Olympic sport climbers face vexing boulders as competition gets underway at Paris Games

LE BOURGET, France – On the first day of sport climbing at the Paris Olympics, the boulders won.

They won’t medal, of course, or be fawned over by the crowd. But the man-made objects humbled some of the world’s best as the sport climbing competition began Monday.

“It was a difficult round,’’ American Colin Duffy said. “A lot of, like, tricks. It’s not very straight forward climbing.’’

Duffy was one of 20 men competing in the boulder-and-lead semifinals and tasked with solving four boulder problems at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue at the Paris Games.

≻ Get Olympics updates in your texts! Join USA TODAY Sports' WhatsApp Channel

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

As usual, the boulders had accomplices.

There is the human element: So-called route setters place boulders and other fixtures called volumes on the climbing walls. The crowd thundered when a climbers navigated through the zones and reached topped a boulder.

But that happened only seven times in a combined 80 tries for the men.

It was the opening round of the boulder-and-lead semifinals, and the combined scores of bouldering and lead competition will produce one set of medal winner’s for the men and women. Speed climbing will determine a second set of medal winners and their event is wildly different.

In bouldering, for example, each climber got five minutes to navigate each of the four boulders. The men went a collective 7-for-80. In speed climbing, however, many of women competing in qualification and head eliminations and many blazed up the 49-foot wall in less than 10 seconds.

The Olympic record was broken five times, and Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw smashed the world record twice. It now stands at 6.06 seconds.

Then there were the fatigued-looking men who’d battled the boulders. Duffy, a 20-year-old American, mentioned the Tokyo Games, where the bouldering routes prompted complaints from some of the competitors who said the the setup was too difficult. The route setters have prevailed, and the setup here Monday seemed to be proof.

“Climbing isn’t about pulling hard anymore,’’ said Duffy, who finished in 10th place Monday.

Japan’s Sorato Anrako handled the routes with skill and accounted for two of the seven topped boulders. But Germany’s Alexander Megos served as a better representation of men climbers.

Which is to say he looked defeated.

“One of the worst performances I think I had this year in bouldering,’’ he said. “I feel like sometimes those are boulders where either know what to do and you can climb them in five minutes or even if they would give you an hour you wouldn’t do them.’’

He finished 15^th and found himself thinking about the second jump at boulder No. 3.

“So awkward,’’ he said. “I didn’t know what to do at all.’’

Sometimes, the boulders win.

Contributing: Sandy Hooper

The USA TODAY app brings you every Team USA medal — right when it happens. Download for full Olympics coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and much more.