During the last five days before the competition starts, the Olympians are allowed some practising in all disciplines. In Lead, there are four training routes and for three days the athletes have two tries with a six-minute time limit until Saturday. Then the routes are taken down.

Every day until Monday, the climbers have also some time slots to try the Speed wall and some set boulders. It should be mentioned that several athletes, including the Russian except Rubtsov, have chosen to fly in just two days prior to the comp.

Interestingly is also that team USA brought a mobile wall which they have set up inside their Olympic village. With kind of limited climbing training during the last days, this could be an advantage for the athletes used to climb for several hours a day, also few days prior to a comp.

Janja Garnbret was 2 - 2 - 3 in her three first Lead World Cups at age 16 in 2015. Since then she has won most of the comps she has entered in Lead and Bouldering. In Speed her PB is 7.92 which is best among all the non-Speed specialists. (c) Daniel Gajda/IFSC

Most probably the 22-year-old Slovenian will score 2 * 1 * 1 = 2. It will be sensational if her multiplied score is 10 or more. Her biggest risk would be doing a false start or slip in the first final race in Speed meaning her best result will be #5.

In bouldering anything can happen but even so, only an injury could put her outside the Top-3. In Lead, there are always a risk standing on a bolt or forgetting a clip etc and that would be her only risk not being Top-3.

In other words, she could score 5 * 3 * 3 = 45 points but then we are talking a mental break down due to some very bad luck in the qualification. What strongly talks against this is that it seems she has handled defeats great before. She just loves climbing and the challenging it creates and are happy even if she does not top out.

In reality, the only way Janja will only be runner-up is probably some bad luck in combination with Chaehyon Seo does her best Bouldering and Speed of her life. In Lead, she won over Janja four times out of six in 2019 when the Korean was 15-years-old.

Adam Pustelnik from Poland is the chief-route Lead setter in Tokyo. In his team he also has; Jan Zbranek (CZE), Hiroshi Okano (JPN) and Akito Matsushima (JPN), which have worked together both in Innsbruck this year and in the World Champion in 2019. There are also a couple of Japanese setters helping out with the training routes etc. (c) Daniel Gajda/IFSC

"We’ve had four days of setting before the opening ceremony and then we were working three more days during the 3x3 basketball games but that included preparing routes for the training sessions. To explain a bit more, for the main competition we set 4 routes in total - a qually and a final route for men and women. In addition, we prepared 4 routes for training sessions for the athletes on the FOP that means on the actual wall of the competition. Since yesterday they have had sessions of around 2hours to try out boulders, these routes and climb on the speed wall as a form of training on the main wall.

For the question on challenges, I would say that the job we’re doing does not really differ much from other competition. It’s always challenging to prepare things that will be attractive to see, showcase the best of climbing and give a good score. Of course, there’s a much bigger stake in this competition but this does not change the way we work as we always try to do our job the best we can. The difference is more about the combined format and a mix of climbers in the rounds but again we’ve already experienced that and tried our best for preparing the routes."

How the first day of training? Was it like a competition simulation?
No definitely not! Just used it as a chance to feel the wall angles, super nice for the slabs especially to see what you can stand on on them and how you climb on it. Speed wall knowing the texture is super nice. And on lead knowing how the clips feel and all that. Like in Briancon the clips themselves are really tight so kind of hard to clip, so knowing all that before you compete makes it less stressful.

“I arrived on Saturday July 27th. I came here alone, our team will arrive on August 1st. Training at the climbing wall began on July 29 and will continue until the start of the competition. There are 2 bouldering walls: one in the warm-up area and one in the competition area. On the lead wall 4 routes have been prepared. The speed wall is 10 and 15 meters. All this is available in the evening 2 hours a day, separately guys and girls on a schedule. A fitness room is available in the village 24 hours a day. You can also just exercise outside on the grass, stretch, or whatever. Many athletes running or cycling / skateboarding around the village. I generally like the village :)

Mostly I walk around the village and ride a skateboard :) I like the atmosphere and a huge number of the best athletes from all over the world around. I'm just enjoying this. I plan another 1-2 trainings at the climbing wall and every day I go to fitness on the territory of the village.

Brooke Raboutou is one of the favourites getting a medal in Tokyo based on her extreme progress in 2021. Including one Speed comp, her worst result out of six WC's was #12. Prior to this year, her best IFSC senior result was #15 in Lead in the World Championship in 2019. Outdoors, she has during the last year done seven boulders 8A+ to 8B+ including one flash.

Sebastien Berthe, one of the leading multi-pitch and big wall climbers in the world, has done the first repeat of Edu Marin’s 200 meter Arco Iris 8c+ in Montserrat. The Belgien confirms the 8c+ but thinks the other hard pitches were one grade easier. Still, it is one of the hardest MPs in the world. (c) Julia Cassou

” Arco Iris is my hardest achievement in multipitch climbing for sure. This ancient aid route is really sustained and incredible: it follows an overhanging corner for 5 pitches (6c, 8b+, 8c+, 8b, 8a+). Edu rebolted the line with huge runouts so the freeclimb does not bother the aid, which is really important there in Montserrat. I took the longest whipper of my life, about 25m, trying hard on the 8c+... This makes it really hard for the mental, but I think he did a great job there! Despite some loosy rock, the holds are crazy and the climbing is great and so pumpy!

Sunday was my fourth day working the route, and I was'nt sure I had a chance this day. Anyway, I went "a muerte" with my belgian friend Baptiste Verdin as belayer and partner. I sent the first pitch pretty easily compared to the previous times. On my first go on the 8c+, I fell where I broke the holds the last time. I worked on the beta a bit more and took 2 hours of rest. On my second try, I climbed really well but felt more and more tired while progressing on the route. I reached the point where I fell before and shout loudly while doing the move. I really was at the limit. During the last 10m, I fought hard at every move, probably one of the biggest fight of my life! On the two following pitches, I gave my best. Despite the pump I sent them directly. After about 9 hours on the route we were on the top of the wall :-) I was so psyched and happy about it!”

Magnus Midtbö, one of the best competition climbers some ten years ago, when he also was #4 in the World Champions, runs one of the most popular Climbing Youtube channels. Here he gives his 20 Pro tips including talking about eating disorder.