There is a risk that there is no excitement left as the last climber starts in Tokyo, as the podium ranking might already been set. One possibility is that the last climber was #5 in Boulder and #15 in Speed. Even if that climber wins the Lead final, he/she gets a total of 21 ranking points which most likely will not score podium. On the other hand, the climber starting last might have been #1 in Boulder and #3 in Speed. Even if that person is last in the final, #8, he/she could have secured the overall title before climbing. On the other hand, if you decide to have eight guys in the Duel final, the Lead final might be dead boring as possibly most of these guys will have qualified for the Duel Top-8 final anyway.

It will be pretty hectic for the youngsters living outside Austria to participate in the record number of IFSC Youth Euro Cups and Championships 2017. Noteworthy is that there is just one Speedcup in the provisional calendar. 29/4 Bouldercup Graz - Austria 20/5 Bouldercup Soure - Portugal 27/5 Leadcup Imst - Austria 10/6 Leadcup Dornbirn - Austria 24/6 Leadcup Bern - Switzerland 18/7 Bouldercup L'Argentiere - France 05/8 Bouldercup Sofia - Bulgaria 12/8 Leadcup Mitteldorf - Austria 27/7 Speedcup Imst - Austria 30/8 World Champion Innsbruck - Austria 14/9 Euro Boulder Champion Slany - Czech Republic 28/9 Euro Lead/Speed Champion Perm - Russia

Here is the Top-25 in the 8a Age & Gender bonus ranking. 1 000 points bonus for female, 200 per year for below 19 year olds and 100 points bonus for 40+ guys.

Stefano Ghisolfi, #4 in the Lead WC 2016, has sent his 19th route of the 9th grade. The new route is called Thunder Ribes and it's a connection of 3 previously existing routes in Arco.

Having talked to several of the best competition climbers and some coaches, you can understand that there are a lot of things going on in IFSC. 8a has also sent our format and qualification ideas and this is how Jerome Meyer from IFSC answered. "For example, the issues with new format, such as the duel, is that they represent a very high risk since not mastered as the current format are after so many years. Quite often in our different tests (yes we did some already) the advantages these new formats were bringing could also be attained by changing a little bit the existing format. However as said it’s still a work in progress." Here is a list of some speculations on what to expect from the Olympic race, based on the assumption that IFSC will move away from the fixed Speed route, which is the most crucial obstacle. How the format and qualification will be run in detail is of much less importance. 1. Most of the best Lead and Boulder competitors will run for the Olympics but they will be joined by very few Speed climbers. 2. Almost all of the best juniors will start competing in Combined in Youth Worlds. 3. The non-climbing media hype will start during the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in October 2018. 4. The competition scene outside Europe will grow the most. 5. By 2020, there will be 33% more walls and climbers as compared to 2015. 6. Europeans will dominate Youth Olympics in 2018. 7. Shiraishi and Ondra will get the Olympic golds. 8. There will be four set up medals in 2024.

Matt Fultz is knocking on the door to become a professional climber having done his first 8C in 2016.

Alex Puccio has done Manny 74 (AKA The Cuckold 8A+) in Hueco Tanks very quickly, and it seems she is almost back in full form after her spinal surgery four months ago. " I'm definitely fully recovered, but not back to full strength yet. Feel like I'm getting stronger and stronger, but it's a slow process. Not yet back to where i was before my injury, but I know I will get there! Not really sure on the grade. I know I have and can climb 8A+ in a session and it's my style boulder. It was really really hot out today so my main project had to take a back seat till we get back from the comp. I tried to look up what other people thought about this climb, but couldn't find anything. Oh well. Time for the Comp in Alabama this weekend and then back to Hueco!!!"

Mateusz Haladaj has done Seleccio Natural 9a in Santa Linya, which was his sixth route of the grade in the gigantic cave. "So happy to be back in the game after 4 months brake caused by pulley rupture. One of the best routes ever! Seems to be my anti-style as I had to struggle a lot at the upper section including falling 10 times at the last move. Considering two more holds are missing at the crux part, quite solid for the grade…"

Po rozhovore s viacerými z najlepších svetových lezcov a trénerov sa dá pochopiť, že sa toho v IFSC (Medzinárodná Federácia Športového Lezenia) deje pomerne veľa, nielen čo a týka Olympiády v Tokyu 2020. 8a poslalo svoj návrh, ako by mal vyzerať celkový a kvalifikačný formát a toto je odpoveď Jeromea Meyera z IFSC. "Jedným z problematických prvkov sú nové formáty, napríklad duel, ktoré nie sú momentálne zaužívané a preto predstavujú veľké riziko. Pomerne často sme pri našich testoch (áno, už sme nejaké robili) zistili, že výhodné by mohlo byť prevzatie toho dobrého z nových formátov a upravenie tých zaužívaných. Ale tak ako bolo povedané, stále sa na tom pracuje." Tu je zopár zamyslení sa nad tým, čo by sme mohli očakávať od pretekov na Olympiáde v prípade, že IFSC upustí od pôvodne povinnej cesty na rýchlosť, ktorá je momentálne najväčšou prekážkou. Presné detaily celkového a kvalifikačného formátu sú omnoho menej dôležité. 1. Väčšina lezcov s lanom a bouldristov sa na Olympiádu prihlási, no zúčastní sa omnoho menej rýchlostných pretekárov 2. Väčšina juniorov začne pretekať v kombinovanom formáte Svetového pohára juniorov 3. Ošiaľ v ne-lezeckých médiach začne v októbri 2018 na Olympijských hrách mládeže v Buenos Aires, 2018. 4. Súťažná scéna bude na vzostupe hlave mimo Európu 5. Do 2020 bude o približne 33% väčší počet lezeckých stien a lezcov ako tomu bolo v 2015. 6. Európski pretekári budú najúspešnejší na Olympijských hrách mládeže 2018 7. Shiraishi a Ondra získajú olympijské zlato 8. Do 2024 budú 4 sety medailí

Anna Liina Laitinen (26), who is doing University studies in Finland, has done her first 8c+, Southern Smoke in Red River Gorge. This spring she also did her first 8b+ and first 8c. (c) Matty Hong What is your climbing background? I started climbing 2007 immediately when I saw a climbing wall. I've always dreamed about climbing but I didn't know that was possible in Finland. The climbing gym where I started was 1,5 hours away from my home but I was happy to take those 3 different buses to get there even I had time to give only couple of burns. How much travelling are you doing nowadays? This year has been crazy! I've never traveled this much! I guess I've done 10-12 trips this year including the competitions? I'm lost on track. But I'd love to be able to do it even more in the future or stay abroad a little longer. How can you explain your fast progress in the last year? Travelling, training and the company I've been climbing with. One year ago I started training a lot, more than ever. But the progress is not only explained by training hard but the biggest improvement has been in a mental part of climbing and caused by just climbing a lot in a different places, different routes, and pushing myself to a situations I'm not feeling the most comfortable with. The company I've spent time and traveled have had a huge impact to my climbing as well. When your friends are climbing hard you naturally start trying harder routes. And I'm sure I wouldn't climb this hard without my positive boyfriend Matty Hong who's super psyched as well. Being super motivated and psyched to climb is my secret. And there's no end for it which is scary!