Sports Climbing Aiming for the First Medal

[Olympics] Climbing with Precision and Speed!… Sports Climbing Aiming for the First Medal

Debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games… Lee Do-hyun, Seo Chae-hyun, and Shin Eun-cheol to compete and aim for ‘1 silver and 2 bronze medals’

We will give it our all without any regrets!

The Korean national sport climbing team competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics has set a realistic goal of '1 silver medal and 2 bronze medals' that matches the athletes' current skills, instead of 'unconditional gold medal' for the second competition since its adoption as an official event. 안전놀이터

Sport climbing made its debut in international competitions at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, and is a "new-generation sport" that was first adopted as an official Olympic event at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Due to the aftereffects of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), sport climbing was held as a single event, Combine (Lead + Bouldering + Speed), at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but starting from this Paris Games, Speed ​​will be separated and held as two events, Combine (Lead + Bouldering) and Speed.

Accordingly, the number of gold medals has doubled from the Tokyo Games to four (two combined men's and women's events, and two speed men's and women's events).

Korea sent two men's athletes, Chun Jong-won (28, Gyeonggi Provincial Office, North Face) and Seo Chae-hyeon (20, Seoul City Hall, North Face), to the Tokyo Games, but both athletes failed to win medals due to poor performance in unfamiliar speed events.

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, the Korean sport climbing team failed to secure the 'Olympic tickets' for the Asian Championships and World Championships, but secured three places through the two Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) held in May and June.

Accordingly, Lee Do-hyun (21, Seoul City Hall, Black Yak) in the combined men's division, Seo Chae-hyun in the women's division, and Shin Eun-cheol (25, The Shiel, North Face) in the speed men's division will be on the Paris stage.

In sport climbing, a total of 64 athletes (40 combined men and women, 28 speed men and women) will compete for medals in two events at the Paris Games: combined (lead + bouldering) and speed.

Lead is an event where you climb as high as possible within 6 minutes while holding onto an artificial structure (protrusion or hold) installed on a 15m high rock wall, and bouldering is an event where you climb various artificial structures installed on a 4.5m high rock wall without a rope within 4 minutes.

The medal ranking is determined by adding up the scores for lead and bouldering (out of 200 points).

Speed ​​is a competition to see who can climb a 15m high, 95-degree artificial rock wall faster.

It is a 'single match' where two people climb at the same time, and the winner is decided within 5 seconds.

Korea expects a silver medal from Lee Do-hyun, a combined men's bouldering specialist, and a bronze medal from Seo Chae-hyun, who is strong in leading.

For Shin Eun-cheol, who is competing in the speed men's division where China and Indonesia are strong, a bronze medal is the biggest goal.

The Paris Olympic sport climbing will begin with the men's bouldering and women's speed preliminaries on August 5th (local time), followed by the women's bouldering semifinals and men's speed preliminaries on the 6th, the men's lead semifinals and women's speed finals on the 7th, the women's lead semifinals and men's speed finals on the 8th, the men's bouldering and lead finals on the 9th, and the women's bouldering and lead finals on the 10th.

Seo Jong-guk, Seo Chae-hyun's father and coach of the national sport climbing team, said, "Winning a medal is our biggest goal.

We will do our best so that the athletes can show good skills as we have prepared hard." He added, "Seo Chae-hyun focused on strength training for bouldering, and Lee Do-hyun focused on efficient climbing necessary for lead.

Shin Eun-cheol continues to shorten his record."