How to Watch the Olympic Qualifier Series This Weekend
Don't miss one of the biggest comp climbing events of the year this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The final set of Olympic tickets are at stake.
Photo by: Nakajima Kazushige/IFSC
The Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) Boulder & Lead event is currently underway in Shanghai, China. The OQS is a multi-sport two-stop competition that will award qualifying sports for the Paris Olympics for BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding, and sport climbing (Boulder & Lead and Speed). The climbing portion of the event is being held in Shanghai from May 16 to 19 and Budapest from June 20 to 23. At the end of the Budapest event, 12 Olympic tickets in each gender category will be awarded in Boulder & Lead.
Yesterday (in North American time zones), climbers participated in the Boulder qualification round. Later today, they’ll compete in the Lead qualification round. The top athletes will then move on to the semi-finals held late Friday night / early Saturday morning in North American time zones. The finals will be held late Saturday night / early Sunday morning.
To learn more about the OQS format, competitors, and points system, read our in-depth explainer here. The qualification rounds, semi-finals, and finals are being livestreamed on the Olympics website. It also appears they’ll be offering full livestream replays of the individual events on the site. You have to make a free account in order to watch. Yesterday’s Boulder qualification round replay is currently up on the site here. See below for the full livestream schedule as well as the links for where to watch.
Livestream Schedule
The Boulder semi-finals and finals will be livestreamed here and replayed here. The livestream schedule is listed below:
Men’s and Women’s Boulder stage semi-finals – Friday May 18 – 9:30pm ET (6:30pm PT)
Men’s and Women’s Lead stage semi-finals – Saturday May 18 – 1:30am ET (10:30pm PT Friday)
Men’s Boulder stage final – Saturday May 19 – 10pm ET (7pm PT)
Men’s Lead stage final – Sunday May 19 – 12:05am ET (9:05pm PT Saturday)
Women’s Boulder stage final – Sunday May 19 – 3:25am ET (12:25am PT)
Women’s Lead stage final – Sunday May 19 – 5:30am ET (2:30am PT)
We’ll be covering the results so be sure to check back in to Gripped Indoor Climbing for the latest news.
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