Sport climbing medal contender Seo Chae-hyun finished 13th in the bouldering semifinal of the women’s sport climbing combined event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.
Seo scored 44.2 points out of a possible 100 at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue in Le Bourget, north of Paris. The 20-year-old will have to make up some ground in the lead semifinal Thursday to rank among the top eight overall and qualify for the final, which will be Saturday.
The combined event will determine rankings based on athletes’ performances in bouldering and lead climbing.
The objective of bouldering is to scale multiple routes with the fewest attempts within a time limit in a problem-solving mission. In the lead event, climbers get one attempt to ascend as high as they can on a route set on a 15-meter wall within six minutes.
In the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) rankings, Seo is No. 18 in bouldering but No. 3 in lead. She is fourth in the bouldering and lead combined rankings.
Climbers faced four bouldering pr
oblems to solve and earned 25 points for reaching the top hold in a single attempt. They received 10 points for reaching the high zone or five points for reaching the low zone. They faced a 0.1-point deduction for each failed attempt before securing their hold.
In those four problems, Seo scored 5.0, 24.8, 9.7 and 4.7 points.
Janja Garnbret of Slovenia, the No. 1 in the IFSC’s combined rankings, was the only climber to solve all four problems Tuesday. She finished with 99.6 points.
Oriane Bertone of France ranked second with 84.5 points.
Seo said afterward she was not too disappointed with her bouldering results and she was looking forward to the lead competition, her main event.
“I should be able to get past bouldering climbers in the lead event and reach the final,” Seo said.
Sport climbing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, and Seo finished eighth then when the combined event was made up of bouldering, lead and speed events.
“I am a lot stronger now than I was in Tokyo,” Seo said. “I couldn’t
complete bouldering problems then, but I solved one today.”
She is the daughter of the national sport climbing team head coach, Seo Jong-guk, who told her to relax and have fun.
“My father told me, ‘Most people feel more pressure here than other competitions. But you should think of it as just another event, and have fun,'” the daughter said. “And I had a ton of fun out there.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency