Jakob Schubert, who is going to the Olympic as one of the three top medal candidates, gives his insight story from Innsbruck, where he won in Lead and came #13 in Bouldering.

Johanna Klein, who was #12 in a Euro Youth Cup in May, has done two 8A's in Silvretta, Schattenkrieger and Niviuk. (c) Leonard Moser

Video from her first trip to Magic doing her third 8A. Interestingly, the 18-year-old has never needed more than three sessions doing any of her five 8A's. She only started climbing in 2017 with a background in artistic gymnastics. In March 2020, she had to do a shoulder surgery.

"The reason for my shoulder surgery was a slap lesion in my right shoulder. I had shoulder pain for quite some time which was induced due to overtraining. At the beginning of July last year, I started climbing again - towards August/September I was able to return to full training."

Nolwenn Arc topped the too easy female semi route in Chamonix but failed to qualify to the final, due to countback. The big negative surprice was that Momoka Abe, #4 in Villars, and Lucka Rakovec, who won the qualification, did not make the final although almost all the Olympians were missing.

Among the boys, Sascha Lehmann got highest followed by Stefano Ghisolfi. The three highest ranked after the qualification, Satone Yoshida, Alberto Gines Lopez and Domen Skofic did all fail to make the final. It was raining and possibly this created worse conditions for the ones starting last. (c) Vladek Zumr Male and Female results.

Drew Ruana reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Insomniac 8C+ at Lincoln Lake. It starts doing eight moves of Wheel of wolvo (8B+) followed by a good rest and then continuous through We Can Build You (8B+). "The first section is the most physically demanding part, sapping a lot of power before the end. The second half is a power endurance nightmare, making for a 30 move frenzy of hard moves with a heartbreaker at the end." (c) Alton Richardsson

Drew Ruana, finishing #13 in the Combined World Championship of 2019, had ascended one 8B+ when he stopped competing. Now 21 months later he has done close to 40 boulders 8B+ and harder including five 8C+', although started full-time University Chemical engineering studies last September. In 2020, he was awarded 8A Boulderer of the year, interview.

Jose Agustí, who did his first and only 9a in 2017, has done El mon agermanat 8c+ in Sant Miquel del Fai. The 44-year-old says he has never trained on plastics but rather on rock and that onsights have been a great focus. Four years ago, he onsighted his 19th 8a+. (c) Carlos Pérez

"There are more than two years working on this route, a well known 8b+ first pitch, that I have done multiple times, but hard due to the crux move cause as it involves a better core than I was having the last years. In 2021, due to the confinement, I have been climbing a lot in Sant Llorenç del Munt Sescorts sector, where I recovered my core at levels of 2017, and this was the key.

I discovered the big cave of Sant Miquel del Fa in 2016 and step by step I have done almost all the routes there, including my first 9a. Since the beginning, I was travelling around Europe in order to onsight my best and in Rodellar I achieved my best, Alter ego 8b."

Very few of the Olympians are registered to compete in the Lead World Cups in Chamonix and Briancon probably creating the golden opportunity of the history. In Chamonix, five Olympians are registered to compete and then in Briancon, only Alberto Gines Lopez and Jessica Pilz are on the starting list. Based on the World ranking only one of the Top-10, respectively five of the Top-25, female are registered to compete in Briancon.

After the Olympics, there are one Lead WC in Slovenia coming up followed by the World Championship in Moscow. The last Lead World Cup of 2021 is scheduled in China in October. When it comes to the overall Lead World Cup, I would be surprised if even half of the Olympians will continue doing all the World Cups after Tokyo. In other words, 2021 should be the golden opportunity for all the non-Olympians to win overall or get the best ranking in their career. There will be new stars born in Chamonix and Briancon.

Vadim Timonov has done the first repeat of Dave Graham's Petrichor 8C in Rocklands, in just one session. The video of Graham shows that Vadim is just about to start climbing upside down in a totally unique sequence. Video is coming up in a couple of weeks. (c) Juliet Leonova

"I used 90% beta by Dave. Feels like only one beta for that boulder. It's hard for me to talk about the grade right now. It seemed to me that it is definitely more difficult than Amandla 8B+ and Shakey warrior which I have tried in the last days. I will try a few more 8Cs and I can use their example more accurately grading Petrichor. So far I can say that this is not the most difficult boulder in this grade, but it may be 8C anyhow. 5 stars qualitywise!"

Belgium dominated the Euro Youth Cup in Puurs last weekend getting three golds. Big nations like Italy and Germany did just get one medal each and also Austria continuous to struggle with just two bronzes.

02: Lucie Watillon BEL - Ties Vancraeynest BEL
04: Sabina Van Essen NED - Hannes Van Duysen BEL
06: Barvora Bernadova CZE - Gorazd Jurekovic SLO


The Speed event was totally dominated by Italy with four golds and four silvers. Most impressive was Marco Rontini (16) doing 6.20 beating also everyone in the Junior category.