Innsbruck 2021 – How not to run a comp

Oh boy, where do we begin. Just a month before the debut of climbing in the Olympics, the IFSC World Cup stopped into Innsbruck for a bouldering, lead, and adaptive cup events. And what an event it was. Spoilers ahead.

The Good

Innsbruck had plenty of good. It was the return of Paraclimbing (what the US would call Adaptive Climbing) after a multi-years long absence. These athletes throw down as hard as any and you should watch it here. Brook Raboutou made an excellent showing in her first international lead finals, with only Janja getting past her highpoint. The men’s final was a stacked affair, with Stephano setting an early highpoint and making the rest of the field chase him. Adam Ondra had a mind to do it, but sent La Sportiva stocks plummeting with multiple foot-slips. The best of lead was that they finally implemented covers to the bolts, which should finally finish off all the challenges\technicals for athletes with imprecise footwork.

Over in bouldering Natalia Grossman continued her tear – putting the pressure on eventual double-winner Janja, and Stasia Geho made a long overdue return to the podium. Nathaniel Coleman held his own in bouldering finals, but Japan went 3 for 3 on the podium.

The Bad

Some bad things were out of the promoter and producers control. It can’t rain all the time, but sometimes it does, and the wet weather of the weekend did hurt the bouldering, holding both men’s and women’s events to just 3 boulders instead of the standard 4. The moisture also resulted in drastic measures to attempt to salvage the friction required to see any sends, sometimes to comedic effect.

I heard you liked chalk on your chalk so I put chalk in your chalk

Before we start the rest, I want to acknowledge that there was an extended, slow-mo, hold-brushing-jiggling butt footage of Johanna Farber during bouldering semis. We’re not going to shots here, because the athlete has made her discomfort known, resulting in the IFSC pulling the footage and cropping out the issue. It should be noted that this wasn’t the IFSC’s fault in total, but some blame (and plenty more below) falls to the local broadcast affiliate chosen to help.

So I got tagged in so many stories and people keep sending me messages.
Honestly wtf.
Having this slow-motion clip shown on NATIONAL TV and youtube livestream is so disrespectful and upsetting. I’m an athlete and here to show my best performance. To be honest, I do really feel so embarrassed to know that thousands of people saw this.
We need to stop sexualizing women in sports and start to appreciate their performance.

Johanna Farber’s Instagram

Beyond the egregious issue above, Lead Semis was the real mess of the weekend. First, keepers on the draws had a tendency to stick, resulting in multiple delays as organizers aided up to return them to the proper facing-down orientation, on both the men’s and women’s routes.

If your draw’s orientation lasts more than 4 hours, contact a routesetter

Speaking of problematic cameramen, there seemed to be a persistent problem with attempts to “get the shot” without proper deference to the athlete’s “bubble”. Check out Adam swatting away an overzealous videographer as he prepares to pull on.

As the poet Ludacris says, “Move ……. Get out the way”

Not to be outdone, just minutes later as Janja made her preparations, the videographer go close enough to feel the wrath of her double uppercut. Luckily for him she held back.

The Bittersweet

There were a few athletes that made both lead and bouldering finals. Ok, two. Two very special athletes, the dominant Janja, and the timeless Akiyo. Akiyo Noguchi has been on the scene as long as I’ve been watching IFSC competitions, starting off in 2007, and after such a long career announced she was retiring from climbing comps after the Olympics. As this was the last Bouldering World Cup before the games, that means this was her last ride. Its really a shame the women’s bouldering final was stopped during her attempt on W4 – she was making great progress and may have been able to podium on more time. Akiyo’s career was something special to watch for me, as her climbing IQ was off the charts (using holds from another boulder? Lets GO!), her flexibility, as was her raw talent – check out this highlight reel by THE Udo Neumann. Still don’t believe me, check the stats:

  • 58 WC Bouldering Event podiums (21 gold!)
  • 12 WC Bouldering Series Podiums (5 gold!)
  • 5 WCh Bouldering podiums
  • 7 WC Combined Series podiums (3 gold!)
  • 9 WC Lead Event podiums
  • 1 each WCh Lead and Combined podium

It’s been such a pleasure to watch her career, and we at Crank wish her the very best both at the Olympics, and whatever lies beyond. Without the hectic training, travel, and competition schedule, we’re sure she’s going to continue to achieve great things.

Thank you Akiyo, for all the inspiration!