I’ve said before that "I’ve really been looking forward to today", and today is another time that is true. We’ve got 10 AM tickets at the Le Bourget Climbing Venue for the newish Olympic sport of sports climbing (our third "first-time" event). Sean really wanted to see this event and we are thankful that he’s feeling well enough to come with us. It is really easy to get to Le Bourget; we just get on Metro line 13 just outside our Airbnb and go. But Le Bourget is well outside of central Paris. It’s located in the northwest suburbs almost as far out as Charles DeGaulle airport and takes a little over an hour to get there.
We were not able to get three tickets together for this event. Sean has seats up in the back of the stadium and we have obstructed view seats on the floor in front of the grandstands. After explaining to the security people (again) that my camera lens is legal, we see the venue:
Our seats are pretty good, but that big black boom in this picture, which is used to get crowd reaction shots during bouldering, is going to get in the way. I'll do my best to get pictures around and between the boom!
There are three sports climbing events. The one on the left is the lead wall – a 15 m wall that is tilted out toward the audience at about 30 degrees. This is an endurance event where people clip themselves into a safety harness, and clip into successively higher carabiners as they go, climbing until either they get to the top, run out of time or fall off. The higher you go, the higher your score. The middle wall is the speed wall – a 15.5 m wall. Think of this as a vertical sprint using climbing footholds. These races are head-to-head with the fastest person winning. Finally, the far-right wall is for bouldering – a 4.5 m wall with four different courses. You have 3 minutes to make as many attempts up the bouldering course as you can. Each time you fall off deducts 0.1 point from your final score for the bouldering component. There are three zones on each route worth 5, 10 and 25 points respectively. If you reach one of these zones in a stable position, you get that number of points. In Tokyo, the only event included all three climbing types. It was wildly popular, but the sports federation determined that the skills needed for the speed wall were much different from those needed for the lead wall and bouldering. For Paris, it was decided to have the speed wall in one event and lead wall/bouldering in the other event. Today, we have women’s semifinal bouldering and men’s speed wall qualification. The twenty women that qualified for bouldering go first. All of the women come out together for five minutes and actually discuss strategies for topping the four courses with their fellow athletes before they go back into isolation so no one can learn from what everyone else tried. The first route is really tough. Here are some pictures of this section:
The first ten athletes didn’t make it to the 10-point mark and three didn’t make it to the 5-point mark. Then Oceana MacKensie from Australia managed to top the route and get the full 25 points because she did it on her first try! Four other athletes also topped the group including favorites Janja Garnbret from Slovenia and Brooke Raboutou from the US. The second route was much easier. Thirteen of the women topped the route. Here are some pictures of this route:
The third route is another tough one. Only five women top the route. Here are some pictures:
After the first four routes, three women have topped all three routes: Garnbret has 74.9 points out of a possible 75, Oriane Bertone from France with 74.8 points and MacKensie with 74.7 points. The fourth route looks much different; it is just a series of round yellow volumes:
It is very tricky where you put your feet and how you get from one section to the next. Seven women are able to figure it out including Raboutou and Garnbret, but Bertone and MacKensie fail to top the route. The top three athletes are Garnbret with a ridiculous 99.6 points, Bertone with 84.5 points and Raboutou with 83.7 points. Sean comes down to our seats during the break between events and tells us that he was constantly on TV because the family of one of the French climbers are sitting in front of him!
The speed wall is next. Each man races twice, once on the A course and once on the B course, with the fastest time counting. The two courses appear identical, but who knows for sure. There is a gate next to us where members of the Olympic family (family members, sponsors, etc.) can go back and forth between the venue and the hospitality center next to it. Suddenly, a bunch of Indonesians show up:
This is because there are two Indonesian men in the event including the second seeded Veddriq Leonardo. Here is a video that shows how fast these athletes can go straight up:
Veddriq really is fast as he ties the world record of 4.79 seconds in his second race to lead the seeding. Amir Maimuratov from Kazakhstan has the second fastest time at 4.89 seconds and current world record holder Sam Watson is 3rd in 4.92 seconds. The crowd gives a huge round of applause for Bassa Mawem of France. Bassa was, by far, the fastest person in the world in 2021, but failed to medal because Tokyo 2021 included speed, lead and bouldering into one event. Now, he is a little too old to be competitive, finishing with a personal best time of 5.16 seconds. Here are some pictures from the speed wall:
I’ve got an errand to run on my way home. Before the Games, I purchased a set of Olympic NOC pins produced by one of the three major producers and since I’ve arrived in Paris, I’ve tried to pick them up so I have some high-level pins to trade. I’ve finally arranged to pick them up at a hotel near the Champs Élysées so I head off and will meet Beth and Sean at the Airbnb Here is my view when I get out of the Metro:
That’s a pretty good bonus for this trip. I am able to
tell the Concierge in French that my French is not very good and ask if he
speaks English (and win some bonus points from him based on his reaction!). He
knows about the package left for me and in a minute or two, I’m on my way back
to the Airbnb.
There is some discussion about where to eat given Sean’s recent problems. Sean’s first choice was Vietnamese, but they are not open on Mondays, so we end up at a Thai restaurant that had just opened for the evening. We are the only people in the restaurant and in fact, our waitress (who is also likely the owner) is the only other person we see while we are there. It is not clear whether she is also the cook or not, but despite this, the food is very good, if a little bland. Better was the portable A/C unit that the owner set up pointed right at our table. Of course, that made the outside feel that much hotter when we go back outside. We stop at the Monoprix to try to get some Powerade, but today, they have none. We head back to the Airbnb to sweat. Sleep was a long time coming even with the fan pointed right at us. Steps for the day: 7,925.
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