In one of the malls in the Philippines where I reside, sometimes promote Speed Climbing where people who are in the mall will have a chance to test themselves of what would be the experience on that kind of sports. It is really easy to look at if you are not the one doing it but as I have experienced it, it is really hard since you need to have a good upper body that can help you lift easily your body.

This kind of sport does only aim at climbing with faster speed while using techniques and strategy for overcoming obstacles. Many of these sports competitions are using some artificial walls with artificial rocks in it. Players are attached with safety belts making sure that they are well-protected just in case they will not able to climb or they end up falling down from the wall.

These sports are currently governed by International Federation of Sports Climbing. The Federation set some rules in the climbing competition where athletes only perform side by side while maintaining the same route. The winner is determined according to their climb time or the first one to get to the top if simultaneous climbing.

Officially Approved Olympic Sport

Last, August 2016, Sports Climbing has officially approved for Tokyo Olympics but they set a limit that only 20 athletes and one medal per gender. With this many got excited and at the same time, many did criticize also due to the format.

With this athletes do train hard to be able to qualify and compete until World Cup events in 2020.

What I have observed about this sport is that it really needs endurance, agility, and speed to be able to have the upper hand in winning tournament. Aside from that a proper dedication of the sport should be observed since it does need focus and determination.

World Record

In Speed Climbing World Records for male, Reza Alipourshenazandifar was able to finish 5.48 in a 15-meter speed record while on female Iuliia Kaplina perform a world record of 7.32.