Canadian Victor Baudrand Makes Finals with Ashima

As heads turn toward Tokyo, it can become easy to forget the World Cup circuit rages on in Chamonix. Although fewer Olympians than recent competitions made it to this event, the results from France’s Qualification and Semi-Final rounds have brought focus back to North America’s athletes.

The Qualification round ran in two separate events providing the top 26 and 28 required for Semi-Finals. While many Olympians have forgone this competition, the Women’s field still featured several world-class athletes. From the United States, phenomenon Natalia Grossman would join Slovenia’s Lucka Rakovec at the top of the leaderboard. Both athletes would top one of their two routes and walk away with a score of 50 on the other.

A point of note became Eva Hammelmüller’s ascent of W1. She would become the only athlete to reach the top of that route. Although she scored low on her second route, she entered Semi-Finals in fourth position.

These athletes were joined by some of these last World Cups’ most commonly proficient climbers. France’s Julia Chanourdie, Slovenia’s Vita Lukan and Italy’s Laura Rogora would all make a strong performance. In many ways, this was expected.

Although some of the strongest made semi-finals, the women’s field offered a rich variety of athletes. Great Britain’s Molly Thompson-Smith, for example, climbed a strong competition and qualified for Semi-Finals in 13.

American athlete Ashima Shiraishi, known for her rise to strength at a young age, would return from her hiatus from competitive rock climbing. She qualified for Semis in 16. Her performance is reminiscent of Kai Lightener’s recent return to competition. In the North American Cup Series, Lightener, like Shiraishi returned and took third. Upon her return, she made the Semi-Final.

The Men’s field offered a similarly exciting competition. While Japan’s Satone Yoshida dominated the round, becoming the only athlete to top both routes, Team Canada’s performance would become the focal point for Canadian spectators.

In a field filled with athletes such as Spanish Olympian Alberto Ginés López and American World Cup Winner Sean Bailey, Canadian Victor Baudrand would continue to qualify in fourth position for Semi-Finals. This became Baudrand’s best Qualification result. His brother Oscar Baudrand would join him in Semi-Finals in 18 position.

The Baudrands out-paced some extremely strong athletes. Victor would beat out Sean Bailey, Yannick Flohé, Stefano Ghisolfi, Mejdi Schalck and Ross Fulkerson. Oscar would join his brother in out competing Fulkerson and Schalck.

Every competition offers a different set of moves on the day and making large scale projections must always come with a degree of consideration; however, in terms of trends, the Baudrands have progressed substantially over the last events they competed in.

With 54 athletes chosen, 26 women and 28 men, the Semi-Final round began with high hopes for North American climbing fans. Naturally the names to watch ultimately boiled down to Natalia Grossman, Ashima Shiraishi, Victor Baudrand, Sean Bailey, Oscar Baudrand, and Ross Fulkerson. For the women, the competition came close.

Nine women would top the sustained, almost crux-less semi-final route. Only eight can go to finals. Almost all of the women that made Finals were in the top eight heading into Semi-Finals, with the exception of Lucka Rakovec, Eva Hammelmüller, and Ryu Nakagawa.

These athletes would become replaced by Japan’s Natsuki Tanii as well as Rogora and Shiraishi. In terms of the climbing itself, the athletes’ rankings functioned as a result of countbacks from the previous round. This is because they all shared the same score due to topping the route.

With that said, Grossman entered into Finals in first position. Aleksandra Totkova will enter Semi-Finals in second following the fall of Rakovec. Chanourdie and Russia’s Dinara Fakhritdinova have tied for third position. Shiraishi’s eighth placement shows just how proficient the American really is. Few people can take such time off the circuit and make Finals in their comeback debut.

After the World Cup in Villars, many will hope that Finals will not separate itself in count backs as it did with Rogora and Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret. Although bouldering features attempts as another separating characteristic, the women’s field appears to have approached a level of strength that setters seem to underestimate.

In the bouldering World Cup in Salt Lake, Grossman beat Garnbret on attempts. In Innsbruck, Garnbret beat Grossman on attempts. Although attempts and countbacks cannot find true comparison against one another, the fact that the Women’s field appears to consistently top most of their routes speaks volumes about the setting. It provides room for further conversation regarding the more complete representation of female athletes in the setting process. Part of this difficulty might come from a limited supply of female climbers at that physical level that are not already preoccupied with competition.

The Men’s field provided a more obviously separate round. Switzerland’s Lehmann continued his consistent result from the qualification round and took first heading into Finals. Italy’s Stefano Ghisolfi picked himself up from his previously low qualification and fell advancing to the hold Lehamnn would ultimately reach. Ghisolofi qualified for Finals in second.

Although Fulkerson and Oscar Baudrand would not be able to climb in Finals, Bailey and Victor Baudrand would qualify in fifth and seventh respectively. This makes Chamonix Baudrand’s greatest result yet and his first Finals. Although Oscar did not make Finals, he too had his best result ending the round in 23.

Canadians will not want to miss Finals tomorrow at 2:25 pm EST. You can watch it here or down below. Although Baudrand did fall six holds short of Lehmann, it did not appear as though he fell for any reason other than fatigue. Supposing the 18-year-old can recover this evening, Baudrand might surprise the world with his steadily increasing ability.

Women Advancing to Finals

1 : Natalia Grossman (USA)

2 : Aleksandra Totkova (BUL)

3 : Julia Chanourdie (FRA)

3 : Dinara Fakhritdinova (RUS)

5 : Vita Lukan (SLO)

6 : Laura Rogora (ITA)

7 : Natsuki Tanii (JPN)

8 : Ashima Shiraishi (USA)

Men Advancing to Finals

1 : Sascha Lehmann (SUI)

2 : Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA)

3 : Paul Jenft (FRA)

4 : Luka Potocar (SLO)

5 : Sean Bailey (USA)

6 : Martin Stranik (CZE)

7 : Victor Baudrand (CAN)

8 : Marcello Bombardi (ITA)

Featured image of Victor Baudrand by Daniel Gajda.