Combined, Women

The women’s qualification took place the day after the men’s qualifying. The heavy favourite was Janja Garnbret, who won the combined title at the last two World Championships (2018-19), as well as the last four combined World Cups (2016-19), and the 2017 European Championships. The reigning 2020 European champion was Viktoriya Meshkova, but Garnbret did not compete then. Also participating on home soil in Tokyo was Akiyo Noguchi, silver medallist at the 2019 Worlds, two-time World Cup combined winner (2008-09) and six times runner-up (2010, 2013, 2015-16, and 2018-19). Other good combined climbers in the field were Shauna Coxsey, bronze medallist at the 2019 Worlds and third in the 2017 World Cup, Jessica Pilz, bronze medallist at the 2018 Worlds and third in the 2016 and 2019 World Cup, and the second Japanese competitor, Miho Nonaka, who was third in the 2018 World Cup.

The first part of the qualifying was the speed, which was won by Aleksandra Mirosław in an Olympic record 6.97 seconds, narrowly missing the world record of 6.96 seconds held by Yuliya Kaplina (RUS). Second place went to Anouck Jaubert, and third to Song Yiling while Garnbret, in her weakest discipline, placed 14th. In the next part, bouldering, Garnbret showed her skills as she was the only athlete to top all four routes while more than a third of the participants did not even make one top. Next to Garnbret were Brooke Raboutou and Noguchi with three tops each, followed by Coxsey, Seo Chae-Hyun, and Meshkova with two tops each. As a result, Garnbret led with 14 points after two events, followed by Mirosław (20) and Raboutou (24). The last part was the lead, which was won by the youngest climber in the field, 17-year-old Seo. She was the reigning Asian champion (2019) in lead, and also the World Cup winner in lead that same year, but she only received her Olympic ticket thanks to a re-allocated spot. Second to her was Pilz, with Nonaka third. This finish secured Pilz a place in the final after being only 14th after the first two events.

In the final, Mirosław again won the speed element, setting a new world record 6.84 seconds in the process. Jaubert was again in second place, followed by Nonaka, who was also the third best of those who made the final in the speed qualification. Only Garnbret improved from being seventh best in speed of the finallists to fifth, and then in the bouldering she was in a class of her own, topping two of the three routes. She was the only athlete in the final to top a route. A long way behind were Raboutou in second place and Nonaka third.

After the first two elements, Garnbret was in the lead with five points followed by Mirosław (eight), Nonaka (nine), Jaubert (12), Raboutou (14), and Noguchi (16). In the lead part, Garnbret started as fifth and took a clear lead ahead of Noguchi, and when Nonaka, who was placed third at that time, was not able to overtake Garnbret, the gold medal was secured for the Slovenian favourite. With two more athletes to come, the other medals were still not decided. The next was Pilz, who could have gone for silver if she had finished first, but she managed to place second, which, at the time was good enough for bronze and had already guaranteed the silver for Nonaka. The last starter was Seo, who could have gone for bronze if she finished first. She “only” finished second, however, behind Garnbret, but with this result she deprived Pilz of a medal, and Pilz and Seo finished next-to-last and last respectively after both being in the running for a medal. Noguchi (4x4x4) and Mirosław (1x8x8) finished level on 64 points but, as the Japanese had beaten the Pole in two of the three events, bronze went to Noguchi.