Natalia Grossman had secured the overall victory after the World Cup in Brixen. Then she won her fifth straight World Cup by winning also in Innsbruck. Here is the final ranking. (There is a Lead and Boulder World Cup in Japan in October but this is a Combined event)

1. Natalia Grossman USA 5 000
2. Miho Nonaka JPN 3 210
3. Brooke Raboutou USA 2 940
4. Futaba Ito JPN 2 560
5. Hannah Meul GER 2 345

6. Oriane Bertone 2 316
7. Jessica Pilz AUT 2 215
8. Stasa Gejo SRB 2 195
9. Camilla Moroni ITA 1 820
0. Chaehyun Seo KOR 1 770

Jordana Agapito has done Bonito por natureza (8A+) in Eco vila. Full video on her Insta. This was her second 8A+ and the first female ascent. The 33-year-old did her first 8A+, Kalunga, in 2015.

"When I sent Kalunga in 2015 it was a huge surprise for me and everyone because I was very new to climbing. I had only been climbing for three years. Kalunga is a crimpy line that I liked and it happened, I was just having fun hahaha not expecting to send a V12. After that, lots of people started to try the climb and also doubt the grade and all that stuff we know... So I continued my path climbing, training and travelling a lot. I quit my job for a period, went to Rocklands, Patagonia, lived for one year in a Van in the US, etc. Always climbing.

Three years later, I had to come back to Brazil to start a regular job again. I changed my routine to working, training hard and climbing outdoor on weekends. Back to my home crag, I started to remember all the boulders I dreamed of. Bonito por Natureza was, for sure, one of them. Not only because of the grade but because it is super classic. And I confess it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to climb V12 again. I think I first tried Bonito 6 years ago, but at the time it felt impossible! Hahaha When I came back stronger and with more experience, it happened. I'm sooo psyched!!!"

Yoshiyuki Ogata from Japan, who won the Boulder World Cup last year, wins also in 2022. Here are his results in the six World Cups in 2022, where he always has made it to the finals; 2 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 5 - 3. Complete results

1. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 3 990
2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 3 405
3. Kokoro Fujii JPN 3 110
4. Yannick Flohé GER 2 475
5. Mejdi Schalck FRA 2 294

6. Maximilian Milne GBR 2 215
7. Dohyun Lee KOR 2 128
8. Colin Duffy USA 1 976
9. Jongwon Chon KOR 1 958
0. Rei Kawamata JPN 1 774

Colin Duffy from the USA was the only one to Top three boulders in the final, winning his first World Cup victory. The 18-year-old's previous best was a bronze in a Lead WC last year, besides being #7 in the Olympics and winning two Youth World Championships. Overall, the route setting was very good in the semi but in the final, the first two boulders were way too easy and way too hard. Runner up was Dohyun Lee (19) from Korea who was #4 in Brixen two weeks ago. Yoshiyuki Ogata from Japan, who won the semi, got the bronze. Both Korea and Japan had two finalists strengthening the trend of Asia domination. Complete results

Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC took the picture and they got some comments from Duffy. “I was counting the attempts in my head, I thought that if Yoshi had flashed then he would have won, then as he had taken a few attempts on the first move, I started to realise that I had won the competition and I was in shock. I still am in shock!” said Duffy on his victory.

“I wouldn’t be here without the rest of the USA team athletes, the support and camaraderie that I share with the team is a key part of these World Cup experiences. I’m glad that they were here to cheer me on and support me to the gold medal,” he added.

Svana Bjarnason reports on Insta, "Climbing wise it’s hard to analyse the damages. To sum up: the left part of the wall has been severely altered (from the route “Michi”), pre-placed quickdraws burned and many holds are now lying on the ground. The first layer of rock is destroyed, it’s breaking off just by touching it. It would need massive cleaning and rebolting. But the routes will never be the same again."

At the same time, she says that the main wall to the right look ok but some holds have broken off. The plan is to return to the site in September to try to secure and rebuild the site and she has started a Crow funding campaign where several famous climbers have donated up to Euro 200.

So in practice, many routes have been destroyed and might never be climbable again?
No, most of the routes seem to be ok but it’s impossible to know for sure, we’ll have to test the holds because there might be micro-cracks, which means holds can break off at any time. But On the main sector, there are 6 routes left of the route called Mishi (so 7 including this one) that were severely altered. I don’t know if we’ll manage to do something with it or if the rock is too damaged. In any case, it will never be the same route again. And there’s another sector left of the main wall that also seems to be destroyed (16 routes). I’m usually not climbing there but there are easier routes there and some people do climb it.

Most of the main sector doesn’t look that impacted but still, we found some holds on the ground, for example, a big chunk of the route « Pacha Mama » fell from 25-30m. What hasn’t broken off yet might someday, it seems the rock has been a bit fragilized. As long as we haven’t pulled on some holds we can’t know for sure

Taylor McNeill, who previously has done four 8C'd and one 8C+, has done Drew Ruana's Variant (8B+) in Mount Blue Sky.

"I did the easier start a few days ago, We can build you v14 (8B+). After I worked the moves for the harder start. Sorted it out fairly quick and got pretty lucky. Hurt my knee last summer on this one, so pretty stoked to come back healthy and finish it up. Two days last summer and two days this year to do WCBY, got lucky and did variant my next sesh. Probably the better line and start. Insomniac (8C+) is the hardest link to be made in the cave, and I’m stoked to put some effort into that next"

What are the differences in difficulties for the three lines?
Wcby starts with a 7A, then the crux sequence which is about 8B, followed by a 7C+ exit. Variant adds a 7C+/8A straight into the 8B crux and finishes the same. Insomniac climbs an 8B into the start jug of Wcby. So it’s 8B to 8B+

Japan dominated the qualification in the Innsbruck Boulder World Cup. In total, they got four female and six male competitors into the Top-20 semifinals. Yoshiyuki Ogata and Futaba Ito were the only ones able to flash all five problems. Winners of the other groups were Rei Kawamata also from Japan and Stasa Gejo from Serbia. Japan impressively had eight male contestants in the Top-23. Team USA also had five athletes making it to the semis. The most surprising negative sensation was that Oriane Bertone was #33. Complete results

The male semifinal will take place on Thursday at 1 pm followed by the final at 7.45 pm. Then on Friday, the female semifinal will run following the same schedule. Here is how to watch the Innsbruck World Cup.

Delaney Miller reports on Insta that she has done The Crew (8c+) in Rifle (CO). (c) James Lucas

"The route meant a lot to me. I started working on it last year and thought it would go down easily. Then I had a few minor injuries come up that really hindered my progress. I spent the winter recovering and rebuilding, and I'm damn proud of myself for making this breakthrough. A huge thanks to everyone who supported me in the process, and especially to Chris Knuth for having the vision. I've climbed one other route of the grade, Solid Gold in Utah, but this one was on another level."

The 27-year-old has been an active competition climber for ten years until 2018. In 2015, she had her best year being Top-13 four times in the World Cup. Three months ago, she published an article in Climbing focusing on the competition career. "It's an honest reflection of when you chase a dream and don't quite succeed, but ultimately walk away with a trove of memories". In November 2020, she did her first 8c+, Solid Gold but no media has reported it although she is the Digital Editor of Climbing Magazine.

Why did you think Solid Gold was so much easier?
It was more my style, with more sustained climbing and worse rests. I did that in November 2020. The Crew has a series of hard boulder problems separated by kneebar rests, and I'm really bad at kneebars. I'd also venture to say that The Crew is just harder for the grade, although I don't actually have the experience climbing 14c's (8c+) to say that with any kind of authority.

IOC has published the Paris 2024 qualification process: Top-3 in the World Championships (Bern 2023), 5 Continental winners and the Top-10 from an Olympic qualifying series during March to June 2024. There will also be one host country and one Universality quota place per gender. In practice, as the USA will probably fulfil their quota places and likely no Universality climber will make it to the Olympic series, it is most likely that the Top-12 from the series will get an Olympic ticket.

Only invited athletes, based on the 2023 results, will be allowed to compete in the Olympic series, and there will be a quota of max participants per gender and nation. No specific details for these series have been given: "Exact procedure to be determined." The tricky part of the formula is the max quota and the possibility that the USA, Japan and some European countries fulfil their quota after the Continental Championships, which take place in 2023.

Another big dilemma is what will happen with the World Cup 2024 as most of the best climbers will focus on the Olympics even more than before Tokyo 2020. There are many tough decisions that have to be made, and there will also be two zones in bouldering and a totally different scoring system in the Olympic qualifications compared to the current World Cups and WcH format.