To say we are excited is a HUGE understatement. We need to chalk up just from the anticipation!
The Summer Games opening ceremony will take place this Friday, July 23, at 6:55am, and can be viewed live here! It's a bit of a crux that Japan is 13 hours ahead of our time zone, but the USA tv station will also be replaying climbing coverage at more palatable hours of the day. Check out the full schedule here, and watch Climbing Live or via Replay at nbcolympics.com.
Also, why we can't use the "O" word...
Schedule of Events:
Tuesday, August 3: Men's Qualifiers
Wednesday, August 4: Women's Qualifiers
Thursday, August 5: Men's Finals
Friday, August 6: Women's Finals
While you wait, check out "Sport Climbing: the newest Olympic sport broken down by local experts:" NBC5 Interview with Cate & Andrea at Petra Cliffs
About the Competition Format:
The competitions will be split into the disciplines of Speed Climbing, Bouldering, and Lead Climbing:
Speed Climbing will take a head-to-head bracket format, with the first climber to reach the buzzer at the end of the route moving on to the next round.
In Bouldering, the leaderboard is first determined by how many problems each climber reaches the top within the 4 minute time allotment, then differentiated by the number of attempts and midpoint zone completions.
And in Lead Climbing, climbers will get 6 minutes and one attempt to climb as high as they can on a route. Each handhold is worth a point, so the higher the climber reaches, the more points they gain, which determines their final ranking.