Alex Ventajas has done his third 9a in 2021, Autoengaño in Rodellar. (c) Pablo Toco

"I tried the route for five or six days. I think 13 attempts in all. Achieve this goal on time it’s great satisfaction and it means a lot to me. I tried the route from the first day we arrived, there were some friends that gave me some betas and at the first attempt I managed to do all the moves, but it was hard to put them all together because my body wasn’t trained enough for such physic climb. I knew it would be a great challenge because I had just two weeks to try it. The hardest part was to manage the pressure of this deadline and to organize well the rest days. Furthermore, I procured a really painful skin injury at one leg with a kneebar I had to use in the first crux and I had to stop trying the route for a couple of days. Trying different lines help me disconnect a little and gain some endurance. Finally, I managed to do that crux with a different beta that allowed me to use less the right knee and the next day, after two falls, I sent it."

You did three 8c+' in 2018 but then just 8c's until 2021 when you have done three 9a's. Why is that?
Unfortunately I didn’t have the possibility to try new hard routes because I had already done almost every route in the climbing sectors I could reach from my home. I didn’t have a car and I didn’t have the possibility to travel. That wasn’t a good period for me. I couldn’t improve and I couldn’t try something motivating. Since I moved to Italy things changed, I had thousands of new routes around and I progressively regained shape and motivation.

Why did you move to Italy?
It wasn’t something I planned. My girlfriend is from Italy. In the beginning, she should have moved to Spain, but with the covid situation things changed: she started working in Italy and I decided to follow her and I found a job there. She supports me more than everyone and thanks to that I have the opportunity I didn’t have before.

It seems most climbers finally accepted that Climbing only got one set of medals in Tokyo and are pleased that we will get two sets in Paris 2024. Skateboard was also a new Olympic sport in Tokyo but for some reason, two sets of medals were given out for the ones doing the best tricks in Street as well as in Park, which are quite similar disciplines. In practice, this means that there were 80 skateboard athletes participating in Tokyo but only 40 Climbers, out of which seven were Speed specialists. Another difference was that the max quota per country in Skateboard was three per discipline and gender in Skateboard instead of two in Climbing.

When it comes to Paris 2024, Skateboard will have two sets of medals and 22 athletes participating, i.e. 88 spots available. This can be compared with 72 athletes for Climbing, as there will be 32 in Speed and 40 in a Lead/Boulder Combination. It should be mentioned that in Tokyo, 18% of the Climbers could be considered Speed specialists, while in the Paris 2024 Olympics 44% of the Climbers will be Speed specialists.

These 44% Olympic athletes can be compared to a possible 0.001% of all climbers in the world focusing on Speed. Sure, there will be many more training and competing in Speed in the coming years but that would also be the case for any constructed Olympic sport. Personally, I think there is a golden opportunity for any Climbing beginner to start a quest for a Speed gold in Paris 2024. If I were a performance-focused national climbing coach, I would have focused on Speed because the chances for great results are much bigger in Speed. Going back five years or so, there were probably only about 32 climbers, i.e. the number of participants in Paris, who dedicated their life to Speed climbing.

The dilemma with the second set of medals in Climbing in Paris is that it is still a combination, i.e. Bouldering and Lead. Surely there are a few athletes that have shown that such a combination is possible, but by checking the 2019 World Cups we can say that it was the Bouldering experts that suffered the most in the Combined endurance game during the qualis as well as in Tokyo. Furthermore, in general, the results for the Olympians in the World Cup 2021 have been incredibly bad and you might wonder if this Combined thing is fair for our sport and the athletes trying to do it.

Jain Kim from South Korea, who has won 30 World Cups, was watching the male Olympic Boulder final and was like many fascinated by the artistic work of the third boulder. But when the commentator Jonny Bryan described it she got very upset, "...created by the Japanese and french route setters to give an image of a Japanese rising sun." (c) Leo Zhukov

Jain Kim has explained on Insta why she got upset and has sent her complaint to IFSC. The reason she wanted the bring it up is the missing awareness and that there was no apology from any part for the unintentional hurt feelings." A rising sun flag is the military flag used by Japan during WWII, which symbolizes Japanese militarism. To the victim countries, the Rising Sun Flag is no different from Hakenkreuz, the symbol of the German Nazi for the victim countries. Therefore, the Rising Sun Flag is always an extremely serious issue between victims and Japan, including South Korea."

Has there been any reactions in the general South Korea media?
There were many media articles news already in Korea and one famous professor has officially appealed to the IOC.

According to this article, South Korea formally, in 2019, requested IOC to ban the flag in the Tokyo Olympics.

IFSC has responded to Jain that it was a mistake by the commentator and that none of the boulders was intended to portray any symbols. Jain has answered that she finds it very strange that a British commentator could pick up that symbol without being told so, as she herself did not see it before the commentator announced it.

It should be noted that both Jain and myself have tried to get in contact with Mr Bryan without success. 8a has previously acknowledged that he did a very good job especially during the Lead final, having full control over all mathematical scenarios.

It should also be mentioned that this boulder was probably also the worst ever set in an IFSC competition when it comes to difficulty. Everyone reached the zone on the first attempt but then only Adam Ondra could control the following hold once. All others fell directly after the zone, although there were another 3-4 moves to secure the Top.

Andy Lamb, who did his first two 8B+' in 2019, has done his first 8C+, Creature from the black lagoon in RMNP. The great classical line was put up by Daniel Woods in 2016 and this was the eighth repeat.

"I had originally planned on focusing more on Blade Runner (right next to Creature), but on a lot of days it felt too baker to try Blade, so I’d work on Creature instead. I had a breakthrough day where I had a good go from the bottom, and I knew it was time to fully commit to becoming the Creature. The process was a bit up and down after that, I’d have sessions where I felt really good and then regress the next session. My send go was pretty unexpected to me, the holds had felt too hot when I was warming up, and I didn’t think I had a good chance. Just tried hard and surprised myself!"

The Youth World Championship in Voronezh in Russia (six hours east of Moscow by train) started today and will continue to the next Monday 30/8. Besides Russia, Great Britain, Slovenia, Ukraine, USA, Kazakstan and Italy are sending the biggest teams. Japan, which has dominated the last years, is only competing with 15 youngsters and almost always with just one person in any of the 18 age/gender categories. Anybody, who knows if there will be any live-streaming?

Last December, Shawn Raboutou made the FA of Big Z 8C+ in Tahoe with very complicated foot work. In total, he has now done a handfull 8C+ meaning he has one of the most impressive tick lists out there.

Ashima Shiraishi reports with a video on Insta that she has done Jade 8B+ in RMNP. "I poured my heart into this bloc over the span of a few years, and finally overcoming this one was a special moment." (c) Daniel Gajda from 2019.

During the same day the 20-year-old also did Riddles in the Park 8A+, Golden Rows of Flows 8A and Blood Money stand 7C+, the latter "the most desperate of sends."

Ashima has been one of the best female climbers since she did her first 8B at age 10. The next year she did her first 8c+. As a matter of a fact, based on her Top-5 routes and boulders being 13-years-old, she was Top-10 among the male. Then the next year, in 2016, she did the first female 8C. Since then, she has mainly focused on comps, making the finals in 8 out of 9 Lead WCs and Championships the following two years.

Christoph Hanke, who was #12 in the Chamonix World Cup in July, reports on Insta that he has repeated Alex Megos Pornographie 9a in Céüse. (c) Rainer Eder

How ćome you did not use a knee pad and what are your next plans?
I didn't use a kneepad because Alex did not use a kneepad in his first ascent. For myself I try to minimalise using kneepads when it was not used by the first ascent. But there is no judgement at all it's my own philosophy. I am going to Barcelona to set the first routes in the new gym of Chris Sharma, the "Sharma gava climbing gym". The next World Cup in Lead is in Kranji in about two weeks and then comes the World Championship in Moscow.

Marine Thevenet reports on Insta that she has done Antidote 8B in Rocklands. In total, the full time lawyer, has now done close to 70 boulders 8A to 8B. (c) Clément Lechaptois

"We spent three weeks in Rocklands in July which we had missed so much! It was our 4th trip there :) It was colder than our previous trip so we climbed a lot in the plain instead of the pass which allowed me to try new and différent boulders! I managed to climb Antidote in 4 sessions. The first move cost me a lot of trouble but once I did it I topped :)"

Did you do any other hard boulders?
I did Quintessential 8B, the best boulder of my trip; perfect rock, so pure! Two 8As, out of which, Light Saber quickly, and Stratégic balance (under the Finnish line) after several sessions. Really hard to find a beta for a short climber ;) I still have a lot to do next summer 😁

In the last World Cups prior to Tokyo 2020, very few of the Olympians participated. In the very last event in Briancon, only the gold medal winner Alberto Ginés López participated. In the coming Lead World Cup, taking place in Kranj 3-4/9, only five females and Jakob Schubert and Ginés López are registered to compete.

The registration to the World Championship in Russia starting 16/9 is not closed but it seems again few of the Olympians will participate. As an example, both Slovenia and the Czech Republic have listed their participants but Janja Garnbret and Adam Ondra are missing.