Hey there,
It has been a while since my last newsletter because I fell ill after the British Boulder Championship.
It was great to go to the event, which was well run and never felt too chaotic despite the large number of athletes competing across U17 and seniors.
The Depot climbing wall managed the capacity well between the U17 and the seniors. The event felt more like a competition for those already involved in the sport than a chance to bring in the general public.
Let's dive into the news from the past two weeks.
Olympic Qualification Pathway Announced
The main news from the past week is the announcement of the qualification process for Climbing (not Sport Climbing) at the LA28 Olympics.
When we found out last year that climbing would have 3 medals and gain 8 athletes, the IOC explained that this gain was to allow at least 12 athletes per sport. If speed climbing stuck with 14 athletes, that left 12 quota spots for Boulder and 12 for Lead, which looks to be the case.
I had hoped that, similar to swimming and other sports, athletes would get a chance to qualify for another discipline through an easier qualification path (e.g. top 12 in the OQS series) as they already have a spot. But this was not the case. Athletes can still qualify for both Boulder and Lead, but they have to qualify outright, so only a few athletes will get a chance of qualifying for LA28. And then there is the question of whether they want to.
Over the last 8 years, the Olympics have required athletes to generalise and train for multiple disciplines. In LA28, we will see the return of the specialists with so few spots to qualify through.
Athletes have a tight pathway to the Olympics. There are only tickets for the winners of the Continental events and the World Championship in 2027 (6 for all disciplines), or the top spots (4 in Boulder/Lead and 6 in Speed) at the Olympic Qualifier Series in 2028, which grows to 3 events.
The host and universality tickets will get reallocated through the OQS series if they aren't used. With the USA likely to qualify athletes through the Pan American Games qualifier event in 2027, we would expect the host spot to be reallocated in the OQS.
The Universality ticket for climbing has very few athletes capable of qualifying from qualifying countries. Last time there was one athlete at the OQS with a chance: Svana Bjarnson. She still had to qualify in the top 75% of athletes to qualify for the Universality spot, which did not happen. So in reality, the OQS will likely allocate these two tickets as well, giving a total of 6 for Boulder/Lead and 8 for Speed.
If an athlete does qualify in a second discipline, then they only take the quota spot for the first discipline they qualify for.
Many athletes have excelled at both disciplines over the past year: Janja Garnbret, Sorato Anraku, Dohyun Lee, Erin McNeice, Toby Roberts, Annie Sanders, and Oceania Mackenzie. How many of them will try to compete in both remains to be seen.
More Pro Climbing League athletes announced
There were multiple Pro Climbing League (PCL) announcements over the past two weeks. Oriane Bertone, Lucia Dörffel, Colin Duffy, Anon Matsufuji, and Darius Rapa will be joining the competition.
The London PCL Qualifier happened on Saturday at The Font Wandsworth, with Max Milne and Jenny Buckley winning the PCL wildcard tickets (and £1000). All the athletes are now confirmed for the PCL event on 28th February.
The competitors are
Men
- Toby Roberts
- Tomoa Narasaki
- Mejdi Schalck
- Yannick Flohé
- Mickael Mawem
- Colin Duffy
- Darius Rapa
- Max Milne (Wildcard)
Women
- Janja Garnbret
- Erin McNeice
- Annie Sanders
- Camilla Moroni
- Anon Matsufuji
- Lucia Dörffel
- Oriane Bertone
- Jenny Buckley (Wildcard)
National Championship Season continues
The national cup season continues.
The Boulder Japan Cup (BJC) happened the week after the British Bouldering Championship. The event also decided the Japanese Boulder team for the year, with the top athletes at the BJC guaranteeing attendance at the first 5 World Climbing competitions next year.
The top 3 Japanese athletes in the Continuously Updated World Cup Ranking (CUWR) for Boulder on 1 January 2026 were all pre-selected. These are Sorato Anraku, Sohta Amagasa, and Tomoa Narasaki for the men. Mao Nakamura, Melody Sekikawa, and Miho Nonaka will get to compete for the women.
Anon Matsufuji and Meichi Narasaki were both in the top 10 of the CUWR, but aren't guaranteed a spot unless they do well at the BJC.
Meichi did exactly that, winning his second BJC competition. His brother Tomoa was second, and Sorato Anraku was third.
Anon finished 6th, enough to guarantee herself a spot on the World Cup Circuit. Futaba Ito won her 4th BJC, winning her place on the Japanese team for the World Climbing Series after only competing for half the season last year. Miho Nonaka was second and Melody Sekikawa third. Ai Mori finished 5th, qualifying for the Boulder World Climbing Series.
The Japanese team has not been officially announced, but we would expect the Japanese team for the first five World Climbing Series events to be
Men: Sorato Anraku, Sohta Amagasa, Tomoa Narasaki, Meichi Narasaki, Keita Dohi, and Rei Kawamata.
Women: Mao Nakamura, Miho Nonaka, Melody Sekikawa, Futaba Ito, Ai Mori, and Anon Matsufuji.
The Speed Japan Cup happens on the 13th–14th February next weekend and the Lead Japan Cup on 7th–8th March.
Emma Edwards won her first British Boulder Championship after finishing second last year. Emma became the strong favourite after Erin McNeice pulled out from competing two days before the event.
Zoe Peetermans finished second and Lucy Garlick third. Lucy spent most of last year recovering from a finger injury, only competing at the Youth World Championship in Helsinki last year.
Dayan Akhtar won his first British Bouldering Championship after finishing third in 2025 and 2023. Jack MacDougall finished second and Hamish McArthur finished 3rd. The podium was the same as last year, but in a different order.
The British men's field was stacked with four top 40 World Cup climbers competing. Dayan finished 13th in the Boulder World Cup last year ahead of Jack MacDougall in 16th, Max Milne in 17th and Hamish McArthur in 25th. Toby Roberts finished 12th last year in the Boulder World Cup Series, but was not competing at the BBC event.
The event was also a selection event for the British Bouldering team. The full team will officially be announced next week.
Last weekend we had the Belgian Boulder National Championship. Chloé Caulier and Hannes Van Duysen won. Perinne Alardin was second and Celine Cuypers thrid for the women and Corentin Laporte was second and Rob Denayer third for the men. Hannes Van Duysen has been recovering from surgery in October 2025 to fix some loose bodies in his elbow.
The National Championship season continues next weekend with USA Nationals running from 11th–15th February. The French Senior Boulder National Championship is also on from 13th–14th February.
End of an Era
Aleksandra “Ola” Miroslaw has announced that she will retire at the Kraków World Climbing Series event in 2026.
Aleksandra has won 14 Speed World Cup gold medals, 1 behind Anouck Jaubert, who leads the Women's Speed gold medal table with 15. She won her first gold medal back in Chamonix in 2012. She is also joint with Olena Ryepko(Ukraine) with 3 World Championship Speed titles.
Aleksandra also holds the current Speed World Record at 6.03 seconds, which she set during the 2024 Olympics. She also set all 10 world records before that, starting in the 2020 Olympics in August 2021.
Favourite Media
As usual, here are some of my favourite media from the past week.
- Continuing the British theme, Jinni from the That's Not Real Climbing Podcast released podcasts with Emma Edwards, who won the 2026 BBC, and with Erin McNeice's coach, Rachel Carr.
- Jonathan Sin goes climbing with Sam Avezou - Jonathan shows how good World Cup medalists really are, and how hard they train.
- What do you wear to climbing? - Miguel talks to climbers at his local gym about why they choose to wear to climb in.
- How to deal with underclings - Zach Richardson shares his secrets for underclings.
- Epic TV go behind the scenes in Milan for the Climbing Tigers competition - Epic TV shares a behind the scenes look at one of the first climbing competitions of the year.
- Dipi shares how she sets with the Axis egg holds - I don't understand why she likes those Axis disc holds so much. You know a climb is hard if they are on it.
Where to Buy Climbing Competition Tickets
British Lead Championships
When: 21–22 February 2026
Where: Manchester, UK
Disciplines: Lead
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: The event is usually live streamed on YouTube on BMC TV.
Pro Climbing League - London
When: 28 February 2026
Where: Magazine London, UK
Disciplines: Boulder (PCL format)
Where to buy tickets: All 2300 tickets are sold out.
Live Stream: The event will be streamed live on Red Bull TV.
The (final) Rab CWIF 2026
When: 21–22 March 2026
Where: The Climbing Works, Sheffield, UK
Disciplines: Boulder
Where to buy tickets: You can sign up to compete from 1 Feb. Spectator tickets are avaliable on 9 March at 12PM. This will be the last CWIF.
Live Stream: The semi-final and finals will be live streamed on YouTube on the Climbing Works YouTube channel.
World Climbing Series Keqiao 2026
When: 1–3 May 2026
Where: Keqiao, China
Disciplines: Boulder
Where to buy tickets: Tickets will be available locally.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Wujiang 2026
When: 8–10 May 2026
Where: Wujiang, China
Disciplines: Lead and Speed
Where to buy tickets: Tickets will be available locally.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Para Series Salt Lake City 2026
When: 15–16 May 2026
Where: Salt Lake City, USA
Disciplines: Lead
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Available on the World Climbing YouTube page.
World Climbing Series Bern 2026
When: 22–24 May 2026
Where: Bern, Switzerland
Disciplines: Boulder
Where to buy tickets: You can buy tickets here.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Madrid 2026
When: 28–31 May 2026
Where: Madrid, Spain
Disciplines: Boulder and Speed
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Prague 2026
When: 3–7 June 2026
Where: Prague, Czechia
Disciplines: Boulder and Lead
Where to buy tickets: You can buy tickets here.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Para Series Innsbruck 2026
When: 15–16 June 2026
Where: Innsbruck, Austria
Disciplines: Lead
Where to buy tickets: The is usually free to attend for both qualifications and finals.
Live Stream: Available on the World Climbing YouTube page.
World Climbing Series Innsbruck 2026
When: 17–21 June 2026
Where: Innsbruck, Austria
Disciplines: Boulder and Lead
Where to buy tickets: You can buy tickets here. Last year they were made available in April and sold out fast.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Krakow 2026
When: 3–5 July 2026
Where: Krakow, Poland
Disciplines: Speed
Where to buy tickets: Free to watch.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Chamonix 2026
When: 10–12 July 2026
Where: Chamonix, France
Disciplines: Lead and Speed
Where to buy tickets: Free to watch, though find a place to sit early as it get packed.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Europe Series Championship Barcelona 2026
When: 17–19 July 2026
Where: Barcelona, Spain
Disciplines: Boulder
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Will be available on the World Climbing Europe YouTube page.
World Climbing Youth Championship Arco 2026
When: 18–25 July 2026
Where: Arco, Italy
Disciplines: Boulder, Lead, and Speed
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Europe Championship Laval 2026
When: 28–30 August 2026
Where: Laval, France
Disciplines: Lead and Speed
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Will be available on the World Climbing Europe YouTube page.
World Climbing Para Series Laval 2026
When: 28–29 August 2026
Where: Laval, France
Disciplines: Lead
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Available on the World Climbing YouTube page.
World Climbing Series Koper 2026
When: 4–5 September 2026
Where: Koper, Slovenia
Disciplines: Lead
Where to buy tickets: You will be able to buy tickets here later in the year.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Guiyang 2026
When: 11–13 September 2026
Where: Guiyang, China
Disciplines: Speed
Where to buy tickets: You will be able to buy tickets locally.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Chongqing 2026
When: 18–20 September 2026
Where: Chongqing, China
Disciplines: Speed
Where to buy tickets: You will be able to buy tickets locally.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026
When: 19 September–4 October 2026
Where: Nagoya, Japan
Disciplines: Lead, Speed, and Boulder
Where to buy tickets: TBC.
Live Stream: TBC.
World Climbing Series Salt Lake City 2026
When: 16–18 October 2026
Where: Salt Lake City, USA
Disciplines: Boulder
Where to buy tickets: TBC.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Series Santiago 2026
When: 23–25 October 2026
Where: Santiago, Chile
Disciplines: Lead and Speed
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographical restrictions.
World Climbing Para Series Gunsan 2026
When: 30 October –1 November 2026
Where: Gunsan, South Korea
Disciplines: Lead
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: Available on the World Climbing YouTube page.
LA2028 Olympic Games
When: 14–29 July 2028
Where: LA, USA
Where to buy tickets: Registration for the first ticket draw opens on 14 January 2026.
