Climbing · Worth knowing

Alexej Pinchuk's statistics reveal that while the US leads in the number of climbers (26) who have completed 9a+ routes, the country has only 13 such routes compared to Spain's 78, France's 39, and Italy's 18. Jonathan Siegrist explains this disparity through stylistic and geographical differences: US routes tend to be bouldery and shorter due to limited tall limestone cliffs, making them feel harder despite potentially different grading standards. Additionally, elite US climbers predominantly excel in bouldering rather than sport climbing endurance style, and historically difficult US hard routes were remote and inaccessible compared to Spain's readily available options, encouraging American aspirants to train in Europe instead.

The Paris 2024 Olympic climbing holds, macros and volumes have been distributed globally and are now being used at the World Climbing Youth Championships in Arco, Italy, allowing young climbers to train and compete on the same equipment featured at the Olympic Games.