8 Women to Watch in Boulder & Lead at the Paris Olympics

With a field this stacked, it's hard to pick winners. But these eight women are leading the pack.

The post 8 Women to Watch in Boulder & Lead at the Paris Olympics appeared first on Climbing.

If you’ve paid any attention to the comp climbing scene in the last few years, you know there are some heavy favorites in the women’s Combined (Boulder and Lead) event at the Olympics. Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, who rocketed to a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will again be predicted by many as the probable Olympic champion. And there are several others (Team USA’s Natalia Grossman and Brooke Raboutou among them) who are considered favorites—and likely challengers to Garnbret’s would-be gold medal.

Still, nobody’s predictions are foolproof, and that’s part of the fun. So, here are eight women who seem particularly poised to win climbing gold at the Paris Olympics. (For a list of the climbers to watch in the men’s combined boulder and lead discipline, click here.)

But first, here’s what you need to know:

How the Combined Boulder & Lead Sport Climbing event works

On Monday, August 5, 68 climbers will begin vying for Olympic medals in Paris, competing in two separate disciplines. 40 of them (20 women, 20 men) will compete in the Combined Boulder and Lead discipline. The remaining 28 (14 women, 14 men) will compete in the Speed discipline. No climber is competing for both medals. Scoring for the Combined Boulder and Lead relies on the accumulation of points; in each round, there are 100 possible points on the boulders, and 100 possible points on the lead wall, with a perfect score—flashing all boulders and topping the lead route—being 200. The gold medalist in the Combined discipline will be the competitor who gets closest to that perfect score.

Eight climbers to watch

Janja Garnbret (SLO)

Since bursting onto the World Cup scene in 2015, Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret has gracefully transitioned through a number of labels: Initially a lead specialist (taking the silver medal in her first two lead World Cups, behind legendary teammate Mina Markovič); then as arguably the greatest bouldering specialist of all time (by sweeping the 2019 boulder World Cup season); and in 2021 she proved that she could even acquiesce to speed climbing in the wonky three-discipline (Speed/Boulder/Lead) Combined format of the Tokyo Olympics. Most importantly, Garnbret seems to have adopted a cautious approach to comp participation in recent years; she took some time off from World Cups after winning at the Tokyo Olympics, and she limited her appearances at World Cups this season too. It feels like she will arrive in Paris with her physical and mental batteries fully charged, ready to make another run at Olympic gold.

Career highlight (thus far): Janja Garnbret’s trio of gold medals (in Boulder, Lead, and Combined) at the 2019 World Championships in Hachioji—which kicked off her march to climbing’s Olympic debut in Tokyo—was a mix of dominance, excitement, and historic implication that might never be duplicated in the sport.

Why she could win in Paris: Garnbret won the Tokyo Olympics and is widely considered to be the greatest comp climber of all time. Need we say more?

Natalia Grossman (USA)

There’s something paradoxically wonderful about Team USA’s Natalia Grossman. For starters, she hails from Santa Cruz, California, and got her start climbing at Pacific Edge—the same gym that forged Chris Sharma. That unique connection to Sharma and the Bay Area weaves Grossman together with an entire soulful contingent of legendary California climbers—the likes of Scott Frye, Jim Thornburg, Andy Puhvel, Hans Florine, Diane Russell, and others. Yet, as a kid, Grossman was mainly coached in Colorado by Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, which directly links Grossman to Team ABC (an altogether separate cohort that includes Margo Hayes, Megan Mascarenas, Meagan Martin, and others who were once mainstays at elite comps). It is as if Grossman sponged up valuable elements from all tiers of America’s climbing heritage—the cool vibes from California, the scrupulous youth development in Colorado, and now the invaluable training at USA Climbing’s headquarters in Salt Lake City. It has certainly paid off; at the time of this writing, Grossman has amassed 11 gold medals on the Boulder World Cup circuit, and she emphatically punched her ticket to the Paris Olympics by winning the Pan Ams. It’s unclear how much a recent knee injury disrupted her long-term training plan; but assuming she’s back to 100 percent by early August, Olympic gold could very well be the next accolade on Grossman’s booming resume.

Career highlight (thus far): Natalia Grossman rolled through the Boulder discipline at the 2021 World Championships in Moscow. She led every round and concluded by topping all the boulders in the finals to win the gold medal. (She almost won gold in Lead at those World Championships too.)

Why she could win in Paris: Even though Janja Garnbret is viewed as the favorite to earn Olympic gold in Paris, it’s worth noting that Natalia Grossman has beaten Garnbret on the World Cup circuit in the past. There’s no reason to believe Grossman could not do so again.

Ai Moir (JPN)

Japan’s Ai Mori earned her Olympic berth by securing the bronze medal in the Combined discipline at last year’s World Championships in Bern, Switzerland. But make no mistake, Mori is a gold-medal-level competitor, evidenced by the multiple World Cups she has won since her debut in 2019. If there is any weakness—granted, I use that word reluctantly—in Mori’s skill set, it is that she is predominantly a lead specialist and rarely makes the podium at Boulder World Cups. Yet that lead specialty is what makes Mori so captivating to watch, especially in a Combined discipline in which the lead portion is contested last. Mori is unlikely to have the best score in the boulder portion, but Olympic viewers can bet that Mori will end up putting together one of the superior performances on the lead route. This means that Mori will very likely—and single-handedly—take the Combined discipline at the Olympics down to the wire, keeping viewers on the edges of their seats as she ascends the lead wall and improves her overall score.

Career highlight (thus far): Ai Mori led every round of the Lead discipline at last year’s World Championships in Bern, and punctuated that five-star performance by reaching the top of the finals’ route to win gold.

Why she could win in Paris: In the Combined discipline at last year’s World Championships, Mori was right behind Janja Garnbret on the scorecards through the qualification and semi-final rounds; it’s not hard to envision Mori being that close to Garnbret at the Olympics and concluding with a masterful final round.

Jessica Pilz (AUT)

Austria’s Jessica Pilz may be a less recognizable name than Mori, Grossman, or Garnbret—but, gosh darnit, Pilz should be looped into that club too! Pilz’s performance in the Combined discipline at the 2023 World Championships was remarkable; she slipped from fifth place in qualifiers to sixth in semis, but clawed back to eventually claim the silver medal and clinch an Olympic spot. Pilz is a veritable all-arounder, having podiumed at Lead and Boulder World Cups. Add to those accolades the fact that she already has Olympic experience (placing seventh at the Tokyo Olympics), and her momentum after recently earning her tenth Austrian national championship in a row, and we could have the recipe for Pilz to slip into a flow-state at the Paris Olympics and win it all.

Career highlight (thus far): Jessica Pilz won a Lead gold medal at the World Championships in 2018.

Why she could win in Paris: Pilz doesn’t seem to get rattled by big events. Also, her score at the Tokyo Olympics was hampered by troubles in Speed (finishing in sixth place), and she won’t have to deal with any speed woes at the Paris Olympics.

Oriane Bertone (FRA)

When hype first started building for the Paris Olympics years ago, France’s newcomer on the World Cup scene, Oriane Bertone, seemed destined to qualify. At the start of the 2022 season, she narrowly missed out on a podium spot at a World Cup in Meiringen, Switzerland, but the fact that she was in a finals with the likes of Janja Garnbret and Natalia Grossman was all the proof anyone needed that young Bertone was the real deal. The following month, Bertone did even better—earning a second place behind Grossman at a World Cup in Seoul. Sure, it took Bertone a bit longer than some would have expected to earn the Olympic berth (punching her Olympic ticket at the European Continental event in 2023, as opposed to the World Championships), but Bertone got it done in dominant fashion by reaching the top of all boulders and climbing last on the lead route. She has been a star from a very young age—particularly from climbing V14 at age 12—but the fact that Bertone will be a home-country favorite at the Paris Olympics has managed to send her celebrity status into the stratosphere (particularly in France).

Career highlight (thus far): There is a short list of climbers who can claim to have beaten Janja Garnbret, Miho Nonaka, and Chaehyun Seo at the World Cup level—yet, Oriane Bertone beat them all at the same event, a Boulder World Cup in Prague in June, 2023.

Why she could win in Paris: What do we want to call it: Home-field advantage? Home-country momentum? A bit of an edge? Whatever label we attach, Bertone (like Combined teammate Zélia Avezou) is a French star and the Olympics will be in France. That synchronization could make all the difference.

Yuetong Zhang (CHN)

The COVID-19 pandemic did a number of strange things to the global comp climbing circuit. Most notably, the World Cups were halted in 2020, and when they restarted in 2021, they soon became marked by standout performances from many of the aforementioned names—Garnbret, Grossman, Bertone, etc. Fans and pundits were so happy to see the World Cup circuit return after the horrors of the pandemic that it became easy to gloss over the fact that China’s national team had not yet returned to the World Cup scene. It was not until midway through 2022 that China started to once again field a team at international events. Even then, participation was limited and there appeared to be some rust, of sorts, with middling results in Boulder and Lead. But that all changed in the middle of the 2023 season. In particular, Yuetong Zhang started climbing the ranks at lead World Cups and became a buzzworthy star of Team China; she started cracking into the Top-20 on the scorecards, and by the 2023 World Cup in Wujiang, she was close to making a podium. She earned her Olympic spot by winning the Asian Continental event six months ago—besting Miho Nonaka, Futaba Ito, Chaehyun Seo, Jain Kim, and other crushers in the process.

Career highlight (thus far): Yuetong Zhang’s victory at the Asian Continental event indicated that she is capable of beating other Olympians (such as Nonaka and Seo).

Why she could win in Paris: Yuetong Zhang’s results have improved with every season. She’s only 21 years old, and that uptick in performance could peak at the perfect time at the Olympics.

Brooke Raboutou (USA)

When Team USA’s Brooke Raboutou qualified for the Tokyo Olympics several years ago, it seemed like she was riding a wave of destiny—both of her parents (Robyn Erbesfield and Didier Raboutou) had won World Cups in the late 1980s and laid the groundwork for climbing’s eventual Olympic debut. But when Brooke Raboutou qualified for the Paris Olympics recently, by enduring the gauntlet of two Olympic Qualifier Series competitions, her Olympic berth felt less polished with ethereal gloss (destiny, fate, etc.) and more founded on fortified results. For example, Raboutou had a phenomenal World Cup season in 2023, which included winning a gold medal in bouldering and earning a bronze medal in lead. And at the Pan Ams, in the combined boulder and lead format, she missed out on the gold medal by merely seven points. Don’t be mistaken—there’s still an intangible element that makes Raboutou one of the most popular and compelling American stars. She has appeared on the Today Show, she has earned recognition from clothing giant Neiman Marcus, she has appeared in a Ford commercial, and she has partnered with Coca-Cola—all of which has propelled her pop-culture celebrity status alongside her climbing status. But it all feels somewhat less karmic now—not genetic or hereditary, but earned.

Career highlight (thus far): Brooke Raboutou’s most recent career highlight was being the top qualifier in the aforementioned Olympic Qualifier Series. But more broadly, Raboutou will forever reside in history as the first American climber to ever qualify for any Olympics. And although she had an unfortunate left-hand slip fairly low on the lead wall in the finals of the Tokyo Olympics, she still managed to place fifth there.

Why she could win in Paris: Raboutou has proven to be equally proficient in the Boulder and Lead disciplines. Also, although she’s not competing for Team France, Raboutou speaks French, her father is French, and she has spent extensive time in France. It won’t give Raboutou any sort of home-country advantage like it will Oriane Bertone or Zelia Avezou, but it can’t hurt as Raboutou acclimates to the French cultural whirlwind of the Paris Olympics.

Chaehyun Seo (KOR)

When South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, it felt as if her career was progressing at a blazing speed: She had surged onto the climbing scene in 2019, overtaken Janja Garnbret multiple times at World Cups…and suddenly Seo was challenging Garnbret for 2020 Olympic royalty. In a way, maybe it was all happening a bit too fast. Seo ended up finishing in eighth place at the Tokyo Olympics. Soon the whole comp season (and a bit of overzealous hype) slowed, and finally it felt as if the entire comp world could take a much-needed, deep breath. Fast forward to the present day, and it feels like Seo’s trajectory is progressing at a more comfortable speed for all parties involved. She has gone from being the rookie-phenom to the 20-year-old stalwart; she has won a World Championship, but she has also had some to-be-expected dips. The highs and lows over the past few years have made Seo a better, more experienced competitor, and the fact that her father owns a gym in Seoul has made for consistent training. Seo might be seen by some as something of a dark horse pick to claim victory at the Olympics—and like Ai Mori, Seo will likely have to cope through the boulders before banking on a superior score on the lead route. But I won’t be surprised if Seo is on the podium in Paris.

Career highlight (thus far): Chaehyun Seo’s victory in the lead discipline at the World Championships in 2021 entailed beating Natalia Grossman, Jessica Pilz, Laura Rogora, and other marquee names.

Why she could win in Paris: Seo’s struggles in the finals of the Tokyo Olympics began in Speed (where she had the misfortune of lining up against world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw). The ensuing boulder portion was particularly burly, devoid of any tops from a vast majority of the competitors. That being said, Seo concluded those Tokyo Olympics with aplomb, climbing higher on the lead route than everyone else…except Garnbret. At the Paris Olympics, speed climbing will not be a factor, and it’s unlikely that the boulders will be overcooked to the same degree.

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