Welcome to Behind The Wall, a weekly newsletter published every Saturday.
Each week, I highlight the favourite things I’ve watched, read and listened to from the world of indoor and competition climbing. I also track where you can buy competition tickets during the World Cup season.
This week, we caught up on all that happened at the IFSC World Cup in Salt Lake City and the Paraclimbing World Cup two days later. You can find replays on the Olympic Channel, the IFSC YouTube Channel (geo-restrictions apply) and Eurosport.
This week, there was a lot to watch. We saw a string of YouTube collaborations as Magnus visited Akiyo and Tomoa’s gym in Japan, Emil and PewDiePie visited B-pump and Emil and Brandon from ClimbingStuff explored Karma in Fontainebleau.
We got a detailed comp analysis from Plastic Weekly and went behind the scenes at the World Cup with Matt Groom and the IFSC team. Madison Richardson broke down her performance at the North American Cup the week before, and we got a look behind the scenes at Jim Pope’s training for the OQS.
We also learned more about Matteo Zurloni and Josh Bruyn’s different journeys to qualifying for the Olympics and how Jesse Grupper is preparing for the Olympics.
I know there is lots of great content that I don’t know about. Let me know at behindthewall@inside-climbing.com, and I’ll give you a shout-out if I feature it.
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Watch
- Magnus Midtbø visits Akiyo Noguchi and Tomoa Narasaki’s private home gym. The gym was originally built by Akiyo’s father for her to train. Now, Tomoa trains there for the Olympics.
- Emil Abrahamsson and Brandon (@climbingstuff) explore Karma Climbing Gym in Fontainebleau with Eric Karlsson. Remember to brush the holds for your friends!
- The Scandinavian collabs continue as Emil Abrahamsson teaches PewDiePie new climbing skills. Watch Emil explain to his childhood YouTube hero why climbing is like a video game in B-Pump Ogikubo, Tokyo.
- Dive into Jim Pope’s training for the Olympic Qualifier Series on Wedge Climbing. Learn about how Jim structures a week of training and how he balances training with interests outside of climbing.
- Learn about Matteo Zurloni’s journey to the Olympics and becoming World Champion. English subtitles are available.
- Watch Madison Richardson break down her performance at the North America Cup the week before the Salt Lake City World Cup. Including footage of all qualification, semi-final and final boulders.
- Catch up on all the action from the Salt Lake City World Cup and Paraclimbing World Cup in the World Climbing Club with Matt Groom.
- Plastic Weekly dives deeper into what happened at the Salt Lake City World Cup. The graph of Boulder World Cup and World Championship winners returns with a new name on it.
Listen
- Jesse Grupper talks about his preparation for the Olympics on The Run Out with Chris Kalous and Andrew Bisharat.
- Josh Bruyns talks all about Speed Climbing and going to the Olympics as a South African on the SuperSport Schools’ Podcast. Listen to Josh Bruyns, winner of the African Qualifier and 2024 Olympian, break down speed climbing and the Olympic format for a general audience and how he thinks about speed climbing.
International Climbing Competition Tickets
The competition season has started, so here is the rundown of where you can find World Cup and OQS tickets.
- Shanghai Olympic Qualifier. Sport Climbing tickets have already sold out after going on sale on April 8. You can still get tickets for the Urban Festival and other sports. The event will be streamed live on the Olympic Channel.
- Budapest Olympic Qualifier: An Hungarian article on the OQS event in Budapest from the official Hungarian site for the Olympics states that the event will be free to enter.
- Innsbruck (Austria) Boulder, Lead and Paraclimbing World Cups June 24 – 30. World Cup Pass Tickets sold out within a few hours. Single-day tickets will be available on May 1. You will only need tickets for the Boulder finals and Lead semi-finals and finals. Some tickets are still available.
- Chamonix (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 12 – 14. The event will be free to attend.
- Briançon (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 16 – 19. The event will be free to attend.
- European Championship in Villars August 23 – September 1. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Koper (Slovenia) September 6 – 7. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Prague (Czechia) World Cup September 20 – 22. VIP tickets are sold out, and seated tickets are almost sold out, but standing tickets are still available
- Seoul World Cup October 2 – 6. Tickets are yet to be announced.
That’s a Wrap
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Behind the Wall. Let me know what you think at behindthewall@insideclimbing.com or DM me on Instagram.
See you next week!
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