It's an entirely different discipline. Seeing lead climbers compete in speed climbing is like seeing Eliud Kipchoge matched up with Usain Bolt for sprinting.
Boulder and lead are at least somewhat related, although I still think it would be nice to see separate competitions here, too.
not every climber. Its clearly a different discipline. Thats why boldering/lead is separate from speed climbing.
But then lead is different to top rope and sport different to trad. And indoor is very different to outdoor.
It wasn't separate in the previous Olympics, that's my point.
>But then lead is different to top rope and sport different to trad. And indoor is very different to outdoor.
Except for trad most climbers I know do a mix of all of these.
Speed climbing is just so different from everything else that I don't even know one climber out of the hundred or so that I know that does it regularly.
There are other forms of competition:
- bouldering: how many of 4 short boulder problems can you finish
- lead: how high can you get on a longer, higher route (pictured on the right of the image in the article)
In these ones the problems are switched up every competition.