The 2021

IFSC Climbing World Cup The IFSC Climbing World Cup is a series of climbing competitions held annually and organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). The athletes compete in three disciplines: lead, bouldering and speed. The number of competit ...

was the 33rd edition of the international sport climbing competition series, held in seven locations. There are 11 events: four

bouldering Bouldering is a form of free climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers use climbing shoes to help sec ...

, five

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

, and two

speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

events. The season began on 16 April in

Meiringen Meiringen () is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Besides the village of Meiringen, the municipality includes the settlements of Balm, Brünigen, Eisenbolgen, Hausen, Prasti, ...

, Switzerland with the first bouldering competition in the season, and concluded on 4 September in

Kranj Kranj (, german: Krainburg) is the third-largest city in Slovenia, with a population of 37,941 (2020). It is located approximately northwest of Ljubljana. The centre of the City Municipality of Kranj and of the traditional region of Upper Carniol ...

, Slovenia. The

International Federation of Sport Climbing The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) is the international governing body for the sport of competitive climbing, which consists of the disciplines lead climbing, speed climbing, and bouldering. It was founded in Frankfurt on 27 Ja ...

had initially scheduled 18 events concluding on 31 October, but

COVID-19 travel restrictions During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and regions imposed quarantines, entry bans, or other travel restrictions for citizens of or recent travelers to the most affected areas. Some countries and regions imposed global restrictions th ...

resulted in the cancellation of events in

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

and Wujiang in China,

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

in Indonesia and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

in South Korea. This season was the first completed IFSC Climbing World Cup series since the 2019 edition, as the 2020 IFSC Climbing World Cup was limited to just one event, the Briançon Lead World Cup in August 2020, due to the pandemic. The opening event in Meiringen was the first Boulder World Cup since the 2019 season. The Boulder World Cup and the Boulder and Speed World Cup scheduled for 21–22 May and 28–30 May, respectively, in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, United States, were the first-ever consecutive IFSC World Cups held in the same city. The top 3 in each competition receive medals, and the overall winners are awarded trophies. At the end of the season an overall ranking is determined based upon points, which athletes are awarded for finishing in the top 30 of each individual event.

Season winners

Scheduling

In December 2020, the IFSC moved the 21–22 May Boulder World Cup from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Germany to

, United States, and rescheduled the already existing Boulder & Speed World Cup in Salt Lake City from 11–13 June to 28–30 May, in order to minimize travel for athletes and staff. In March, the federation also moved the

, South Korea and Wujiang, China World Cups from April and May to October because of ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions in the respective countries. In July, the Lead World Cup in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, Slovenia was moved to

, Slovenia, and rescheduled from 4–5 to 3–4 September. In August, the federation cancelled the World Cups in China: the 15–17 October Lead & Speed World Cup in

and the 22–24 October Boulder & Speed World Cup in Wujiang. In September, the federation also cancelled the 30–31 October Speed World Cup in

, Indonesia, which had already been postponed from 23 to 24 October. The following week, the IFSC also cancelled the Boulder and Speed World Cup in Seoul, originally scheduled for May and pushed back to October, due to rising COVID-19 cases in South Korea. The cancellation of the Jakarta and Seoul World Cups mean the bouldering and speed seasons concluded in June in Innsbruck and Villars in July, respectively.

Competition highlights

Because of the cancellations caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the opening World Cup event of 2021

held 16–17 April 2021, was the first Boulder World Cup in 22 months, since

Vail, Colorado Vail is a home rule municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,835 in 2020. Home to Vail Ski Resort, the largest ski mountain in Colorado, the town is known for its hotels, dining, and for the num ...

in September 2019., and the first Climbing World Cup of any discipline since August 2020 in

Briançon Briançon (, ) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hautes-Alpes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is the highest city in France at an a ...

Adam Ondra Adam Ondra (born February 5, 1993) is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing and bouldering. In 2013, ''Rock & Ice'' described Ondra as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation. Ondra is the only male athlete t ...

won the men's gold, his 20th career World Cup medal, with 3 tops in the final. On the women's side, Slovenia's

Janja Garnbret Janja Garnbret (born March 12, 1999) is a Slovenian rock climbing, rock climber and sport climber who has won multiple lead climbing and bouldering events at climbing competitions. In 2021, she became the first ever female Olympic gold medalist in ...

continued her winning run from her unbeaten 2019 bouldering campaign, winning the competition by topping all boulders with just four falls while 16-year-old French climber

Oriane Bertone Oriane Bertone (born March 10, 2005 in Nice) is a French rock climber, who specializes in competition climbing, but is also noted for her sport climbing and her bouldering. Climbing career Rock climbing In 2018, when she was 12 years old, Ber ...

made her senior competition debut with a second-place finish behind Garnbret. Garnbret did not participate in the first of two World Cups in

held 21–22 May, bringing her streak of seven Boulder World Cup wins to an end. In her absence, Grossman won the gold, followed by Bertone, who again finished second, while Ondra repeated as the men's Boulder winner. Grossman repeated as the winner in the second Salt Lake City event, held 28–30 May, this time becoming the first woman to defeat Garnbret, who finished second, since April 2018. In the men's speed competition,

Kiromal Katibin Kiromal Katibin (born ) is an Indonesian sport climber specializing in speed climbing. He is the current world record holder in speed climbing, with a time of 5.009 seconds recorded at 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Chamonix, France in July 202 ...

of Indonesia set a world record time of 5.258 seconds in qualifying, a record that was broken the same day by fellow Indonesian,

Veddriq Leonardo Veddriq Leonardo (born 11 March 1997) is an Indonesian speed climber. For about a year he held the world record in his discipline, which he set en route to winning the men's speed climbing event at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Salt Lake ...

, who hit the buzzer at 5.20 in the final run against Katibin. Garnbret won all three Lead World Cups she entered in 2021, winning a record 31st World Cup gold medal in

in September and taking the overall season title. On the men's side, Stefano Ghisolfi took the Lead season title, having won the event in Briançon in addition to two second places at the World Cups in Innsbruck and Chamonix, while Sean Bailey's two wins in Villars and Chamonix earned him second place in the overall Lead season ranking.

Broadcast incident

Austrian broadcaster Osterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) issued an apology during the Innsbruck World Cup, after showing slow-motion, close-up footage that zoomed on the chalk handprints on Johanna Färber's bottom on the event's live feed on YouTube. IFSC removed the video from its YouTube channel and replaced it a version without the footage. Färber later posted a message on her Instagram, calling the incident "disrespectful and upsetting"

Overview

Bouldering

The overall ranking is determined based upon points, which athletes are awarded for finishing in the top 30 of each individual event. There were four competitions in the season. The national ranking is the sum of the points of that country's three best male and female athletes. Results displayed ''(in brackets)'' are not counted.

Men

The results of the ten most successful athletes of the Bouldering World Cup 2021:

Women

The results of the ten most successful athletes of the Bouldering World Cup 2021:

National Teams

The results of the ten most successful countries of the Bouldering World Cup 2021: ''Country names as used by the IFSC'' * = Joint place with another athlete

Lead

The overall ranking is determined based upon points, which athletes are awarded for finishing in the top 30 of each individual event. There were five competitions in the season. The national ranking is the sum of the points of that country's three best male and female athletes. Results displayed in parentheses are not counted.

Men

The results of the ten most successful athletes of the Lead World Cup 2021:

Women

The results of the ten most successful athletes of the Lead World Cup 2021:

National Teams

The results of the ten most successful countries of the Lead World Cup 2021: ''Country names as used by the IFSC''

Speed

The overall ranking is determined based upon points, which athletes are awarded for finishing in the top 30 of each individual event. There were two competitions in the season. The national ranking is the sum of the points of that country's three best male and female athletes. Results displayed ''(in brackets)'' are not counted.

Men

The results of the ten most successful athletes of the Speed World Cup 2021:

Women

The results of the ten most successful athletes of the Speed World Cup 2021:

National Teams

The results of the ten most successful countries of the Speed World Cup 2021: ''Country names as used by the IFSC'' * = Joint place with another athlete

Medal table

References

{{Reflist IFSC Climbing World Cup

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Season winners

Scheduling

Competition highlights

Broadcast incident

Overview

Bouldering

Men

Women

National Teams

Lead

Men

Women

National Teams

Speed

Men

Women

National Teams

Medal table

See also

References