Women's Boulder final highlights || Innsbruck 2023

A stellar lineup of Olympians, multi-medal winners, and first-podium chasers competed in the women's Boulder final in Innsbruck, where trophies for the Boulder season were also awarded.
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[@hansmeier3815]

There are already four Olympic jumping disciplines. IFSC invented a fifth variant: the high jump from a soft mat.

[@LetsChat]

Four flashes in a row is both an amazing accomplishment (Great job Janja, you deserve the win) and a horrendous feat of route setting for a world final competition (i would have like to seen problems where the shortest climbers can at least *reach* the starting hold, absolutely ludicrous). High jump is a separate sport than bouldering, who knew.

[@OlivierFRscooter]

This. Flashes should so not be as common as they have been the past year. Climbers get better? Up the level of the comp, don't let it go down to countback

[@sharkh20]

I'd agree if everyone was topping everything. But one of the flashes, noone else even topped.

[@climb518]

​@@OlivierFRscooterWhat are you on about, seperation was strong in this comp

[@laavo3754]

@@OlivierFRscooter I'd say this season has seen a lot more than earlier seasons. Seldom has the winner been decided by tries instead of tops.

[@seaweed-soup]

Semis was a well-set comp with - difficult, balancey, committing slab - hard presses/mantels - committing footwork - balancey coordination that depends on body positioning, ability to generate with legs, and hand strength (not purely ability to reach) - hard dynamic movement that presented opportunities to also be done as hard static movement (test ability to read boulders and adjust for your strengths) As a result we saw climbers of all sizes both topping and getting shut down on all different boulders - so interesting and engaging to watch. Finals, on the other hand, was completely one-dimensional, boring, and stressful! It was honestly a huge letdown and you could tell there was a traumatic effect on most of the athletes. Maybe IFSC needs to consider adding roofs/caves to the walls. I hear the argument that it's hard to set a truly difficult boulder problem on a 45 or 60 that will actually challenge the climbers, although I question whether that is true. Also, are there other issues at hand that are hindering the setting team's ability to set well, consistently? Lack of diversity in the team, probably? Are people over capacity / burnt out from the schedule? Especially this packed Innsbruck week? Maybe there should have been another weekend in between Brixen & Innsbruck. IFSC, whatever it is, please do a deep debrief and identify the issues because this was miserable to watch.

[@seaweed-soup]

⁠@@coolguyASDQWEFEWFADSFAS agreed!

[@addictingfishy]

My heart really broke for Brooke who had such a disadvantage with height. It's not pleasant to watch climbers not be able to do a boulder because of something they can't control. The setting was pretty ridiculous and I was disappointed.

[@mewichigo3410]

Agree! I love Brooke and she did amazing in semis. I was so sad to see her and others struggling just because of their size 😞

[@luciapseudonym6082]

Brooke and Ai Mori even more!

[@emmyhynes5827]

i don't understand how the semis were set so well

[@lucaseder5410]

Would it be possible to get a commentary from the route setters? The bias towards height on the jump move of W1 and the toe catch on W4 was crazy. It was really disappointing to see such a bad set at this competition which disadvantaged Ai and Brooke to such a strong degree.

[@richardv648]

Most of these women are around 1.53 to 1.60. Far below the average height of women. Why do you think that is? Bouldering is already much easier for shorter climbers. I don't mind that they level the playing field a bit. Also I noticed that many of the finalists just don't jump very high (Raboutoo in particular), they should focus on improving their high jump.

[@wellenslea3358]

@@richardv648 Are you kidding me ? Brooke has shown that she has worked on that topic et made improvements (Ai Mori should be working on that). Route setters don't have to limit themself because of short climbers but they need to make every boulders accessible regardless of height. The last one was impossible to top for Brooke or Ai Mori since they couldn't reach the toe hook. Bit unfair

[@richardv648]

@@wellenslea3358 so regardless of whether a person is 1.36 or 2.40 a boulder should be accessible? lol. Everyone knows that shorter climbers are at a major advantage. Making certain boulders more difficult for shorter people is a great way to level the playing field. Well done routesetters!

[@erne5613]

Does this kind of jump skills make someone a better climber ? The new style seems to drive away more ans more the outdoor and the indoor climber. Such a shame....

[@lucaseder5410]

@@richardv648 I think the main problem was that the toe catch move on W4 was literally not possible for Ai Mori, it was not just a disadvantage.

[@haickibaicki]

Very good highlights! I love seeing the boulders

[@klock379]

I want to applaud the camera team. This is one of the best filmed events, both bouldering and lead climbing. Perfect angle. Perfect coverage! Keep up the good work!

[@Christiextvdfan1]

It’s so unfair we can’t watch the live streams here in Czechia 🥺 great work to all, Janja once again dominating 🎉

[@hazu972]

Congrats guys. You finally found the perfect format for highlights, there's story telling, we see all the boulders entirely, the rankings. Very enjoyable to watch, please keep at it !

[@xyloon7746]

i am enjoying this highlight way more than the last ones. keep it like this

[@ianwoodvine5558]

All the hype about the potential competition between Janja and Natalia after Natalia won the title last year and then Janja comes back from injury and does that 😮 truly the GOAT 👏👏👏 such a disappointing set from the setters - they basically handicapped 40% of the group before they even started climbing

[@mateotardy1433]

Amazing 🔥🔥

[@climb518]

Janja is such a role model for me, just amazing climbing

[@Elmnopen]

The fact that they made it so difficult for Ai Mori on the first folder ruined the entire competition as she was a serious potential. Ruined it.

[@luciapseudonym6082]

3 over 4 boulders were jumpy boulders and very morphological. Ai Mori didn't have any chance to send the last boulder because she was too short and couldn't hook her foot under the yellow hold. She was very penalized, while Jania took lot of advantages because all boulders met her climbing style. But this style looks more like parcour than climbing. Honestly, I don't think the route setters did a good job.

[@bakiotarra]

Janja might need a different league or compete with handicap... pure domination

[@pclouds]

Uh... I think that's given.

[@ORJ_yong]

안야 진짜 잘한다

[@ScratchRick]

Extremely unfair routes for the shorter girls...

[@fault.]

Janja is different ❤

[@tischersf]

Routsetting was really unfair at this final. Shame on them.

[@sauronspaz]

As much as I respect these athletes, as a climber myself I find current routesetting boring and unappealing. I understand that pulling from mono to mono might not be great for the show, but the current trends in routesetting have very little to do with climbing.

[@-h151-7]

It's made for crowd pleasing and gets more and more into a parkour kind of thing. I don't like all those dyno moves and I avoid them completely in the gym since they are so injury prone. But it is what it is.

[@UchihaSignori]

I agree. This is why Lead is always better to watch than bouldering imo.

[@jeffreychongsathien]

I'm starting to think this whole "World Cup" and medal format thing might be inferior to a global league format (with different size classes, of course).

[@raph.c1120]

This competition is a joke...route setters should not be invited back.

[@BowMcGee]

Disgraceful route setting!

[@bodhisatba]

not more not less, i was disgusted watching this.

[@ryanmast8589]

Yall took down the finals video while i was watching it 😐

[@aj-jc4cv]

Yes I had that too, it went private twice and the second time was just before Brooke's attempt at w4.

[@OlivierFRscooter]

Routesetting almost the entire year has been bad with too many flashes and tops everywhere, but this being the same + parametric ? Shameful

[@jamescunningham9277]

People are being a little harsh on the route setters here its a difficult job .. you set it for ai mori's height and someone like janya will then probably be able to skip moulds 😂😂

[@mx2000]

I feel like there are some basics to routesetting that should be expected. Like, don’t put the start so high up that half of the field can’t reach it.

[@jeffreychongsathien]

Climbing needs to decide "What characteristics define the best individual climber relative to others in the group" and as much as possible normalize the other variables out of the equation. Right now, it's not even acknowledging the problem. If climbing doesn't introduce size classes like boxing and MMA, it'll end up like the NBA, or men's tennis i.e. boring and stupid where size is overvalued because the sport will be about serving aces out of a tree. People who argue otherwise are absurd enough to think Prime Mike Tyson vs Prime Naseem Hamed makes sense - it doesn't. I think it's only dogmatic/change averse thinking that argues against the same for climbing. Skill, intelligence, spatial acuity, balance, strength, endurance, technique... shouldn't the best climber be determined only by these variables? Why should height be on the list? Why not shoe size... it's the same logic. The direction of travel is clear IMHO - with a one-size-all-approach, the domination of 6 ft 6 in giant stick insects breaking all the betas is inevitable... and on the rare occasions where too much height is punitive, it's just the flip side of the coin. The problem isn't the router setters per se - it's fundamental problems with the flawed philosophy underlying the competition, and the route setting as a mechanism to realise said philosophy. These problems are all on the people who finance and run the sport.

[@shadowhuggerD]

Saying climbing requires size classes shows a critical lack of understanding. If taller climbers are truly advantaged over shorter climbers then we would see climbers like Mechi Narasaki and Paul Jenft dominating every comp. Instead Tomoa usually performs better of the two Narasaki brothers at 170cm Vs 188cm. The overall world cup winner is only 165cm. The problem is that the route setters setting problems for women 20-30cm shorter then them. On boulder 1 vertical jump height from the ground has nothing to do with climbing and I don't think it was even intended to be tested by the route setters, they even moved the start hold further down then the scan. They probably had no problems reaching it themselves and thought that the athletes wouldn't either. On boulder 4 the toe catch seems anatomically impossible for the shorter climbers, adding to the fact that they are already overstretched on the previous hold there was no way for them to generate power. Overall boulder 1 and 4 seemed to test height more than climbing ability. To sum it up I think tall climbers have the possibility to break beta in order to gain an advantage. Short climbers often have to break beta just to make certain moves possible.

[@jeffreychongsathien]

​@@shadowhuggerD I read your response and to me it just reinforces the common sense notion of having the 18_ cm climbers compete amongst themselves, and for the 16_ cm climbers to compete amongst themselves.

[@LetsChat]

Natalia deserved the top on W3. She was in control with less than a second on the clock. Its the judges fault for not being fast enough. Why have the timer at all if you can use every last second to climb?

[@TheJamesDeschenes]

No she wasn't. The lights blinking aren't electronically synced with the timer...that's a human activating them through the lighting console, and there is a bit of a delay after he's hit the button before they start blinking, depending on the fixtures they are using. Also, the live feed had a replay with the timer showing. Unfortunately, it was not a top.

[@sharkh20]

She didn't even match yet at 0, what are you talking about? It really sucks but it's pretty clear she timed out.

[@MrSatchelpack]

You didn't even watch the replay did you?

[@jamescunningham9277]

Doesn't really matter in the end I guess she still would have finished second even with that top

[@ghinwamoujaes9059]

In the actual long video they show a clear angle with the clock that she matched after 0:00. She also would have ended up 2nd anyways.