Competition climbing

A climbing competition, sometimes shortened to comp, is usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are three main types of climbing competition: lead, speed, and bouldering. In lead climbing, the competitors start at the bottom of a route and must climb within a certain time frame, making sure to clip the rope into pre-placed quickdraws along the route. Speed climbing can either be an individual or team event. The person or team that can climb a route the fastest is the winner. Bouldering competitions consist of climbing short problems without rope, with the emphasis on number of problems completed.

Sometimes lead climbers must climb the route on sight. This means that they are allowed only one attempt, and they are not allowed to see other climbers on the route, or receive any form of advice (beta) from others. Otherwise, later climbers would be able to learn from previous competitors' mistakes, giving them a considerable advantage. Also, climbers are usually given a limited amount of time to visually inspect the route from ground level.

In bouldering, the climbers are typically allowed several attempts, but they cannot see other climbers on the boulder, or receive from others any form of advice.

The International Federation of Sport Climbing organizes some of the most important international sport climbing competitions, including the Climbing World Championships and the Climbing World Cup. Sport climbing will be in the Olympic Games for the first time in 2020.

Lead is the most common type of sport climbing. Competitors climb a long, difficult route designed and set by the route setter and attempt to reach the top. The climber's performance is determined by the highest hold reached and whether or not that hold was "controlled", meaning the climber achieved a stable position on that hold, or "used", meaning the climber used the hold to make a controlled climbing movement in the interest of progressing along the route. All standard Lead competitions consist of three rounds: qualifications, semifinals, and finals. In the qualification round competitors climb 2 similar routes 'flash', meaning there is no isolation and they can watch other competitors climb before their own attempt. Their rank will then be calculated as the square root of their rank on either route multiplied by each other. In the Semifinals and Finals athletes climb a route "on-sight", meaning they enter isolation before the round begins, then they go for 'observation', a 6-minute period in which the athletes are allowed to see the route for the first time and visualize moves. After that, they go back to isolation and come back for their attempt one by one ordered by the reverse of the ranking order of the previous round, i.e. the better the athlete's performance, the later they start their attempt for the next round. In the case of ties, the athlete's rank from the previous round is taken into account (the "countback" process). In the Finals, and if the tie is not broken using the countback process, the climbing time will be considered. (lower times are better) In lead, climbers are belayed from below, and are required to clip quickdraws along the route. The route must be climbed within a certain time limit, usually 6 minutes, but can be extended to 7 or 8 minutes according to the route setter's opinion. 26 athletes qualify for the Semifinal, 8 proceed to the Final.

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Wikipedia