Adam Ondra Olympic training interview

The Olympic male Combined qualification is scheduled for August 3rd and the Top-8 final for August 5th. Adam Ondra has had the Olympics as his big goal since 2019, when he for the first time since 2015 completed most of the World Cup. In 2019 and 2020 he won all four Lead WCs he participated in and in Bouldering he was #2 overall in 2019. (c) Lukas Biba

How do you plan to train, travel and compete in the last six months before the Olympics and how does Covid-19 impact your training?
I am mostly just planning to stay at home, training and going for a few World Cups before the Olympics. (if they won't be cancelled). As I am a professional, fortunately, I have access to the gyms, so apart from travel restrictions, I cannot complain.

Have you considered just skipping Speed training due to the multiplication format?
Skipping speed could have been an option for me, but improvement of speed might be beneficial in certain styles of bouldering and that is why I do train speed.

Who do you train together with and what does a training partner mean to you?
Rishat Khaibulin lives in Brno, so we train together quite often and besides, there are a few other climbers from the Czech team that I occasionally train together, mostly bouldering on a spraywall. Still, I do most of my training sessions without a training partner. Proper training partner would be great, not only to boost motivation when you feel tired, but also for learning from each other, most importantly in modern bouldering. Unfortunately, Martin Stranik who would be the perfect training partner lives quite far away and we get to train together rarely.

Who are your three favourites for getting a medal?
Really hard to predict in this format.

The format is based on multiplication of the results in the three disciplines. In other words, even if you get a good result in all disciplines, 4 * 4 * 4 = 64 points, you will probably not get a medal. With the multiplication, it is better to be 1 * 7 * 8 = 56 points. Overall, out of the 8 male finalist, probably at least six of them have good chances of winning one discipline, i.e. getting a medal.