Janja Garnbret (SLO), who was #14 in Speed, came back in the fantastic style she is famous for by flashing all the four great dynamic boulders. All the favourites made good performances. Ranked second and third were Brooke Raboutou (USA) and Akiyo Noguchi (JPN). The only medal favourite not really coming up to her normal standard was Miho Nonaka being #8. Just ahead was Laura Rogora, who saved her day by getting one boulder in her first try just after having gotten only the zone on the first two boulders. The biggest sensation was that Speed specialist Anouck Jaubert #13 with one top.

1 Garnbret Janja (SLO) 4T4z 4 4
2 Raboutou Brooke (USA) 3T4z 4 4
3 Noguchi Akiyo (JPN) 3T4z 5 4
4 Coxsey Shauna (GBR) 2T4z 3 4
5 Seo Chaehyun (KOR) 2T4z 5 5
6 Meshkova Viktoriia (RUS) 2T4z 8 5
7 Rogora Laura (ITA) 1T4z 1 5
8 Nonaka Miho (JPN) 1T3z 2 3
9 Pilz Jessica (AUT) 1T3z 3 5
10 Klingler Petra (SUI) 1T3z 3 8
11 Condie Kyra (USA) 1T3z 4 5
12 Mackenzie Oceania (AUS) 1T2z 3 2
13 Jaubert Anouck (FRA) 1T1z 4 1
14 Krampl Mia (SLO) 0T4z 0 5
15 Chanourdie Julia (FRA) 0T3z 0 9
16 Yip Alannah (CAN) 0T2z 0 2
17 Sterkenburg Erin (RSA) 0T1z 0 1
18 Kaplina Iuliia (RUS) 0T1z 0 2
19 SONG YiLing (CHN) 0T1z 0 5
20 Miroslaw Aleksandra (POL)

Lots of emotions, personal bests and big smiles in the female Speed qualification. Aleksandra Miroslaw (POL) set two PB's and won the stage. She set the Olympic Record with a time of 6.97, just 0.01 seconds away from the world record. This means that the Pole has very excellent chances of qualifying for the final. The biggest frustration we saw from the world record holder Iuliia Kaplina slipping on the very last foothold when it looked like she was going to set a new world record. Miho Nonaka looked to be in superb speed shape, setting a great PB with 7.55. The big favourite to win the gold, Janja Garnbret, with a PB of 7.91, slipped in both races and got 9.41 but it actually did not look like she is in supershape. Alannah Yip's 7.99 should also be mentioned and she just might be an outsider getting into the final although she has not done any World Cups in 2021.

1 Miroslaw Aleksandra (POL) 6.97 (OR)
2 Jaubert Anouck (FRA) 7.12
3 SONG YiLing (CHN) 7.46
4 Nonaka Miho (JPN) 7.55
5 Kaplina Iuliia (RUS) 7.65
6 Yip Alannah (CAN) 7.99
7 Condie Kyra (USA) 8.08
8 Chanourdie Julia (FRA) 8.17
9 Noguchi Akiyo (JPN) 8.23
10 Klingler Petra (SUI) 8.42
11 Pilz Jessica (AUT) 8.51
12 Raboutou Brooke (USA) 8.67
13 Mackenzie Oceania (AUS) 8.83
14 Garnbret Janja (SLO) 9.44
15 Meshkova Viktoriia (RUS) 9.54
16 Coxsey Shauna (GBR) 9.65
17 Seo Chaehyun (KOR) 10.01
18 Krampl Mia (SLO) 10.43
19 Rogora Laura (ITA) 10.50
20 Sterkenburg Erin (RSA) 11.10

1. Janja Garnbret 6 * 1 * 2 = 12
2. Miho Nonaka 5 * 2 * 7 = 70
3. Chaehyon Seo 15 * 5 * 1 = 75
4. Brooke Raboutou 8 * 8 * 4 = 256
5. Laura Rogora 16 * 6 * 3 = 288
6. Akiyo Noguchi 13 * 3 * 8 = 312
7. Iuliia Kaplina 1 * 19 * 19 = 361
8. Viktoriia Meshkova 10 * 7 * 6 = 420

Not into the final
9. Petra Klingler 7 * 4 * 17 = 476
10. Mia Krampl 14 * 9 * 5 = 630

Here are some further detailed comments, who will make finals.

Eric Hörst has published a video of Bassa Maẃem's catastrophic muscle/tendon failure in his left biceps, on his Insta, Training for Climbing. Eric says that "this bicep tear is likely the result of excessive speed/power training making the tendon too stiff (i.e. stiffer than the bicep is strong)."

Alexey Rubtsov had a similar injury for two years and shares some of his knowledge. "I tore my biceps in competition and next week I wait for surgery. It is not possible to do anything. In a good scenario, it is 2-4 months of rehabilitation and a year before the start of serious training. I returned to strength training in June of this year, i.e. two years after the injury. I will never repeat most of the strength training.

I tore my biceps because I was training wrong. I started to prepare for the Olympics, ran speed, climbed difficulty and did not reduce the amount of bouldering. I was always overtrained, did not do rehabilitation exercises for the shoulders, only trained strength. And at one point my strength crippled me."

Bassa has confirmed that he has suffered a complete rupture of his lower biceps tendon meaning he will not compete in the final.

Team Ondra has sent out a press release with some interesting comments from Adam: "Boulder has probably been the weirdest in recent times. Just after I finished the last boulder, I thought that I did not perform well and I would end up somewhere in the middle of the starting field. But in the end it was third place."

Here he comments on his Lead performance: "As I really wanted to be sure with every single step, I burned a lot of energy. You can't climb like that in such moisture and I am sure it is a good lesson for me for Thursday. I have to take more risks."

IFSC has published their male qualification report including comments by Adam Ondra. “It's a big step for Sport Climbing. In the world of the competition, it's been a big dream for years, and climbing deserves to be here as a sport. Unfortunately there's only one set of medals, but it will be a good stepping stone for the future where hopefully it will be all three single disciplines."

Offical Speed personal best rankings: (It should be noted that most of the athletes have made faster times during practice and non-official competitions.)

6.96 Iuliia Kaplina RUS
7.10 YiLing Song CHI
7.12 Alexandra Miroslaw POL
7.32 Anouck Jaubert FRA

7.91 Janja Garnbret SLO
8.19 Miho Nonaka JPN
8.43 Kyra Condie USA
8.45 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
8.59 Petra Klingler SUI
8.73 Julia Chanourdie
9.11 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
9.12 Brooke Raboutou USA
9.14 Shauna Coxey GBR
9.16 Viktoria Meshkova RUS (8.64 in training)
9.16 Alannah Yip CAN
9.43 Mia Krampl SLO
9.56 Jessica Pilz AUT
10.51 Laura Rogora ITA
10.70 Chaehyun Seo KOR

12.04 Erin Sterkenburg RSA

The screenshot is from www.Olympics.com which also has a very good live reporting.

The route setters were almost spot on creating an interesting route, although half had a tied score. From a spectator point of view, it was a bit sad that after a rather good start, the performance declined until the very end. The biggest surprise was that Adam Ondra was #4 but it looked more like a technical mistake rather than being pumped out, although he looked a bit tense. Youngsters, Colin Duffy (17) and Alberto Gines Lopez (18) made possibly their best Lead performance ever. Interesting is that Lopez has competed in almost double as many IFSC comps in 2021 compared to all other Olympians and he has actually been beaten by several in Euro Youth Cups earlier in 2021.

Jakob Schubert, the most experienced competition climber in the field, could, just like in the Bouldering event, handle the extreme pressure and win. It should be mentioned that Nathaniel Coleman also made his best Lead route ever, which took him to the Top-8 final.

On a spectacular lead route, Colin Duffy (USA) (c) Jon Glassberg, Jakob Schubert (AUT), Adam Ondra (CZE), Alberto Ginés López (ESP), Nathaniel Coleman (USA) and Bassa Mawem (FRA) have qualified for finals at the Olympics along with Mickael Mawem (FRA) and Tomoa Narasaki (JPN).
The lead stage was won by Jakob Schubert (AUT) who looked quite fresh all the way to the top section, reaching the same hold as Colin Duffy (42+). Alex Megos and Adam Ondra did not have their best day. While Megos seemed to have issues with the heat and struggled early on, Ondra appeared to be motoring right along until he missed the rhythm change and suddenly fell off, looking surprised. Megos missed finals, being ranked 9th. For Ondra, a score of 39+ was enough for finals. Sadly, Bassa Mawem injured himself on the biceps after only a few moves and probably won’t be able to start in finals. Link to official Qualification results

The first half of the route was relatively easy, so everyone climbed up fairly high apart from Bassa who fell due to his injury. Like in bouldering, the routesetters set the stage for a great show. All unused bolts were removed from the wall, and those remaining were protected by plastic covers. The TV presentation was much better than in Bouldering.

Lead Stage Results
1 Schubert Jakob (AUT) 2 42+ (4:02) - [Combined Rank: 4]
2 Duffy Colin (USA) 42+ (4:44) [3]
3 Ginés López Alberto (ESP) 41+ [6]
4 Ondra Adam (CZE) 39+ [5]
5 Coleman Nathaniel (USA) 39 [8]
6 Megos Alexander (GER) 36+ [9]
7 Pan YuFei (CHN) 36 [14]
8 McColl Sean (CAN) 35+ [17]
9 Hojer Jan (GER) 29+ [12]
10 Cosser Christopher (RSA) 29 [16]
11 Mawem Mickael (FRA) 28+ (2:24) [1]
12 Piccolruaz Michael (ITA) 28+ (2:33) [15]
13 Khaibullin Rishat (KAZ) 28+ (3:09) [11]
14 Narasaki Tomoa (JPN) 26+ (2:11) [2]
15 Rubtsov Aleksey (RUS) 26+ (2:29) [13]
16 Chon Jongwon (KOR) 26+ (2:34) [10]
17 Harada Kai (JPN) 25+[18]
18 Fossali Ludovico (ITA) 25 (2:48)[19]
19 O'Halloran Tom (AUS) 25 (3:58) [20]
20 Mawem Bassa (FRA) 7 [7]

Michael Mawem and Tomoa Naraski will climb in finals on Thursday independently of Lead results and Bassa Mawem has almost also secured a position. It is also looking good for Colin Duffy (USA), Adam Ondra (CZE), Alex Megos (GER) and Jakob Schubert (AUT). It is predicted that a score of around 400 will get you into the Top-8 final. We have added a speculated result in Lead, getting as close to 400 as possible, in order to see what more or less is needed. Remember that time will be used to split all tied result. (c) Jon Glassberg
Link to official results
1 Mawem Mickael (FRA) 3 (3) | 5.95 1 (1) | 3T4z 4 5 3 pts
2 Narasaki Tomoa (JPN) S: 2 | 5.94 B: 2 | 2T4z 6 7 4 pts
3 Mawem Bassa (FRA) S: 1| 5.45 B: 18 | 0T1z 0 4 18 pts( * 20 Lead speculation for making finals = 360)
4 Duffy Colin (USA) S: 6 | 6.23 B: 5 | 2T2z 17 12 30 pts * 14 = 420)
5 Chon Jongwon (KOR) S: 5 | 6.21 B: 10 | 1T3z 3 10 50 pts ( * 8 = 400)
6 Ondra Adam (CZE) S: 18 | 7.46 B: 3| 2T3z 7 11 54 pts ( * 8 = 432)
7 Rubtsov Aleksey (RUS) S: 16| 7.23 B: 4 | 2T2z 7 4 64 pts ( * 6 = 384)
8 Khaibullin Rishat (KAZ) S: 4 | 6.19 B: 17 | 0T1z 0 3 68 pts ( * 6 = 408)
9 Schubert Jakob (AUT) S: 12 | 6.70 B: 7 | 1T3z 2 13 84 pts ( * 5 = 420)
10 Ginés López Alberto (ESP) S: 7 | 6.32 B: 14 | 1T1z 12 4 98 pts ( * 4 = 392)
11 Hojer Jan (GER) S: 11 | 6.63 B: 9 | 1T3z 3 8 99 pts ( * 4 = 396)
12 Piccolruaz Michael (ITA) S: 8 | 6.33 B: 13 | 1T2z 5 7 104 pts ( * 4 = 416)
13 Coleman Nathaniel (USA) S: 10 | 6.51 B: 11 | 1T3z 4 6 110 pts( * 4 = 440)
14 Megos Alexander (GER) S: 19| 7.47 B: 6 | 1T4z 2 15 114 pts ( * 4 = 456)
15 Cosser Christopher (RSA) S: 9| 6.48 B: 16 | 0T2z 0 15 144 pts
16 Pan YuFei (CHN) S: 20 | 7.59 B: 8 | 1T3z 2 15 160 pts
17 Harada Kai (JPN) S: 15 | 7.08 B: 12 | 1T2z 4 8 180 pts
18 McColl Sean (CAN) S: 14 | 6.93 B: 15 | 0T2z 0 3 210 pts
19 Fossali Ludovico (ITA) S: 13 | 6.71 B: 19.5 | 0T0z 0 0 253.5 pts
20 O'Halloran Tom (AUS) S: 17 | 7.34 B: 19.5 | 0T0z 0 0 331.5 pts