Watch Climbing at the Youth Olympic Games and Preview
This Saturday, the third edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games opens in Buenos Aires, Argentina, welcoming to the Olympics the first ever Youth Olympians of Sport Climbing, game changers of the sport.
The only Canadian who will be at the event is Catherine Carkner who qualified at the PanAmerican Youth Championships in Montreal. The full list of qualified athletes can be found here.
The Sport Climbing qualification events for the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 gathered the best of the best Bouldering, Lead and Speed athletes – of the ages 16 and 17 in 2017 – at youth championships around the globe.
Among hundreds of competitors, top athletes at the IFSC Youth World Championships in 2017 earned a spot in Buenos Aires, the first appearance of Sport Climbing in an Olympic context.
The remaining athletes mastered their respective Youth Continental Championships in 2017 in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and PanAmerica, where youth stars qualified to compete on their home continent with Argentina native Valentina Aguado. Finally, in September the quota for Sport Climbing expanded.
42 qualified athletes of Sport Climbing representing 25 countries, an even number of female and male athletes at the first Olympic competition with strict gender equality, have continued to be game changers on the world stage in 2018.
In the IFSC World Cup series, Sandra Lettner (AUT) opened the 2018 season by solving multiple problems in Bouldering finals to place fourth in April behind IFSC World Cup season champions.
Shuta Tanaka (JPN) endured among former IFSC World Cup season champions too on towering Lead walls to place July 5 and 6, and no female qualified athlete raced faster on the standard Speed wall than Aleksandra Kalucka (POL), who challenged Speed world record holders to place fourth and fifth.
Sam Avezou (FRA), Natalia Kalucka (POL), Vita Lukan (SLO) and Laura Rogora (ITA) claimed victories at the IFSC Youth World Championships this year in August, and the Kalucka sisters and Rogora all climbed in finals among elite Sport Climbing athletes at the biannual IFSC World Championships last month.
Buenos Aires 2018 will measure not only performance in a single discipline but all-around success across all three disciplines of Sport Climbing. Like the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, athletes will be required to compete in Speed, Bouldering and then Lead and will be ranked according to their Combined result.
Buenos Aires 2018 programming on the Olympic Channel includes:
24/7 Coverage
Viewers can watch the 24/7 Youth Olympic Games Channel at any time from 6 to 18 October on the Olympic Channel and YouTube. The round-the-clock streaming channel features both live and tape-delayed event coverage and daily highlights shows.
Live Streaming
Event coverage across the YOG competition is available both live and on-demand on the Olympic Channel at olympicchannel.com and its mobile apps.
YOG Daily
The “YOG Daily” show will feature a lively look at the news, trending stores, highlights and interviews in a round-up of the day’s events in a fun and interactive format. Available live on Facebook and Twitter daily at 1 p.m. local time.
Olympic Channel Podcast
Featuring insightful interviews across the Olympic world, the Olympic Channel will produce a daily podcast during the YOG for an in-depth look at the personalities, stories and competition in Buenos Aires.
Schedules and Results
To keep on top of the action in Buenos Aires, fans can find event and live streaming schedules, results and medal standings on olympicchannel.com.
Social Media
Fans can also follow the Olympic Channel’s coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to learn more about the sports featured at the YOG as well as take part of the fun by interacting with athletes and for behind-the-scenes action.
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