The Olympics 2020 have been a hot topic recently, and that is mainly due to the format which has been suggested. There have been several articles on 8a discussing it but not all has been said yet. Further disadvantages of the suggested Combined Olympics format are: 1. The guys qualifying for the Olympic will most probably not make it to the Speed quarter final during World Cups and the World Championships. Sean McColl is the only athlete that has been training and competing in Speed lately and he is almost 50% slower compared to those who do only speed. This means that the guys competing in the Olympics will have little or no experience to compete in the knock out rounds. 2. During the Olympics, the most important round in Speed will be the Top-16 first knock out. The Top-2 final will have almost no importance for the Combined final ranking, creating no excitement for the speed final, especially if one speed pro qualifies for the Olympic. 3. It will be hard to find organisations for running World Cups based on the Olympic format. During the Olympics, only 30 + 30 competitors will participate but in a World Cup, at least three times as many will take part. 4. IFSC has divided the competition season so it starts with Bouldering and finishes with Lead. Now this will be changed into a mix of everything for the whole 2019 season. This means that the athletes will have to train Lead, Speed and Boulder, which in many ways are their opposites. This will have a negative impact on their maximum performances outdoors and also on each individual discipline, creating a space for the non Olympic guys to win. 5. The Olympic format will not be so endurance based if there will just be one qualification and then one final round. The World Championship will be much more endurance based as the top athletes will participate in two semifinals as well, spending many more hours in isolation. 6. Some might argue that during the World Cups it will be impossible to run the Olympic format and instead it will just be a combination of Lead/Boulder and Speed, as it already is today. However, this format will not measure who is the best for the Olympic format where you have to train and prepare for all three disciplines simultaneously.

Isabelle Faus, who is #2 in the Bouldering ranking game and did an 8B+ last year, has done the endurance test piece, Prime Time to Shine 8c in Clear Creek Canyon. Next she is going to Boulder in Font and then probably Routes in Red River Gorge followed by Boulders in Rocklands. "It was a fun transition, I like to get up high and take big falls and stuff, I like the sport climbing process, learn all the beta and execute. My plan is to just keep trying hard and keep doing my thing! Really happy, when I was first starting climbing 5.14 seemed so crazy.. but now the possibilities seem to be as high as I want them, excited to keep going with sport climbing, thanks to Chad for amazing and supportive, :::)

Chris Sharma has previously said that the suggested combined Olympic format is "a big shame!" Adam Ondra, the best competition climber in the last two years, is even more critical, which goes hand in hand with what 8a has stated. As for his plans for 2016, Adam will once again focus on rock but possibly do some World Cups as well. "Combined format is the great tragedy for our sport. I think that Olympics is amazing thing for climbing, but honestly, no other choice could have been worse than combined format. It is just sad to see lead climber on the speed route and speed climber on lead route. It is embarrassing for the climbers because they are on a completely different level. Athletes are going to be forced to train what they do not specialize in. The audience is interested in seeing top performance, right? But it will only see more average performance due to the format. Additionally, it shares no spirit. Competition climbing is originated in rock climbing, where the speed is not taken into consideration (well, there are few exceptions like The Nose). What you climb and in which style is what matters. Lead and boulder fit into this philosophy. Speed does not. And it does not reflect the current situation either. Nobody is interested in doing all three disciplines except Sean. Why should something, that one person in the world is interested in doing, become Olympic? I did not participate in World Championship 2014 in Gijon in speed. And because of that, I was not Combined World Champion. I did it deliberately, with full awareness, just because I did not agree with the rules. IFSC chose the combined format in order not to disappoint anyone, but at least I feel disappointed. In my opinion, going for speed only, lead only, boulder only or lead and boulder combined is much better than all three combined." It should be mentioned that the latest IFSC Plenary Assembly, was opened by Marco Scolaris, who said, "We cannot say anything about the format at this point as the decision has not been taken yet.", although the application is based on 30 + 30 athletes competing in Lead, Boulder and Speed for one set of medals.

Klemen Becan has done the FA of Joe Mama 9a+ in Oliana, which was bolted by Joe Kinder. The Slovenian has been a world class climber for 15 years. He has also won one World Cup, done several 9a's and onsighted several 8c's. (c) Anja Becan "I was trying it since December, sometimes five tries a day. Still many routes to do in Oliana and other places around here. We are going to a search for a new project mañana."

"The very best climbers are taller". Several guys in the forum have said this is not true. Let us define the very best by the guys who have done both a 9b and an 8C since 2015 and add to that the Top-3 route climbers and boulderers as well as the Top-3 competition climbers in Lead and Boulder. Here is a list of the best climbers. Their average height is 179 cm. Surely, you could replace one or two guys from the list, which could reduce the average height to 178 cm, but even so - The very best climbers are taller! 185 Ondra 184 Bertle 183 Sharma 180 Bouin 173 Schubert 172 Megos T-5 Route/Boulders on rock 185 Ondra - 183 Webb 172 Megos - 173 Hukkataival 173 Amma - 183 Ceria Top-3 Lead/Boulder WC 185 Ondra - 170 Chon 178 Supper - 187 Hojer 173 Schubert - 185 Ondra Examples of other - shorter - top climbers who lately have been performing almost as good as the listed above. 159 Ramonet 160 Ashima Shiraishi 165 Dai Koyamada 169 Daniel Woods 170 Alban Levier 170 Stefano Ghisolfi PS If we were to shortlist just the Top-5 climbers in the world, I would think most would mention these: Ondra, Sharma, Megos, Webb and Hojer, which gives 182 cm as the average of their heights.

Laura Rogora has become the first Italian female to do a 9a by Grandi Gesti in Sperlonga, which is a 20 meter long roof link up. Last year the 14-year-old won both Lead and Boulder Italian Championships and to make the story even more amazing, she mainly just trains in a Bouldering gym. She is #1 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Stefano Michelin/UP-Climbing - It took me about 15-20 tries in one month and half. I went to Sperlonga seven times. I didn't do a specific training for this route because my purpose is training for competition. Now I need going to train hard for competition especially for the world youth championship in China in November. Surely I will continue to climb on the rock. I planned a trip to Spain in April I think I will climb on sight.

For the second week in a row, we did get a New All Time High when it comes to Visits (131,516) and Unique Visitors (41,094). These figures are some 35% higher than one year ago. Also when it comes to new members, a new record was set last week with almost 200 new members. The picture shows the new look for the scorecard pages that we are working on.

Adam Ondra has recorded another ten routes 8b and harder, most of which he onsighted, including La Faràndula in La cova de l'ocell, which he gives a personal grade of 8c. In total, the 23-year-old Czech has redpointed 115 routes 9a and harder and onsighted 64 routes 8c and harder. His scorecard with 1 722 ascents has been displayed 1.9 million times. The runner-up is David Graham with close to 1 million visits. Shortly, we will present Adam's PUC micro periodization training including him being very critical towards the Olympic Combined format.

La Sportiva CLIMB-IN-Gym Tour 2016 is a series of 38 events that will take place in the best climbing gyms of the UK, Austria, Italy, Germany, France and Netherlands to promote the latest made in Italy climbing products: Skwama and Otaki. The tour will start on 8th March and will end on 14th April.

KYMY DE LA PENA is one of these low profile climbers who whilst not making excessive noise don't stop ticking-off hardcore routes. With four 8c+'s under his belt, he's recently scraped the ninth dimension in his fetish crag, Cuenca, with Palestina (pic© Mathias Castaño). There are different opinions about its grade – We have talked with Kimy to understand his point of view (find the full interview in the Spanish 8a.nu site): Is it the hardest route you've ever done? Is it way harder than the 8c+'s you've sent in Cuenca? "Yes, it's the hardest I've done so far, although I've tried harder routes in order to be able to compare." Concerning the grade, what's your opinion? "I think it's an 8c+/9a since, honestly, it's a little bit easier than the other 9a's that I've been able to try and harder than the 8c+'s I've done. So, I think it's perfect with the slash grade." It's a route that has been repeated quite a lot if we take its grade into account. Why do you think this is? Is it specially beautiful? "The reason is the line it goes over. It's spectacular. Probably, it's one of the best lines in Cuenca and therefore climbers from everywhere want to try it."