The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris featured many well-known names and sports. NBA and WNBA stars competed in the 3×3 and 5×5 events, while Simone Biles made her highly anticipated comeback on the floor in gymnastics. Katie Ledecky returned to continue her dominance in the water in swimming events.

In addition to these usual favorites, several newer sports are being offered at the Olympics this year. One of these disciplines is sport climbing, which made its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Sport climbing is divided into three disciplines: bouldering, speed climbing and lead climbing. In bouldering, the aim is to climb a wall that is about 4.5 meters high, which the athletes have to conquer as quickly as possible with as few attempts as possible.

In speed climbing, it can be over in a flash. Athletes start at the base of a 15-meter wall and are timed in pairs to see who can climb the wall the fastest. Climbers’ times are determined in seeding rounds, but the elimination rounds are head-to-head competitions.

Finally, in lead climbing, competitors have six minutes to scale the 49-foot wall in one attempt. They have six minutes to study the wall and develop a strategy. Quickdraws attached to their harness must be attached to the wall as they climb, and points are awarded based on how far they get.

The competition has been tough so far, and on Wednesday morning the first winner was crowned in the women’s speed competition. Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw won the first gold medal with a time of 6.10 seconds.

That wasn’t even her fastest time at the Olympics. She achieved that in the qualification, when she broke the world record and the Olympic record twice. 6.21 seconds was the bar that she exceeded in the next run with a time of 6.06 seconds.

6.10 seconds is not her best time, but it was more than enough for gold. The bronze medalist of the 2023 World Championships beat silver medalist Deng Lijuan from the People’s Republic of China and her compatriot Aleksandra Kalucka, who took bronze.

There was a huge surprise in the men’s competition. Seven-time winner of the Climbing World Cup, Tomoa Narasaki from Japan, was eliminated from the men’s combined sport climbing event.

Narasaki finished second in the bouldering round on Monday, but that wasn’t enough to qualify for the top eight. After the lead round on Wednesday, he finished in tenth place.

In the combined event, points are awarded in both the lead and bouldering competitions. Competitors must compete in both events and their scores are added together to determine their placement. Narasaki’s failure to qualify is a surprise and will open up opportunities for other athletes to take home some prizes.