Paris 2024 Olympics – Women’s Combined Final. Garnbret takes Gold
- Sunday 11th August 2024
Defending Olympic Champion Janja Garnbret takes Paris Gold in dramatic Final whilst Erin McNeice finishes in 5th place.
In a dramatic at tense Combined Final, Janja Garnbret took Gold again to successfully defended her Tokyo title; Brook Raboutou and Jesse Pilz take Silver and Bronze respectively whilst Erin McNeice finishes in 5th.
The women’s Combined Boulder and Lead Final yesterday in the Le Bourget arena ended a six-day festival of sport climbing at the Paris Olympics. Defending Olympic Champion Janja Garnbret (SLO) was pushed all the way and it was far from a forgone conclusion but showing resilience in the face of a strong challenge led by Brooke Raboutou (USA) Garnbret proved herself to be a worthy Olympic Champion once again!
Boulder
As in the men’s Combined Final, the eight women finalists faced four boulders to get the proceeding underway. W1 was a powerful blend of dynamic/co-ordination climbing; W2 was a technical “slab”, W3 an out-and-out power bloc whilst W4 was full-on co-ordination. Once again, the finalists were nicely spread-out by the four boulders; W1, W2 and W3 were all topped but W4 repelled all the finalists as well as causing a massive scare in the Garnbret camp!
Giving full commitment, Erin McNeice (GBR) set the Boulder round alight topping W1 on just her second attempt - a feat that was subsequently matched by Jesse Pilz (AUS). However, Oceania MacKenzie (AUS), Oriane Bertone (FRA) and finally Janja Garnbret went one better and flashed W1. Brooke Raboutou took a like longer to get her top but she got her hands on the finishing holds on her 4th attempt. Chaehyun Seo and Ai Mori both really struggled on W1; Mori especially had the worst possible start to her final failing to get any points from the “run and jump” start.
Recording the only flash of W2, the technical slab, Erin executed the crowd-pleasing “180 degree rotation” with no hesitation. Chasing Erin hard, Oriane Bertone topped W2 on her second attempt successfully opting for the “none 180 spin” option that the setters had “baked-in”. Brooke Raboutou and Oceania MacKenzie both took three goes for their tops. Somewhat surprisingly Janja Garnbret made two silly mistakes before topping on her third attempt; Jesse Pilz took five goes before she topped. Ai Mori and Chaehyun Seo trailed with high and low bonus holds only respectively.
At the halfway stage Erin McNeice and Oriane Bertone held a margin lead in joint first with 49.9pts over both Janja Garbret and Oceania Mackenzie in a close joint third trailing by just 0.1pts. It was clear at this early stage of the Finals that Janja Garnbret was going to be pushed all the way if – as was expected – she was to successfully defend her title. Whereas previously Garnbret might well have been the run-away leader as was so often the case, on this occasion she was being tested not only by the well-known, home favourite Oriane Bertone but – and at the risk of sounding partisan - also by the rapidly rising British star of the women’s circuit, Erin McNeice!
With all to play for – as the saying goes – W3, the power bloc – got the second half of the Boulder round underway; curiously, this really separated the field when Erin McNeice and Oriane Bertone both failed to even secure the low bonus! Jesse Pilz, Oceania MacKenzie and Chaehyun Seo did fractionally better and were awarded the low bonus. Whereas W1 had perhaps penalised the diminutive Ai Mori, W3 seemingly benefitted her because to the “small box” – ie compressed and contorted nature – the finalists had to work within to get to the high bonus and hence the top. The crowd were delighted when Ai Mori used all her cunning and guile and topped the bloc on her third attempt. Brook Raboutou went one better and topped on her second attempt but Janja Garbret showed her true class and successfully negotiated the powerful start “outside” the box to score the only and very impressive flash of W3!
W4, the co-ordination bloc tested everyone. Erin McNeice was the only climber to look close to finishing this bloc when she so, so nearly successfully executed all three co-ordination sections and only narrowly failed to stop and control the final holds! Climbing last it seemed that this bloc might have been set for Janja Garnbret; however on one of her early attempts she caught a finger between two holds and fell to the mats clutching her hand! Clearly very rattled, Garnbret tried again but looked even more rattled and was very unlike the normal climber that we’re used to seeing. On one of her subsequent attempts Garnbret totally cratered off the last move landing very heavily indeed. Finally, Garnbret left the mats without a top and with what looked like an injured finger!
Whilst a massive question mark hung over the state of Garnbret’s finger, the scores showed just how much she’d been pushed; Garnbret finished on 84.4pts but Brooke Raboutou had chased hard and finished on 84.0pts. Slightly farther down the points were Oceania MacKenzie, Oriane Bertone, Erin McNeice and Jessie Pilz; Mackenzie was in 3rd place and lead this second group on 59.7pts whilst Bertone and McNeice were in joint 4th on 59.5pts each whilst Jessie Pilz trailed in 6th but was very much in contention on 59.3pts. Lead specialists Ai Mori and Chaehyun Seo were in 7th and 8th and on 39.0pts and 28.9pts respectively. It had been a hard fought Boulder round and once again the setters had dished four amazing boulders.
Lead
Commentating before the Lead round began Shauna Coxsey summed up the situation perfectly to fellow commentator Matt Groom saying “It’s hard to call this final. It’s gonna be an exciting show – it was a great Boulder round.” Having spoken to the setters they confirmed that the route the finalists faced was very hard and that they had taken the decision to let the athletes show what they could do on the world stage on a hard route. Described as a “route climber’s route” the lead route was full of resistance-style moves rather than having hard bouldery sections.
Chaehyun Seo had finished Boulder in last place on 28.9pts so was in an almost impossible position to get a medal; nevertheless she climbed super smoothly throughout only starting to struggle just before she fell with 76.1pts and a total of 105pts.
Erin McNeice climbed next and as one of the four athletes in the group just behind the leaders was in an excellent position to build on her score. After a steady start the hard traverse section back right at mid-height taxed Erin but she recovered and pressed on climbing well and fighting super hard finally falling just below Chaehyun Seo’s high point with 68.1pts and a total of 127.6pts. Given Chaehyun Seo’s pedigree as a lead climber - having medalled in Lead on numerous occasions –Erin’s effort was on the day was world-class!
Oceania MacKenzie and Oriane Bertone, like Erin McNeice and Jesse Pilz, were both in the chasing group; sadly both MacKenzie and Bertone fell low with 45.1 and 45pts respectively so weren’t able to add as much as they would have liked to their Boulder scores. They both finished behind McNeice and Seo on 104.8 and 104.5pts respectively.
Ai Mori was next out and in need of a massive lead score to get close to even a Bronze medal. Climbing faster than usual Mori was soon high on the headwall and starring down the final moves. Sadly she fell with her hands on the top hold with a massive 96.1pts and a score of 135.1pts so end-up above just above McNeice. With Jesse Pilz, Brooke Raboutou and Janja Garnbret still to climb Mori had done everything she could but it was likely to be short of the score required for a medal unless someone made a massive mistake.
Having qualified recently through the OQS Brooke Raboutou, who climbed next, was known to be in good lead form and showed exactly that looking smooth, settled and business-like as she climbed into and through the hard traverse and then onto the harder climbing up to the 60pt hold. That was enough for Raboutou to be guaranteed a medal but when she finally fell as a foot slipped she had 72pts and a score of 156pts - enough for the provisional first place at that point.
Looking to emulate her Austrian team mate Jakob Schubert with a medal, Jesse Pilz climbed very well pulling past Brooke Raboutou’s Lead position before falling with 88.1pts and a total score of 147.4pts. Like Raboutou, Pilz was guaranteed a medal – what colour depended on the final climber, Janja Garnbret.
Since leaving the stage after the Boulder round rubbing her finger no news had emerged from the Garnbret camp so it was relief that she walked confidently out onto the stage to begin her final defence of her Tokyo title. Facing a stretch target from both Raboutou and Pilz, Garnbret climbed quickly before taking a decent shake-out before the start of the hard traverse back right in the middle of the route. Once through that she progressed quickly taking the opportunity to stop and shake-out were possible before committing to the final upper section. Garnbret wasn’t able to match Ai Mori’s nor Jesse Pilz’s highpoints but 84.1pts gave her a final score of 168.5pts – more than enough for a convincing victory and a second Gold Olympic medal of her career. Raboutou and Pilz had to settle for Silver and Bronze respectively. Erin McNeice was forced down into 5th position as per Hamish McArthur in the men’s Combined Final the day previously, but like Hamish the performance Erin had posted was sensational and is an amazing finishing point for two phenomenal climbers.
A tearful and emotional Garnbret reflected on her second successful Olympic campaign afterwards in an interview with Discovery+/Eurosport saying:
“I don’t know how to describe what I feel right now it’s so hard. On the one hand I’ve defended my title I’m the champion again and one the other hand I’m so satisfied with my climbing today.”
Talking about the finger scare at the end of the Boulder round Garbret added:
“There was a little bit of an interruption on the 4th boulder when my finger got stuck in between the hold. I was very scared that something was wrong but the adrenalin kicked in.”
Clearly she’d felt immense pressure before the route saying:
“It was very difficult [going into lead] I was crying and crying for quite some time. Then I stopped and just focused on going out and doing my best.”
The women’s Combined Final brought the six-day climbing festival in Paris to an end.
To see the full results click through to the IFSC website homepage here.