The Sport Climbing portion of the Paris Olympics is officially underway, but the results don’t tell the full story. Here are some highlights (and a couple lowlights) that were part of this morning’s women’s Speed seeding and elimination proceedings. (Also read the highlights of the men’s Boulder semifinal proceedings.)
1. Technical difficulties. What began as a very exciting plot point—China’s Yafei Zhou failing to press hard enough to stop the clock on the top sensor pad in the very first race of the day—turned out to be the precursor to a more complicated and extensive technical issue. The next race featured a similar issue with the clock on the same top sensor pad. The sensor pad was deemed defective, which required a half-hour pause in the competition for the broken sensor to be repaired.
2. Positive spins. While we’re on the subject of that defective sensor, livestream commentator Jonny Bryan described the half-hour delay as “high intensity, high drama, and high excitement.” Well, that was certainly a positive way to spin a long period of boredom!
3. Brief new Olympic record. When the technical incident was finally resolved, Yafei Zhou was allowed to re-run without an opponent…and she set a new Olympic record of 6.54 seconds. Shortly thereafter, Indonesia’s Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi clocked a time of 6.52, bettering the Olympic record even more.
4. Repeat new world records. It took only five races for the world record (of 6.24 seconds) to be broken, and it came when Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw clocked a time of 6.21 seconds in a race against South Africa’s Aniya Holder. It took only a few more races for Miroslaw to do it again, lowering that world record to 6.06 seconds.
5. A fast day for many. Many competitors (in addition to Poland’s Miroslaw) set personal best in-competition times, including Team USA’s Piper Kelly (7.39 seconds), China’s Yafei Zhou (6.38 seconds), and Italy’s Beatrice Colli (6.84 seconds).
6. Some poor performances. Speaking of which, one has to feel really bad for Italy’s Colli, as well as France’s Manon Lebon. They are among the best speed climbers in the world, yet they both had costly stumbles in both of their respective seeding races. Furthermore, neither competitor advanced out of the elimination round. In light of that, I’d like to take a moment to applaud each of them for displaying great effort, grace, and sportsmanship amid such unfortunate results.
7. Poetic commentary. Can we take a moment to celebrate commentator Jonny Bryan’s many literary turns of phrase? Describing Aleksandra Miroslaw’s world record performance as “a masterclass of speed climbing in the Parisian sun,” as just one example, was great stuff!
8. The most exciting race of the day. It doesn’t get much better than a come-from-behind victory, and China’s Yafei Zhou showed great tenacity in an elimination race against Italy’s Colli. Colli had the better start, but Zhou made up considerable ground in the middle section of the speed route. For my money, this was the most exciting race of the day.
9. An American in second place. Team USA’s Emma Hunt seemed unvexed by a low stumble in her second seeding race (undoubtedly because she clocked a blazing time of 6.36 seconds in her first race of the day). She soon beat France’s Manon Lebon in the elimination round—performing best when the stakes were highest.
The roster for the forthcoming women’s quarterfinals includes Emma Hunt, Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw and Aleksandra Kalucka, China’s Lijuan Deng and Yafei Zhou, Indonesia’s Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi and Rajiah Sallsabillah, and Spain’s Leslie Adriana Romero Perez. That round is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, August 7, at 4:28 (MST) in the morning. Is that too early for popcorn?
Aleksandra Miroslaw: 6.06
Emma Hunt: 6.36
Aleksandra Kalucka: 6.389
Yafei Zhou: 6.389
Lijuan Deng: 6:40
Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi: 6:45
Rajiah Sallsabillah: 6:58
Leslie Adriana Romero Perez: 6:89
Piper Kelly: 7:39
Capucine Viglione: 7:53
Beatrice Colli: 8:18
Sarah Tetzlaff: 8:39
Manon Lebon: 9:09
Aniya Holder: 9:12
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