Paris 2024 sport climbing: All results, as Janja Garnbret becomes double Olympic champion with Boulder & Lead gold
Janja Garnbret is a two-time Olympic champion after winning the Boulder & Lead final at Paris 2024.
Three years on from winning the combined event at Tokyo 2020, the Slovenian sport climbing great reigned supreme once more with a score of 168.5.
The 25-year-old did so despite an injury worry after the Boulder half of the final, but she put those concerns to one side with a 84.1 in the Lead to finish ahead of USA’s Brooke Raboutou (156.0) and Austria’s Jessica Pilz (147.4).
Garnbret held a narrow lead after the Boulder event on Saturday morning, although even the 25-year-old was unable to scale the tricky final boulder, and grimaced after falling with an apparent finger injury.
Her score of 84.4 points was just 0.4 more than Raboutou, with the pair holding a healthy advantage over the chasing pack.
They weren’t to know, however, given climbers are unaware of their rivals’ scores during the competition, making for a fascinating Lead half of the final on Saturday afternoon.
And out they came, one by one, from the isolation zone to the stage in their attempt to scale the 15-metre wall.
Team GB’s Erin McNeice moved into medal contention when a 68.1 in the Lead gave her a score of 127.6 points overall with four climbers remaining.
It was then the turn of reigning Lead world champion Mori Ai of Japan, who had struggled in the Boulder with a 39.0 but then displaced McNeice at the top with a remarkable 96.1 – for 135.1 overall.
Raboutou then guaranteed herself a medal when a 72.0 saw her leapfrog Mori, with just Pilz and Garnbret left to go out.
Pilz got on the podium, too, bursting into tears after learning her Lead was enough for a silver or bronze, and that left just Garnbret.
Unaware of what she would need for gold, Garnbret edged closer and closer to the medal she was out to defend, and she surpassed that mark to huge cheers to win by 12.5 points overall.
Cue the emotion, with training partners Garnbret and Raboutou sharing a tearful hug after finishing in gold and silver.
Podium: Sport climbing women’s Boulder & Lead, Paris 2024
Gold: Janja Garnbret (Slovenia)
Silver: Brooke Raboutou (USA)
Bronze: Jessica Pilz (Austria)