Raboutou : Predicted to be Top 5 in Tokyo

Brooke Raboutou from the USA was the big sensation during the Salt Lake City World Cups, getting two bronzes in Boulder. By comparison, her best previous result since 2018 was #21. Interestingly, during the World Championship in 2019, where she qualified to Tokyo, she made it to the Combined qualification by being #24 in Speed, #41 in Bouldering, and #15 in Lead. Then in the Top-20 qualification, she was #6 in Speed, #10 in Bouldering and #7 in Lead, which put her #9 overall. So if she has made some progress also in Lead since she was 17 years old she is a strong contender for the Top 5 in Tokyo. (c) Daniel Gajda

Brooke, who is currently #2 in the 8a boulder ranking game, is the daughter of Robin Erbesfield and Didier Raboutou, both having won several World Cups. As a matter of a fact, Robin was the best female competition climber during the early '90s, with four overall titles. She is also a very successful coach through her ABC Kids Climbing and still does 8a's being 55+. Shawn Raboutou is Brooke's older brother and he is one of the very best boulderers out there.

Other than that, actually, only the big names for Tokyo strengthen their positions in Salt Lake City. Adam Ondra won the first event before he stopped competing due to problems with his right shoulder. In one way, the biggest sensation was Janja Garnbret setting a new Speed PB with 8.36, being the fastest out of all the non-Speed specialists. It should be mentioned that Miho Nonaka was #3 overall in Speed and her PB is 8.20.