IFSC World Cups 2024

Last year we talked about a watch thread for the whole comp climbing season.

China comp has started. I'm watching women's boulder semis.

Women's spoilers:

Janja is of course the GOAT. Watching all the other competitors struggle on W4 in the finals only to have Janja cruise it really puts it in perspective. Unfortunate that some of the other top boulderers (Natalia, Brooke, Oriane) weren't at this comp to give her some semblance of a challenge. I was really surprised that neither Miho nor Futaba made it to finals. 

Matt tries but he should really practice the names of the finalists.

Oceania Mackenzie got 10th which is fantastic. She does well considering we have a very small community of high performance climbers down here.

What happened with the men's - they did combined semis/final again?

Sam M wrote:

Oceania Mackenzie got 10th which is fantastic. She does well considering we have a very small community of high performance climbers down here.

What happened with the men's - they did combined semis/final again?

Rain caused them to abandon the qualifiers after it had already started.

Which is ironic given the introduction to the women's went on about how it was a semi-covered stadium well suited to dealing with the rain.

Dave Baker wrote:

Rain caused them to abandon the qualifiers after it had already started.

Which is ironic given the introduction to the women's went on about how it was a semi-covered stadium well suited to dealing with the rain.

Are competitors actually getting water falling on their heads, or is it a humidity thing, they have some kind of minimum standard for conditions?

If Shawn Rabatou can build a roof over the Burden of Dreams boulder with fricking tarps, surely we can hold a top level comp in the rain.

I believe rain was falling directly on one of the slab boulders on the far end of the wall.

They had a partial roof up, but perhaps once the wall was already soaked it wasn't possible to cover it, then dry it in the time available.

SLC.

Honnold commenting, oh my. He was fine I suppose, got a few good lines in.

Oceania Mackenzie, heartbreakinglyclose to the podium. On the other hand, for the rest of her life she gets to say that she flashed a problem that burnt off Brooke and Natalia haha.

W4 was a leg breaker.

Hopefully all the knee injuries this past weekend are not too serious. It would be a real shame if Natalia's Olympic chances are dashed by surgery. 

Sam M wrote:

SLC.

Honnold commenting, oh my. He was fine I suppose, got a few good lines in.

I don't dislike Honnold generally; I think he's an interesting/compelling person, but watching this comp on and off at work and felt a decent amount of cringe with him broadcasting. Too much "all about me" sort of commentary, sometimes saved by his normal self deprecation but still had me wishing for someone else in the booth. The shtick of, "__________ may or may not be my next trad climbing partner" based on performance on a particular boulder got old pretty quick. If you're the color guy, let's hear about the competitors, if your the play-by-play guy (honestly where he feels a bit better) than keep it on the actual boulders and leave space for your partner to contextualize things.

I really do like hearing Honnold's perspective and think he's at his best when highlighting others, or at least that's when he's most interesting to me.

Perhaps to be expected for someone without a lot of experience in the broadcasting realm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WToKpJ6H8M&t=613s

I really enjoyed seeing him try the boulder (starts at about 6 minutes)!

In past comps, Matt Groom has been joined by climbers not making it to semis and/or finals. The comp climbers have typically been excellent commentators. I enjoy Honnold’s podcast, but comp color is definitely not in his wheelhouse. It’s something though when he realizes the comp boulder is scary.

Regarding Natalia, she seems to be in a great place mentally, and for whatever reason, we haven’t really seen peak Natalia vs. peak Janna yet (IMHO). Hope her injury isn’t a season ender.

Honnold needed to learn to wait his turn to talk. The number of times he interrupted Matt with random comments was a bit grating.

Did not love Honnold as a commentator. He had his moments, but he does seem to make it about himself too often, and he talks about all the ways the climbers could get injured far too frequently. They could barely do a move without him commenting about a potential injury

The Parkour problems are too much. It just can't be called "climbing" when you are jumping to a slab foothold. Setters are going to get someone hurt. Thumbs down.

Honnold commentary is fine. 

Dane B wrote:

Did not love Honnold as a commentator. He had his moments, but he does seem to make it about himself too often, and he talks about all the ways the climbers could get injured far too frequently. They could barely do a move without him commenting about a potential injury

I saw a behind the scenes piece and I believe he was fixated on the injury thing because he actually injured himself playing around on one of the comp problems.

that would explain him being completely fixated on the injury element

grug g wrote:

The Parkour problems are too much. It just can't be called "climbing" when you are jumping to a slab foothold. Setters are going to get someone hurt. Thumbs down.

Honnold commentary is fine. 

I see why they do it though. At that level when everyone has such ludicrous fingers and overall strength, if you set a traditional overhanging power boulder, they just hike it. It basically happened with the most "normal" boulders in the men's and women's final sets. In the men's they set like a 2 finger pocket campus, and Jakob Shubert was chalking up in the middle of the move hanging one arm from 2 fingers.

To actually burn off a world cup finalist it needs to be a surprising dynamic movement - or crazy slab.

It's funny that slabs are kind of in vogue again because they often decide comps. Like the British comp kids that freed the Nose found the Changing Corners *easier* than the Great Roof which is fascinating.

Oh we didn't even mention Jakob Schubert trying to mantle it was absolutely hilarious. Sport climbers can't mantle haha.

Sam M wrote:

Oh we didn't even mention Jakob Schubert trying to mantle it was absolutely hilarious. Sport climbers can't mantle haha.

oh boy, the peanut gallery bagging on an olympian, multiple time lead and combined world champion, one of the most experienced and decorated world cup comp competitors, and 5.15d sport climber...

old5ten wrote:

oh boy, the peanut gallery bagging on an olympian, multiple time lead and combined world champion, one of the most experienced and decorated world cup comp competitors, and 5.15d sport climber...

Look of course I have immense respect for Schubert and all the competitors.

That's why it's funny, he's the most legendary of the finalists yet he made the move look the most awkward. He's a pro athlete competing in a televised sport. This is what we invented peanut galleries for. This is the peanut gallery thread!