Mawem, Schalck and Dohyun on the podium

Mickael Mawem is the 2023 sensational Boulder World Champion. The 33-year-old has been competing actively in the World Cup since 2014 without making the podium and in 2023 he has not made it into the final. In the qualification in Bern, he was in big problem but with a top on his 12th attempt on the last boulder, he made it into the semi as #13. The French athlete has previously shown that he is doing the best results when it counts the most. In 2016 he was #4 in the World Championship, in 2019 he won the European Boulder Championship and in the Tokyo Olympics he was #5.

Mejdi Schalck got the silver and confirms that France is the leading nation in Europe. The 19-year-old chose to only participate in the World Cups in 2023, 1 - 1 - 3, in order to prepare for the World Championship, although he had won overall if he just had been #3 in one of the three events he skipped. Lee Dohyun from Korea, #2 in the World Cup in 2023, got the bronze. Sorato Anraku was in the lead after the two first boulders but was fourth in the end as he did not score even a zone on the last two boulders. Nicolai Uznik was fifth and he was actually the only one topping the last boulder and he did it with ease on his second try. Kokoro Fujii completed the final being #6.

Overall, the route setting in all three rounds has been great and all 18 male boulders have been topped. The last boulder in the final had a four-move paddle sequence set up on non-friction holds where the best thing seemed to be having wet fingers instead of chalked-up fingers. Complete results

Mawem commented to IFSC. (c) Lena Drapella
"It‘s a crazy moment. I’ve waited ten years for this. It was my goal to be the best in the world one time in my life. I’ve had a lot of failures, I’ve come back year after year. We have all these strong young guys now. I can’t believe it. It’s just crazy. My favourite moment was the end. Some people say just take pleasure in it, but I work a lot. Every day of the year. I haven’t taken a holiday for ten years. I say to everyone the pleasure will come when I win, and now I’ve won. Yeah the competition is cool, the setting is cool, but the end is the best. I just want to say thank you to all my family. My brother, my mother, my father.”