how the setting influences thing - Janja 3rd in her half of the draw on a fairly "easy" qualifying set, then well clear of the whole field in a (very) "hard" semi.

7/20 men in semis from Japan! Wonder what the most from one country ever is…

[spidermonkey09]

Whats the context behind the steroid accusations? I don't follow the comps year round so may be missing something.

[jwi]

It is a generalisation about Russian/Chinese/US athletes in the Olympics. Zero trust from me.

[AMorris]

It is a generalisation about Russian/Chinese/US athletes in the Olympics. Zero trust from me.

Translation: made it up.

I don't think we should be so quick to accuse climbers of taking PEDs based on their nationality, especially since climbing hasn't yet faced a serious case of PED usage. You may as well accuse Toby of doping because Chris Froome was huffing salbutamol, Linford Christie was on nandrolone, and both Tyson Fury and AJ are juiced up to their eyeballs...

[jwi]

fair enough, sorry, it is mostly the national administration of sports in those countries I have zero trust in. (And basic game theory leads to it being rational to take performance enhancing drugs if you believe your competitors can do this without punishments. It has nothing to do with the morality of individual athletes, I'd like to stress)

[Wellsy]

I don't think that climbing has a culture of PED use but I do generally think that most sports have a lot more of it than people like to think

I also think that climbing is getting more at risk of it as it becomes more mainstream. I'd be highly surprised if there were no climbers of note who used PEDs, in fact we know of some. And we also know of systematic doping systems in certain countries (and that includes lots of supposedly squeaky clean ones)

[sirlockoff]

I've heard that japanese/korean have cut some of their nerves in armpits to stop sweating from fingertips, so to think that there is no PED usage at the top level IF it gives advantage (which I am still unclear of as I've heard so much speculation about anything/anyone, but seen 0 personal stories), would be crazy.

But also there has to be money behind it, if the IFSC winning prize can't even cover flights/hotel, is there much motivation...but then again you have over million+ steroid users in UK alone who have nothing to win except look jacked.



these are good videos about doping in Olympics:









The guy https://www.instagram.com/king_pullup_/?hl=en is strong as fuck, and has been banned by IFSC for 4 years for steroids

[Dexter]

Just finished watching the OQS, can someone please help me understand why Sam Avezou, Medji Schalck, and Paul Jenft aren't all through. I thought the host nation got three spots.

[jwi]

No, France has 1 guaranteed spot, but 2 spots maximum like any other country.

[gme]

Having watched the bouldering today and the OQS i really do think the form climbers in the men's are Anraku and Toby.

I would say they are both better lead climbers than boulderers but seem to have put a bit of distance between themselves and the old guard (Tomoa, Ondra, Jacob) in there weaker event.

Suggest they will take two of the top three spots.

[Duma]

AGL pulled out of semis saying he was carrying an injury for a few months and it had worsened. Hope he can recover in time for Paris

[SA Chris]

So is Discovery + the only real option for watchin decent coverage? If so, the "standard" package is on a special offer of £3.99 a month at the moment until the end of the year, with option to cancel any time? Seems a good deal..

Guessing BBC coverage will be limited, although better than before with 4 Brits in.

[edshakey]

That's my expectation, discovery+ will have almost everything live, while Eurosport and BBC will chop and change throughout the day. If we get someone in finals, maybe they'd show some of it live (lead probs), but otherwise, the best you'll get is probably highlights on bbc sport website, if you're lucky (alongside the usual youtube mirrors no doubt).

That sounds like a good deal to me, 4 quid for the whole Olympics.

Anyone know who the discovery commentator is? Please not the guy who did Tokyo... I know Shauna is doing some broadcasting some I'm vaguely optimistic