Korea looks to reach new heights as sport climbing begins

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Published: 03 Oct. 2023, 13:02 Updated: 03 Oct. 2023, 22:20

Korea looks to reach new heights as sport climbing begins

Korea's Chon Jong-won competes during the men's lead final at the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) Asian Championships in October 2022 in Seoul. [YONHAP]

Catch a dyno in China as sport climbing makes its Asian Games return. Medals are again up for grabs as this year’s competition kicks off Tuesday.

Next generation waits in wings as sport climbers prepare for Asian Games

The increasingly popular sport debuted in Jakarta, Indonesia at the 2018 Asiad and became an Olympic sport three years later, included as a medal category at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Climbers at the Asiad compete for either speed or distance in separate contests.

The difference between the two is clear. In speed climbing, athletes bound up a tall, vertical wall in a race against the clock or their opponent — and the person with the fastest time wins.

With chalked hands, climbers hardly rest on any of the holds before flying up to the next, gripping onto whatever triangular or blobular shape is above them. Blink, and you might miss the whole thing.

Athletes compete individually during the qualification phase but against each other during the sudden-death knockouts for the final eight.

Boulder and lead climbing is much slower and highly technical. Each athlete has six minutes to complete a pre-set route.

The bouldering wall is about 3-meters tall, and climbers ditch their harness. But the course is far from flat, walls jutting out at purposefully awkward angles, leaving athletes hanging or clinging on at various degrees.

Lead climbing goes straight up. The course takes place on a 15-meter wall, and athletes again go for distance. Watch for moves like a dyno — a dynamic movement by a climber who jumps from one hold to the next, all hands and feet momentarily leaving the wall before grabbing back on — and a toe hook, which expectedly happens when a climber uses their toe to stabilize their next action.

There’s a team event, too — the speed relay, also a medal category.

Korea took home three medals in 2018, tying Japan. Chon Jong-won took gold in the men’s combined boulder and lead event and teammates Sa Sol and Kim Ja-in took silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s combined contest.

Indonesia earned the most, winning six medals — three gold, two silver and one bronze.

Asiad sport climbing differs from sport climbing at the Tokyo Olympics because speed is separated from the other two disciplines.

On the sport climbing circuit, sport, lead and bouldering are all separate events, with lead and bouldering also combined at some world cups. The Olympics controversially combined all three despite the different skills involved, effectively sidelining the majority of world-leading climbers — like former world lead champion and Asian lead and bouldering champion Seo Chae-hyun — although this has been rectified at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.

Seo finished in eighth place in Tokyo despite coming second overall in the qualifiers, but with lead removed from the mix in China, a podium finish is far more likely for the 19-year-old climber.

BY MARY YANG AND JIM BULLEY [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]