The Climbing World Cup is back, and heading to Chamonix, France, for what promises to be a thrilling weekend of competition climbing action. This weekend's round pits the world's best speed and lead climbers against each other in two separate events.
The speed climbing competition starts today with a qualification round, before the finals take place tomorrow, July 12. The lead climbing competition begins tomorrow, with a tense final round taking place on Sunday, July 13.
There's plenty to look forward to this weekend, as climbers from both disciplines look to climb the leaderboard in pursuit a the coveted series win.
Read on for our preview of the 11th round of this season's climbing World Cup, which includes the schedule, information on how to watch the competition, and who to look out for on the wall.
Ones to watch
Men's speed climbing
The men's speed climbing competition is heading towards a thrilling conclusion, and this week's penultimate event is likely to make a huge difference to the leaderboard.
There have been four winners from the four events so far, with little separating the favorites. Indonesia's Kiromal Katabin currently holds the pole position, thanks to a speedy gold in Denver last month and an impressive second-place finish in the previous speed climbing competition in Krakow, Poland.
Breathing down his neck is American prodigy Sam Watson, who's also won one event this year and has shown plenty of promise in the rest of the competition. Watson has been a mainstay atop speed climbing leaderboards after he burst onto the scene with a world record time in last year's Olympic Games.
Victory for either climber would solidify their place as the favorite for the series gold, and put clear water between them and the rest of the competition.
Women's speed climbing
This year's women's competition has been similarly tight, with several close calls and four different winners. The pick of the bunch has been Poland's Aleksandra Miroslaw, who sped up the wall to claim a terrific victory at the second speed climbing event of the year in Bali, Indonesia.
Although she missed out on gold at her home World Cup last weekend, the 31-year-old remains in contention, thanks to her consistent performances throughout the 2025 competition.
Although she'll be confident, Miroslaw will have to contend with two fierce competitors in Chamonix, Indonesia's Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi, and American Prodigy Emma Hunt. The former won her first-ever IFSC World Cup event with a lightning-fast climb in the previous round, while the latter has shown composure well beyond her years, with several impressive climbs in this year's competition.
Hunt, 22, surged to victory with an unstoppable qualification climb in Denver, before the competition was stopped due to poor weather.
All three will be eager to make it to the final round and get their shot at more World Cup glory on Sunday, July 13.
Men's lead climbing
We're only three rounds into the 2025 lead climbing competition, and there's already plenty to climb for.
Like many modern climbing competitions, this one has been dominated by youngsters, with Japan's Sorato Anraku catching the eye after an exciting victory at the first lead climbing event of the season. The 18-year-old has been in and around the medals at the two competitions since, but narrowly lost out to countrymen Satone Yoshida and Neo Suzuki.
Anraku will be eager to claim an elusive second lead climbing win of the season in Chamonix and take one step further towards the lead series victory.
Spectators will also have their eyes out for Great Britain's Toby Roberts, who's run hot and cold in this year's competition. Roberts, 20, was considered to be one of the favorites coming into the 2025 lead climbing event, but has so far fallen flat and failed to win any of the previous rounds.
He'll be hoping to get back to the form that won him Olympic gold at last year's games when he returns to the wall on Saturday. Despite his slow start, the open nature of the competition still means that Roberts is in with a shot at series gold if he takes victory over the weekend.
Women's lead climbing
Before the season, few fans would've thought that a young and unknown British climber would be out and ahead atop the women's lead climbing leaderboard, but here we are. Just three competitions into the 2025 season, 21-year-old Erin McNeice has two gold medals and one bronze.
In an extraordinary opening round, she tied with South Korea's Chaehyun Seo, after both recorded the same scores in the final, semi-final, and qualification rounds in Wujiang, China. The next event would be a little less close, with the aggressive Brit speeding up the wall to claim a decisive second gold of the season.
McNeice will be waiting patiently for Saturday's qualifying round to see if World Cup legend Janja Garnbret is competing. The 26-year-old, who's won an astonishing 47 World Cup competitions, has missed most of the World Cup season while she takes a break to recover from years of competitive climbing, but returned last week with a dominant gold medal display.
The Slovenian climber is yet to confirm whether she'll be in attendance this weekend. If she is, Garnbret will be a sure-fire favorite and could challenge McNeice for her position as the competition leader.
IFSC World Cup Schedule
Speed qualification
- 10am PT (July 11) / 1am EST (July 11) / 4pm BST (July 11) Men's and women's qualification
Speed finals
- 12am PT (July 12) / 3pm EST (July 12) / 8am BST (July 12) Men's and women's finals
Lead qualification
- 12am PT (July 12) / 3am EST (July 12) / 8pm BST (July 12) Men's and women's qualification
Lead finals
- 11.30am PT (July 13) / 2.30pm EST (July 13) / 7.30pm BST (July 13) Men's final
- 12.25pm PT (July 13) / 3.25pm EST (July 13) / 8.25pm BST (July 13) Women's final
What is the IFSC World Cup?
The IFSC World Cup is a year-long climbing competition that pits the world's best climbers head-to-head in lead climbing, speed climbing, and bouldering competitions.
It takes place over 14 different World Cup stages, held across the globe and throughout the year.
Points from each competition are tallied up, and climbers are ranked on separate leaderboards for each discipline. These rankings decide the eventual world champions.
How to watch the IFSC World Cup
There are loads of ways to watch the upcoming World Cup competition, with plenty of broadcasters and streaming services providing coverage.
Check out how you can watch where you are with our expert guide.
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