Indoor Rock Climbing

Rules:

Sport climbing follows the same basic rules as casual climbing in each of the three disciplines, but also including specific competition rules for the athletes and routes.

Scoring:

Overall score

All the athletes compete in each of the three disciplines; Speed Climbing followed by Bouldering followed by Lead Climbing. At the end of each stage of the competition, their overall score is calculated by multiplying the ranks they achieve in each discipline and the athletes with the lowest overall scores rank the highest overall.
Overall Score = Speed Climbing Rank * Bouldering Rank * Lead Climbing Rank.

Speed Climbing

This first event consists of a single route, which always has the same layout. The athletes are put in a one on one race to reach the top of the wall and stop the timer in the shortest time. A false start results in an instant disqualification and those who win their race, race against the other winners in knock out round style until each climber is ranked 1st to last based on their number of wins.

Bouldering

This second event consists of three different boulder problems, with all the athletes attempting the first problem, one at a time, before moving onto the second and finally the third. At the end of the three problems, the athletes are ranked 1st to last place based on the number of Zones and Tops they have achieved. Where two athletes tie, their number of attempts to reach the Zones and Tops are examined to determine who takes the higher place.

Lead Climbing

This final event consists of a single route with it's holds numbered from 1 upwards to the Top hold. The athletes have one attempt to reach the Top hold or the highest hold they can, whilst clipping their rope into each quick-draw along the route and are ranked 1st to last place based on the number of the hold they reach. To be awarded with the hold, the climber must be in a controlled position while holding it and if the climber makes an reasonable but unsuccessful attempt towards the next hold, they are given a + after their number. This means that for two athletes who reach the same hold, if one of them had the + they would rank higher and if there is still a tie, then the climber who reached the hold in the shortest time wuld rank higher.

Qualifying for the Olympics:

The climbing world championships, held by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) in Japan, Hachioji in 2019, acted as the qualifying round for athletes to represent their country in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Over 250 climbers were narrowed down to just 40 athletes, with a maximum of 4 athletes per country being allowed to qualify, 2 for the mens catagory and 2 for the womens catagory.

Qualifying for the Olympic finals:

The first stage of Sport Climbing in the Olympics was held in Japan's Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. It had a total of 40 athletes, split evenly across the mens and womens catagories, with only the top scoring 8 athletes, per catagory, making it into the finals.

The Olympic finals:

The second, and final, stage of Sport Climbing in the Olympics was held in Japan's Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. It had a total of 16 athletes, split evenly across the mens and womens catagories, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd places being awarded in each catagory.