IFSC Climbing World Cup

The IFSC Climbing World Cup is a series of competition climbing events held during the year at various locations around the world, organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). At each event, the athletes compete in three disciplines: lead, bouldering, and speed. The number of events varies from year to year, and the winners for each discipline are decided by the points accumulated in the year.
The first World Cup was held in 1989 and included only lead competition climbing events. Speed climbing was introduced in 1998, and bouldering in 1999. For 18 seasons, from 1989 to 2006, World Cups were held under the auspices of the International Council for Competition Climbing which was part of the UIAA; they were called UIAA Climbing World Cups. Since 2007, they have been held under the auspices of the IFSC.
Each country has a base quota of two athletes per gender per discipline at each event, plus a variable quota of up to four athletes based on the number of athletes ranked in the top 40 in a category and a host country quota, with a maximum of six athletes per gender per discipline for each event. Prior to 2015, any athlete ranked in the top 10 was guaranteed a spot and did not count toward the quota.
At the end of each World Cup competition, a trophy is awarded to the winner, the top three athletes are awarded gold, bronze, and silver medals, and the top six athletes are awarded prize money. The top 80 competitors of individual World Cup competitions are eligible to accrue points. Tied competitors are awarded the average of the points allocated for the tied rank positions, rounded down to two decimal places.
For each discipline (lead, bouldering and speed), the points awarded to each athlete are added together throughout the World Cup series in order to determine an overall World Cup ranking. If an athlete participates in all competitions in a discipline, their worst result is discarded (provided that IFSC organizes at least 6 competitions for that season). At the end of the season, the athlete with highest ranking in each discipline will be considered to be the overall winner of the World Cup series, and will be awarded a trophy. The athletes ranking second and third will be awarded a plate.
At the end of each competition, a national team ranking is determined, for each discipline, by adding the ranking points of the three highest ranked individual team members. For each discipline (lead, bouldering and speed), the points awarded to each team are added together throughout the World Cup series in order to determine the overall team ranking. If a team participates in all competitions in a discipline, its worst result is discarded (provided that IFSC organizes at least 6 competitions for that season). At the end of the season, the team with highest overall ranking is awarded a trophy.
For each season, results obtained by each athlete across events and across disciplines (Lead, Bouldering and Speed) are considered to determine a combined ranking. At the end of the season, prizes are awarded to the top three athletes. The combined title was first introduced in 1998, together with the first speed event. Bouldering was introduced in the following year.
From 1998 to 2017, the combined score for each athlete was obtained by adding together the overall World Cup scores obtained by that athlete in at least two different disciplines. For instance, in 2017 Janja Garnbret won the combined title with a combined score of 1135 points, which was the sum of the overall scores she obtained in Lead and Bouldering. Since she competed in no Speed event, her score in that discipline was zero.
Since 2018, more complex rules were applied to determine the combined score. Only athletes participating in at least two competitions in each discipline (i.e. 2 in Bouldering, 2 in Lead, and 2 in Speed) were eligible for the combined title. For each World Cup event, rankings were adjusted by discarding non-eligible athletes. Since they were relative to a selected subset of athletes (the eligible ones), these adjusted rankings were called relative rankings, as opposed to the general rankings applied to the whole set of participants. If an eligible athlete participated in more than two competitions in a discipline, only the best two results in that discipline were considered. For each eligible athlete, the relative rankings obtained in the selected six events were multiplied together to determine a combined score. Athletes were ranked according to their combined score in ascending order. Namely, the athlete with the lowest score was awarded the combined title. For instance, in 2018 Jakob Schubert won the Combined World Cup with a score of 48 points, determined as shown in the table.
In 2019, individual combined events were introduced in the World Cup series, where participants are required to compete in all disciplines (Bouldering, Lead and Speed) and medals are awarded based on their combined results. Nevertheless, at the end of the season, combined World Cup rankings will be determined as well, with the same method applied in 2018, based on results across disciplines obtained by each athlete in six selected events.
Complete rankings starting from the 1991 season are available on the IFSC web site.
Complete rankings starting from the 1991 season are available on the IFSC web site.
Updated after season 2024
Updated after Seoul 2024