What is sport climbing? Everything you need to know about one of the new Olympic sports

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What is sport climbing? Everything you need to know about one of the new Olympic sports image

There are a bunch of new sports taking place in Tokyo for the first time at an Olympic Games, opening up the world to some left-field events.

Skateboarding, surfing and karate are three pretty straightforward sports that have been added this year, with all of them taking place during the first week at Tokyo.

But one new sport that will kick off in the second week of the Games is sport climbing - but what exactly is it?

WHAT IS SPORT CLIMBING?

Have you ever been rock climbing at one of those cool indoor places? It's pretty hard. 

Well, there are plenty of people who are really good at it, and they will be heading to Tokyo to compete, with sport climbing debuting on August 3rd. 

There are three separate events - speed climbing, bouldering and lead climbing - that will see two gold medals awarded across the mens and womens events. The finals at the Olympics are determined by the athletes who perform best over the three events. 

Speed climbing is a two-person race on a fixed route, with competitors going head-to-head up a wall.

Bouldering involves multiple routes, and involves climbing as many routes within four minutes as possible - without safety ropes.

Lead climbing involves athletes ascending as high as possible on a 15-meter wall, with speed also a factor.

Here's a clip of the final from the 2018 Youth Olympics. 

WHAT IS SPEED CLIMBING?

Speed climbing is a race between two climbers to see who gets to the top first, with competitors starting at the bottom and must hit a buzzer at the top once they complete the wall. 

Athletes will start with one foot on a pressure plate, the other on the wall, and two hands on the starting holds.

To avoid any human error, it's all done by a computer - an automatic timing system starts on the third beep of the machine and finishes when the button at the top is pressed.

ARE THERE ANY AUSTRALIANS COMPETING IN THE SPORT CLIMBING EVENTS?

Yes, Australia will have two athletes competing in the first-ever Olympic sport climbing event.

Oceania Mackenzie will compete in all three events in the womens draw, while Tom O'Halloran will fly the flag on the mens side. 

OCEANIA MACKENZIE 

The 19-year-old sport climber was born in Germany, but was raised in Australia.

She's competed in sport climbing from an early age, and is the current Australian National Champion in all three disciplines. 

Mackenzie competed in a World Cup event for the first time four years ago in Hachioji, making the semi-finals for both bouldering and lead.  

In 2019, Mackenzie made the finals in the IFSC Bouldering World Cup in Meiringen, Switzerland. 

TOM O'HALLORAN

The 29-year-old was born in Queensland, but relocated to the Blue Mountains in NSW to further pursue his love of sport climbing.

His passion for the sport was there from an early age, and he first gained success when he represented Australia at the World Youth Championships in 2007, where he placed 12th. 

O'Halloran became the National Champion in 2017 & 2019, and is the first Australian to climb a grade 35. 

He was originally an outdoor climber, but switched his attention to indoor climbing heading into the Tokyo Olympics. 

TOKYO OLYMPICS SPORT CLIMBING SCHEDULE

DATE EVENTS
Tuesday, August 3rd
  • Mens combined speed qualification
  • Mens combined bouldering qualification
  • Mens combined lead qualification
Wednesday, August 4th
  • Womens combined speed qualification
  • Womens combined bouldering qualification
  • Womens combined lead qualification
Thursday, August 5th
  • Mens combined speed final
  • Mens combined bouldering final
  • Mens combined lead final

Friday, August 6th

  • Womens combined speed final
  • Womens combined bouldering final
  • Womens combined lead final

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