12 Medals for Team USA and Paralympic Dreams: Results and Recap of Salt Lake City Paraclimbing World Cup 

The Paraclimbing World Cup, hosted at The Front Climbing Gym in Salt Lake City earlier this week (May 16-17), brought together 114 climbers from across the globe for the first of three International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) paraclimbing competitions to take place this year. Climbers cheered in French, Japanese, and Romanian, among other languages, representing 18 different countries in total. National pride and brand loyalties were also stickered across wheelchairs and other mobility aids as climbers warmed up, stretching their shoulders covered in colorful tattoos and those distinctive circular cupping bruises. 

The comp was held just a few days before this year’s Salt Lake City Bouldering and Speed World Cup, where Olympic hopefuls earn points for a chance at invitations to qualifying events. Paraclimbing isn’t currently part of The Paralympic Games, however, it was recently announced to be under consideration for the “additional sport” category for 2028. 

“Every sport that is Olympic should be Paralympic,” said Amruta Wyssmann of Team Switzerland, who was born with an upper limb difference. She helped to start the Swiss Climbing team and was, in fact, the first member of their now 15 athlete cohort. Like many of the countries represented at the Cup, Switzerland’s team has grown quickly in the last three years.

Eleven-time gold medal winner (including the hardware she took from SLC) Lucie Jarrige, of France, said it took her three years to learn how to climb with her “new body” after her left leg was amputated. But after about a decade of climbing, she has developed a distinct style all her own. Though she uses a prosthetic leg to walk, she climbs without one. Jarrige got the better of a tension move between two hot pink volumes, with body awareness, core strength, and patience. She took her time finding the right body position before committing to several reachy moves and launching herself off her right leg to swing and catch a heel-hook above her shoulder. Flowing from one hold to another, her mastery of momentum and her awareness of her center of gravity is evident as she charts a path up the wall. “I learned my new body…and now, I know what I can do on a wall, ” said Jarrige. Then she added, “You just have to accept your own body, and find your own solution … and it’s better than psychotherapy.”

Tim Schaffrinna, of Team Germany, expressed a similar sentiment, saying it was his desire to compete again that drove his recovery process after a cerebral hemorrhage five years ago, and climbing is still his “rehabilitation” today. A skilled route-reader because of his previous experience as a climber, Schaffrinna’s challenge now is to rebuild the communication between his brain and his body to execute the moves he sees in his mind. He doesn’t feel alone in this challenge. “Many of us have suffered an injury or something, and learned … how fast life could end,” Schaffrinna said, referencing one of the unique bonds within the paraclimbing community that exists alongside the increasingly stiff competition on display at the Salt Lake World Cup.

His teammate, Mario Persing, agreed and added that since becoming part of the paraclimbing community after a motorcycle accident, he possesses a “never-give-up-mentality, I never had with both arms working,” and that’s exactly the mindset climbers needed to best the routes at this week’s World Cup.

Experienced Team USA Climbers Ronnie Dickson and Maureene Beck noted that the level of competition and the route difficulty has increased exponentially in the last decade. Though Beck, who goes by “Mo,” won gold in 2014 when she started competing internationally, she said now, “It makes me so proud that 2014 Mo would not have even made it to finals this week,” because the caliber of competition is so much higher.

Beck and many of the women in the AU2 category were born with their disabilities. She noted there is something special about not having to explain yourself or your condition, adding “when we’re done climbing, we’re still disabled … and I think that’s the thread we all have in common.”

Team Switzerland’s Wyssamann, also an AU2 competitor puts it this way,  “Of course we want to win that medal … We are competitive, but we are also a big family.”

Paralympic Dreams

Since 2021, in preparation for the 2028 Paralympic bid, the IFSC began aligning their classification system (how athletes are grouped by physical limitations) with that of the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC). “The new classifications [ help to] professionalize the sport,” explained Maddie Dunn, the Federation’s sport director. 

At this World Cup there were only 13 classification categories, compared to the nearly 20 seen in the past, as several Physical Impairment classes were combined due to low athlete attendance, according to the IFSC. (See results below for detail on the combined classes.)

Blind climbing categories B2 and B3 were also combined due to the Federation’s push for IPC alignment. The IPC partners with the International Blind Sport Federation (IBSA) to train and certify classifiers for Paralympic sports. Accordingly, the IFSC now also relies on the IBSA, which didn’t have any classifiers available for Salt Lake. So, only those climbers with a valid previous classification for the most severely impaired category competed in the B1 class. All others competed in the combined B2/B3 category regardless of the level of their visual impairment.

Click here for the IFSC handbook for more on the sport classes.

Click here for our coverage of the Para Nationals with more on the classification process.

Because climbing is a whole-body sport, it can be adapted to suit almost any disability, allowing for a wider range of physical limitations than many other Paralympic sports. The very aspect of climbing that makes it so adaptable also makes it incredibly hard to competitively classify. But, as the sport continues to draw more athletes into competition, the classifications can become more refined, said IFSC officials. 

Sitting on a concrete wall in the gym’s courtyard chatting through a translation app on our phones, Japan’s Yuki Shuhei, who placed seventh in men’s AL2, explained that there aren’t very many paraclimbers in his country yet because people gravitate towards the official Paralympic sports. He hopes Paralympic inclusion will change that. When asked if he thinks paraclimbing will be included in the 2028 Games, he sat up with a smile and gestured with his chalk covered hands.  “Of course” he said, loud and clear.

All told, the US took home 12 medals—see the complete results below. The next Paraclimbing World Cup takes place in Innsbruck June 12-13.

Results:

MALE

Visually Impaired 

B1

1. AITA Sho (Japan) B1 
2. AGUILAR AMOEDO Francisco Javier (Spain) B1 
3. NEDU Razvan (Romania) 136 Visually Impaired Climbing B1

B2+B3

1. CANDOI Cosmin Florin (Romania) B3 
2. PELEGRÍN GÓMEZ Guillermo (Spain) B2 
3. SLOCOCK Richard (UK) B2 
4. SIMON FRANCO Raul (Spain) B2 
5. 5 HAMANOUE Fumiya (Japan) B2

Lower Limb impairment

AL1 (bilateral Lower Limb impairment/seated climbing)

1. ZELLER Angelino (Austria) AL1
2. PÖSENDORFER Markus (Austria) AL1 
3. CISLAW Tanner (USA) AL1

AL2 (unilateral Lower Limb impairment or leg length difference) 

1. LEYS Frederik (Belgium) AL2 
2. ZILZ Ethan (USA) AL2 
3. KAMMERER David (Italy) AL2 
4. MENZE Sebastian (Norway) AL2

Range and Power and Upper Limb Impairments

RP1 (severe impairment, affecting at least 2 limbs)

1. NGUYEN Elliott (USA) RP1 
2. RAMINI GIAN Matteo (Italy) RP1 
3. OKADA Takuya (Japan) RP1 
4. YANG Sunny (USA) RP1

RP2 + AU2 (moderate range and power limitations + moderate upper limb impairments) 

1. ZARZUELA Brian (USA) AU2
2. MUÑOZ ESCOLAR Iván (Spain) RP2 
3. HROZEK Philipp (Germany) RP2 
4. BUTLER Brayden (USA) RP2

RP3 + AU3 (mild range and power limitations + mild upper limb/hand impairments)

1. SAPIR Mor Michael (Israel) AU3 
2. AZZOLINI Pietro (Italy) RP3 
3. MARTINEZ Ignacio (Chile) AU3 

FEMALE

Visually Impaired

B1+B2+B3

1.  BIENDARRA Seneida (USA) B2 
2. BARKAN Phoebe (USA) B3 
3. GRECU Ionela (Romania) B3 
4. BREDICE Nadia (Italy) B1 

Lower Limb impairment

AL2 (unilateral Lower Limb impairment or leg length difference) 

1. JARRIGE Lucie (France) AL2 
2. LARCOMBE Sarah (Australia) AL2 
3. TANKERSLEY Mary (USA) AL2 
4. MCFADDEN Hannah (USA) AL2

Range and Power and Upper Limb Impairments

RP1 (severe impairment, affecting at least 2 limbs)

1. RUIZ Melissa (USA) RP1 
2. PLANK Jasmin (Austria) RP1
3. PECHE SALINERO Marta (Spain) RP1 
4. ZOOK Hannah (USA) RP1 

RP2 (moderate impairment)

1. EIVIK Dina (Norway) RP2 
2. SEELENFREUND Emily (USA) RP2 
3. SCOTT Miranda (Canada) RP2

AU2 (moderate upper limb impairments) 

1. PIRET Solenne (France) AU2 
2. BECK Maureen (USA) AU2 
3. BENVENUTI Isabel (USA) AU2

RP3 + AU3 (mild range and power limitations + mild upper limb/ hand impairments) 

1. DIAS Marina (Brazil) RP3 
2. VOREL Natalie (USA) RP3 
3. SCHAUPERT Rosalie (Germany) AU3

Also Read:

• An Accident Left Him Fingerless, But He’s Since Climbed 5.12d

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