Sport Climbing at the Olympics and Deep-Water Soloing above the Thames

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.

The Olympics started yesterday, and you can tell with everyone releasing their Olympic content. Sport Climbing isn’t until the second week of the Olympics, starting on Monday, August 5th. The IFSC released their Climb To Paris mini-series, Climbing Gold continues their Olympic series, and we get a look inside the minds of competitors Erin McNiece, Emma Hunt, Sam Avezou, Hamish McArthur, Tomoa Narasaki and Svana Bjarnson.

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

The Budapest Olympic Qualifier Debrief | Erin McNiece. Erin talks about her experience at the OQS and describes her training since then as she prepares for Paris.
This free solo climb has a 16-meter fall into the river Thames | Hannah Morris Bouldering. Hannah tries deep water soling in Canary Warf at the North Face Climb festival in London next to her friend Rotimi Odukoya, founder of Climbxr.
DMG MORI Arena Lead Training Camp | TAMY. Join a 2-day Lead training camp with Tomoa Narasaki, Taisei Homma, Shion Omata and Yuta Imaizumi in the DMG Arena, where they test their on-sighting skills a month before Innsbruck. Will they be haunted by the ghost of Jakob Schubert?
Climb To Paris Mini-Series | IFSC. Matt Groom travelled to Paris before the World Cup season started to find the stories behind the Road to Paris 2024. He explores what the Paris Olympics means from the perspective of an athlete, Oriane Bertone, a gym owner, a routesetter, a photographer, an organiser, and the IFSC President Marco Scolaris.
The Outsider Ep.4: In Our Darkest Moments, A Crack Of Light Is All We Need | Epic TV. Watch Part 4 of The Outsider, following Svana Bjarnason on her journey to try and reach the 2024 Olympics, where she gets injured (again) and manages to recover in time to compete at the Shanghai Olympic Qualifier Series event.

Read

The Georgia Gym That Shaped an Olympian | Climbing Business Journal. John Burgman talks with Oleksii Shulga, who ran the Speed Climbing program at Stone Summit, which helped Emma Hunt on her journey to the Olympics about the importance of climbing gyms in shaping the 8 American Sport Climbing Olympians.
The 7 Greatest Comp Climbing Rivalries of All Time | Climbing Magazine. John Burgman writes about some of the greatest competition rivalries, including Kiromal Katibin vs Veddriq Leonardo, Janja Garnbret vs Ai Mori and Natalia Grossman, and the lead rivalry in the 2010s between Slovenian Mina Markovič and South Korean Jain Kim.
Who’s Going to Podium at the Paris Olympics? Here’s Our Predictions | Climbing Magazine. Burgman recruits Eddie Fowkes (former IFSC photographer), Tyler Norton (Plastic Weekly), Josh Hurlebaus (creator of speed-climbing.com) and Natalie Berry (Editor of UK Climbing) to get their opinions on who will podium at the 2024 Olympics.

Listen

Björn Pohl & Vladek Zumr, from the Climbing Intelligence Agency, interviewed Hamish McArthur about what has changed since his World Championship medal in 2021 and the importance of mindset. They also interviewed Sam Avezou about how he got into climbing, what it was like competing against his friends in the OQS and how he is his coach.
Jinni Xia and Alex Megos | IFSC Lounge. Jinni, from the That’s Not Real Climbing Podcast, talks with Alex Megos about qualifying for the 2024 Olympics at the OQS event, reducing his carbon impact, and whether he would compete in LA2028.
Natalia Grossman, Jesse Grupper - Great Expectations | Climbing Gold. Climbing Gold talked with Natalia Grossman and Jesse Grupper about their path to the 2024 Olympics and the pressure which comes with success.
Olympic Climbing: Paris Preview | Climbing Gold. John Burgman and Leici Hendrix join Alex and Fitz to discuss the Paris Olympics and who they think will win in Speed and Boulder&Lead.
Emma Hunt (USA Olympian) — Why Speed Climbing is Legit | The Nugget Climbing Podcast. Emma Hunt talks with Steven about how she got into Speed Climbing, why Speed climbing is awesome and why she is sceptical about the effect the Olympics will have on climbing.