The Olympic sport climbing strand of the 2024 Summer Olympics is underway, and we've already seen a lot: massive upsets from the tricky climbs of the lead and boulder event, and new world records in the speed climbing event.
US: Peacock | NBC
UK: BBC | iPlayer (both free with license fee) | Discovery Plus
AU: Stan Sports | 9Now (free)
Watch abroad with a VPN
If you want to watch the 2024 Olympic sport climbing in the UK or Australia, you'll be glad to know that you can do so for FREE on iPlayer and 9Now respectively. If you're abroad when the games are going on, you can watch the 2024 Olympics from anywhere by using a VPN.
After climbing proved a hit at the 2020 Olympics, Sport Climbing is doubling the number of events and medals in 2024. Now, instead of one men's and one women's combined event, speed climbing has been spun off into its own separate event, so there are more golds up for grabs.
The number of athletes competing has also jumped up by 28, with 68 climbers heading to Paris to compete in the Olympic climbing tournament.
At the bottom of this article we'll break down what you need to know about Sport Climbing at the 2024 Summer Olympics, but first we'll get to the important information: here's how to watch the Olympic climbing competition from around the world.
How to watch Olympic climbing in the US
If you live in the US, your best bet for watching the Olympic sport climbing (and all of the rest of the Olympic sports) is NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock.
Peacock is set to act as a streaming hub for the Olympics and therefore it'll be your best bet for catching the sport climbing on each day that it takes place. The streamer will have an Olympic home page that you can find climbing from.
Some Olympic sports will be shown on the NBC TV channel but it's unlikely that climbing will be one of them, due to it being a newer and nicher sport.
Peacock costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year for its basic ad-supported plan and $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year for its ad-free Premium Plus one, and if you sign up you should consider whether you want ads in your movie and TV streaming as well as in the Olympics.
In our schedule section below, you'll be able to see timings for each round of the Olympic sport climbing events, but just so you know the earlier ones will take place in the middle of the night.
How to watch Olympic climbing in the UK
With rights to broadcast the 2024 Olympic Games falling to the BBC once again, you'll be able to watch the Olympic climbing events for free (as long as you pay your license fee).
The BBC sometimes shows Olympic events via its TV channels but in 2020 it didn't feature sport climbing much in its coverage; instead, your best bet is to use the BBC's online streaming service iPlayer with lets you watch BBC Sport coverage.
There is a more reliable way to watch the Olympic sport climbing, but it won't be free: that's the streaming service Discovery Plus, which is hosting live streams of every event.
Discovery Plus' Standard tier (which you need) usually costs £6.99 per month but until the end of the Olympic games, you can sign up for £3.99 per month, and if you do the low price will remain until the end of the year.
How to watch Olympic climbing in Australia
The best way to watch the Olympic climbing in Australia is via the Nine Network, as the broadcaster is handling coverage of the entire tournament including Sport Climbing.
One of the Nine channels might show some of the Sport Climbing events but if you want to catch as much of it as possible, we'd recommend using 9Now. This is Nine Network's streaming service (which is free to use) and it's set to be offering live streams of all the Olympic events.
One other way to watch the 2024 Olympic Games events is via Stan Sport, which will show all of the competitions in 4K and ad-free, though you'll have to pay. This makes it best for the hardcore sports fans who want a premium experience.
Stan Sport costs $15 per month on top of a standard Stan subscription; these start at $12 per month and go up to $21 monthly depending on the tier. So for Stan Sport you'll be paying anywhere from $27 to $36 depending on which tier of Stan you opt for.
How to watch Olympic climbing everywhere else
If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch the Olympic climbing events, you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite sports, shows or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
Olympic climbing schedule
The Olympic climbing begins on Monday, August 5 and continues for six days across its four competitions. Here's the entire schedule, as per the Olympic website
Monday, August 5
- Boulder semifinal for Men's Boulder & Lead: 4 am ET/1 am PT/9 am UK/6 pm AU
- Qualification seeding for Women's Speed: 7 am ET/4 am PT/midday/9 pm AU
- Qualification elimination for Women's Speed: 7:40 am ET/4:40 am PT/12:40 pm UK/9:40 pm AU
Tuesday, August 6
- Boulder semifinal for Women's Boulder & Lead: 4 am ET/1 am PT/9 am UK/6 pm AU
- Qualification seeding for Men's Speed: 7 am ET/4 am PT/midday/9 pm AU
- Qualification elimination for Men's Speed: 7:40 am ET/4:40 am PT/12:40 pm UK/9:40 pm AU
Wednesday, August 7
- Lead semifinal for Men's Boulder & Lead: 4 am ET/1 am PT/9 am UK/6 pm AU
- Quarterfinals for Women's Speed: 6:28 am ET/3:28 am PT/11:28 am UK/8:28 pm AU
- Semifinals for Women's Speed: 6:46 am ET/3:46 am PT/11:46 am UK/8:46 pm AU
- Finals for Women's Speed: 6:55 am ET/3:55 am PT/11:55 am UK/8:55 pm AU
Thursday, August 8
- Lead semifinal for Women's Boulder & Lead: 4 am ET/1 am PT/9 am UK/6 pm AU
- Quarterfinals for Men's Speed: 6:28 am ET/3:28 am PT/11:28 am UK/8:28 pm AU
- Semifinals for Men's Speed: 6:46 am ET/3:46 am PT/11:46 am UK/8:46 pm AU
- Finals for Men's Speed: 6:55 am ET/3:55 am PT/11:55 am UK/8:55 pm AU
Friday, August 9
- Boulder final for Men's Boulder & Lead: 4:15 am ET/1:15 am PT/9:15 am UK/6:15 pm AU
- Lead final for Men's Boulder & Lead: 6:28 am ET/3:28 am PT/11:28 am UK/8:28 pm AU
Saturday, August 10
- Boulder final for Women's Boulder & Lead: 4:15 am ET/1:15 am PT/9:15 am UK/6:15 pm AU
- Lead final for Women's Boulder & Lead: 6:28 am ET/3:28 am PT/11:28 am UK/8:28 pm AU
All you need to know about the Olympic climbing events
What are the four Olympic Sport climbing events?
In 2024, instead of having one climbing event for men and one for women like in 2020, each gender has two separate events: Boulder & Lead is the first, and then there's Speed.
Speed is, as the name suggests, the speed trial from the combined competition before. In it, athletes have to scale a 15-meter wall as high as possible, in a one-on-one elimination format. The route is always the same, so athletes have had time to practise it.
Boulder & Lead combines the other two types of climbing. Boulder sees competitors climb a 4.5 wall without ropes (ie bouldering) as quick as possible in as few attempts as they can. Lead is similar but for lead climbing, with athletes having to climb a 15m wall as fast as possible while also working out their own route.
The Speed event is all about practise and athleticism while the Boulder & Lead one involves some strategy and planning, requiring different skills.
Both Speed and Boulder & Lead have men's and women's strains, making four competitions in all.
Where does Olympic climbing take place?
All of the 2024 Olympic climbing events will be hosted by the Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue, one of the two arenas used in the Paris Olympics that's been built specifically for the competition.
The Climbing Venue has five walls, one indoor and four outdoor, with the former only to be used for warm-ups in the event, as is one of the outdoor ones. The other three are for Speed, Boulder and Lead events respectively.
This climbing wall is, as the name suggests, in Le Bourget, an area of Paris' metropolitcan area in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of the city. It's north-east of the center.
Who's competing in the Olympic climbing competition?
In total there are 68 athletes competing in the Women's Speed, Men's Speed, Women's Boulder & Lead and Men's Boulder & Lead competitions, and so we can't list them all.
You can find the IFSC list of competing athletes here, but some of the IFSC's top-rated climbers are set to compete. These include Janja Garnbret, Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra. At the time of writing qualifiers are still ongoing so this list could expand.
How to watch other Olympic sports
If you want specific information on other Olympic sports, here are guides we have to the other activities which will be shown as part of the Paris Olympic games:
