Huge Drama at the Rock Climbing Olympics

The Olympics have come and gone again, and once again, there was controversy.

0:00 The Accusations
0:44 Men's Controversy
4:03 Ai Mori Controversy
9:22 Brooke Raboutou
9:56 Mens finals

Music:

Crimson Fly - Huma-Huma

Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0

Morning Stroll - Josh Kirsch, Media Right Productions

Deadly Force by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Broken by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

#climbing #bouldering #olympics #Drama #climbingstuff

[TerjeMathisen]

In my local gym, Hannah Midtbø (Magnus' strong sister) is the chief setter, which means that when I complain about being too short (170 cm or 5'7) for a particular route or boulder, I have to do so knowing that Ms Midtbø is shorter, and that I'm simply too weak...

[legolindirteso]

Apparently, there is an interview where Ai Mori said herseif that she lacks strenght in her legs.

[ConnorHoak]

I honestly don’t mind a lead route having an early crux, but it’s definitely not great to see Tomoa go from 2nd place to not qualifying for finals at all. Alex Megos’s reaction to the foot slip was also particularly heartbreaking

[khalidb]

Reality : No drama whatsoever
Youtubers : Huge drama

[MSHNKTRL]

There are no hard moves
There are no bad conditions
There is no bad beta
There are no bad setters

There is only



*WEAKNESS.*

[DavidWKimber]

While I completely agree that this comp exposed Ai's weakness for explosive power (which Brooke has in spades) let's not discount the fact that those dynamic moves were LOADS easier for the taller competitors and that gave them a huge advantage in number of attempts and energy conserved. I don't recall any particularly small box moves/sequences to balance that out. Largely because routesetters are also setting for the audiences with big flashy risky moves.

That said, the competitors all know this stuff when they go out there so, that's the game.

[dynq]

Aahhhahah the intervention sniper popping up totally got me! 🤣🤣🤣 what a throwback

[yuteyang]

I remember there was a boulder comp in 2023, AI and Brooke both suffered on a single dyno move, and Brooke improved a lot after that. Some just can't acknowledge the fact that AI wasn't improving her lower body power, however Brooke did.

[HighInquisitor]

I just think they should mix in hard static boulders. Do half half, half dyno half static

[goloher]

I absolutely adore Ai's lead style -- so effortless and beautiful. But let's face it -- she can't dyno properly. It's as if she was learning to dyno from scratch every time she came out (and when she does get the move, she tends to stick it, so it's not the height issue). I believe (and hope) if they separate b and l, she will happily compete in lead only and will crush it.

[Shrrrg]

Sometimes I wish tall people really would have the advantage in climbing people claim they have but for some reason in comp climbing there are barely any tall people

[matthewsevers]

People should stop complaining about the boulder rounds testing agility, power, and athleticism, that’s literally the point of modern boulder competitions. The combined format is the issue for Ai. She’s not a very dynamic climber, bouldering exposes her relative weaknesses and I’m sure she understands that.

[ggachet]

I feel like that despite Ai Mori being short, she could defenitly keep on working on her weaknesses and make it work if we compare it to brooke.
I'm baiscally saying that it's just isn't "only height".

But the setters could have not overused big dynamic moves in every boulders. Especially not on almost every start, which doesn't make much sense. It's not as if the start move is supposed to be impressive and determine the athlete's fate. If you can't get past the crux of the bolder, fair enough, but putting too much emphasis on the starting position feels kinda usless and unrewarding.

[Tomwithnonumbers]

Watching Ai Mori on dynos is like watching the worlds best marathon runner try to work out what a bike is mid triathlon

[brian]

Even Brook struggled to get off the ground on W2, but then flashed the rest of the boulder once she pulled on, leading to the points gap to Janja, who had no trouble pulling on. Let's admit it's neither fair, nor enjoyable spectating to see an athlete sitting on the mats unable to pull onto the starting holds.

[eneoch]

Rather than comparing just height, people should look at height + ape index.
Especially for those run and jump starts where they need to reach as high as possible and the compression one where if you have a bit more slack in terms of distance it is either to hold and move from that point. So body length + arm lenght does make a change.
From what I can find (nothing really official), Brook has +2.5cm whereas Ai has +0cm.
Of course, I don't think route setters are out to get Ai Mori, but the lack of variety in the starts of boulders is really lame and fails to show the various strength elite climbers should be able to display. So it is pretty stupid to call out any sort of bullying here, however I do think it is fair to expect much better from route setting at olympic level.

[benimi]

I think it worth a mention that the move out of the low zone on Boulder 3 in the womens final was favouring the shorter climbers, only Ai, Brooke and the insanly strong Janja could do that, and they all topped after that. height can be an advantage a lot of times, but a disadvantage at others.

[thecookiecookieempire]

Also not mentioned was boulder 3 in women's finals, where the crux move was significantly easier for short climbers and nearly impossible if you were too tall. The only boulder Ai topped.

[nicolasm.]

I agree with you on most of your takes… though I was really sad Alex Megos and Tomoa Narasaki didn’t make it to the finals

[blasttrooper]

Just wanna say keep it up been watching for a couple months and these videos are very interesting.