Disciplines, grades and competition formats

Three disciplines, three scoring systems

The World Climbing (formerly IFSC) rules of January 2026 describe each discipline in a separate annex. A bouldering result is a number of points, a lead result is a hold number with an optional “+”, a speed result is a time. They cannot share one score sheet.

Bouldering: the current scoring

Annex C of the Event Regulations (version 3, January 2026, article 5.1) writes the score of a problem like this: a zone is worth 10 points, minus 0.1 point for each attempt made before the zone; a completed problem is worth 25 points, minus 0.1 point for each failed attempt. The score of the problem is the larger of the two values, and never below 0.0.

• Ranking: total points first. In a tie, the overall ranking of the previous round, then the fewest attempts on completed problems, then the fewest attempts for the zones obtained (Annex C, art. 7.1).
• Round format: 5 problems in qualification (a fixed 5 minutes per problem), 4 in the semi-final (a fixed 5 minutes) and 4 in the final (4 minutes at most), with 15 seconds between rotations and a shared 2-minute observation per problem before the final. The quotas are 60 per group in qualification, 24 in the semi-final and 8 in the final.
• The top: standing on top of the problem, or both hands on the marked finish hold, in a stable position and with clear, deliberate control. A slap on the hold is not control.
• The start: both hands and both feet on the marked start position; otherwise it is a false start. Any start where the climber leaves the ground counts as an attempt.
• The setting: no more than 12 hand holds on a problem, and between 4 and 8 on average per problem over a round (Competition Rules, art. 1.10).

The old ranking by tops, then zones, then attempts is the pre-2025 system, replaced by the total of points. A document that gives it as “the” bouldering ranking is out of date. A document that gives two zones at 5 and 10 points describes the Paris 2024 combined boulder, not the current boulder.

The number of zones on a World Cup problem is not fixed by the scoring text: article 1.12 allows “any zone hold”, at the route setter's choice. The scoring above applies to the zone, whatever their number.

Lead: the last hold and the “+”

The result is the last hold controlled with the hands, either to complete an establishing move or to make a progression move. In the second case, the result carries the suffix “+” (Competition Rules, art. 9.1). The rules describe the progression move as the parallel or successive movement of the hips, shoulders and hand towards the next hold; it is not one if the body is moving away from the wall.

• One attempt only counts on a route in each round, for six minutes at most.
• No “+” if the attempt ends with an out-of-sequence clip, an unclip (except the correction of a z-clip) or a move past the last safe position.
• The top is clipping the final anchor.
• The rounds: 2 routes in qualification, as “flash” (first attempt after a demonstration), then 1 route on sight in the semi-final (24 qualifiers) and the final (8). Observation is a shared 6-minute period for the on-sight route, then 40 individual seconds on entering the area; for the flash, the route is demonstrated at least 60 minutes before the start of the event.
• Qualification: the geometric mean of the two fractional ranks (the lowest is the best), to three decimals. In the semi-final and final, a tie is broken by countback to the previous round, then, in the medal phase only, by the actual climbing time rounded down to the second.
• Competition belaying: only manual brakes are allowed; the belayer checks the rope (no knot, no twist) and the harness, the tie-in is a figure-eight knot with a stopper knot, and every fall is stopped “dynamically and safely”.
• Wall: at least 15 m high and 3 m wide per route.

Speed: one wall in the world

The speed route is identical everywhere, which removes the choice of route: everything is in the start, the consistency and the reading of the board.

• The wall: 15.00 m, two lanes of 3.00 m, a regular 5° overhang (tolerance 4.5° to 6.5°), panels of 1,500 by 1,500 mm, a 125 mm insert grid. The route has 20 hand holds and 11 foot holds on the plan, plus the stop device. The wall rule is old (1 February 2022) and contradicts itself on the height of the first start hold: 1,887 mm in one article, 1,887.5 mm in the homologation section.
• The false start: a start is invalid if the recorded reaction time is under 0.100 s. No appeal is allowed on the validity of a reaction time.
• The time: measured to the thousandth of a second, official to the hundredth rounded down (4.798 s becomes 4.79 s). The thousandth can break a tie in competition.
• The rounds: one run in each lane in qualification, then direct elimination (brackets of 4, 8 or 16; 32 for the only four-lane format, “Speed 4”, which the rules codify), the semi-final losers running the small final. If only one climber false-starts, the other wins; two false starts, two falls or two identical times mean the race is run again.

Combined: not to be taught as current

The January 2026 annexes number four (lead, speed, bouldering, team speed); there is no boulder and lead combined annex. The Paris 2024 combined figures (4 problems at 25 points with two zones at 5 and 10, a lead score counted in bands of 10 holds, a total out of 200) are found only in secondary sources and are historical. According to the IOC (9 April 2025, secondary source), the Los Angeles 2028 Games plan lead, speed and bouldering as three separate events.

Grades: never mix the scales

A competition result depends on no grade, but all club work depends on them. The most common mistake is reading a grade without asking for its scale: a 6a route is not a 6A boulder problem, and a Roman-numeral grade is not a French grade.

The IRCRA is a research integer that makes it possible to describe a level group (for example for men, intermediate 10 to 17, advanced 18 to 23, elite 24 to 27; Vereide 2022): it is a descriptor, not a load prescription. The full conversion table is not reproduced here: only its text was read, not the image of the table, and the transcriptions found online differ by one step on the easy boulder grades.

Who governs what

A club coach meets two families of bodies, and a competition rule never comes from the second.

For Belgium, the bodies observed are Climbing & Mountaineering Belgium with the community federations KBF (Flanders) and Club Alpin Belge (Wallonia); their statutes were not read.

The drills of this guide

The four drills of the library that take up these formats: the six-minute observation, reading then committing, the limited attempts of bouldering, and the one introduction to speed that a federation publishes (the FFME orange passport).

Frequently asked questions

Sources

World Climbing: Competition Rules, version 3, January 2026 (art. 1.10, 1.12, 6.1, 6.3, 7.3, 7.5, 8.2, 8.3, 8.5, 9.1, 9.2, 9.7); Event Regulations, version 3, January 2026 (Annex A lead, B speed, C bouldering); Speed Licence Rules – Speed Walls, 1 February 2022. IRCRA: Draper et al., Sports Technology (2015/16); Vereide et al., Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (2022). FFME: categories and formats of official competitions, 10 October 2025; Passeports escalade (page modified 14 August 2026). Secondary sources, flagged as such: the IOC (9 April 2025, via USA Climbing), the Paris 2024 combined figures, the IFSC's change of name to World Climbing (December 2025). Not read: the complete sporting rules of the FFME, USA Climbing and the DAV; the statutes of Swiss Climbing and of Belgium.