Shin Eun-cheol Fails to Advance to Sports Climbing Speed Quarterfinals [Paris Olympics]

Shin Eun-cheol (25, The Shill, The North Face) had a disappointing result in his first-ever Olympic appearance.

On the 6th (local time), Shin Eun-cheol was eliminated in the men's speed climbing qualifiers at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games held at Le Bourget Climbing Venue in Paris, France, failing to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.

On the 6th (local time), Shin Eun-cheol, who participated in the men's speed seeding round of the 2024 Paris Olympic sports climbing event held at the Le Bourget Climbing Stadium in France, is responding to the cheers of the audience before the match. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The speed climbing event in sport climbing is a competition to see who can climb a 15-meter-high artificial wall with a 95-degree incline the fastest. In the speed qualifiers, 14 men and 14 women compete, and to determine the seeding, all athletes climb twice, with their better time used to rank them.

Based on these rankings, seven pairs are formed: 1st vs. 14th, 2nd vs. 13th, 3rd vs. 12th, and so on. The winners earn a spot in the quarterfinals. Among the seven losing athletes, the one with the best time also secures the last quarterfinal spot. The men's speed quarterfinals will start at 7:35 PM Korean time on the 8th, followed immediately by the semifinals and finals.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, sport climbing awarded medals based on combined scores from three disciplines: speed, bouldering (solving difficult problems), and lead (climbing as high as possible). From this competition onward, the speed event, which is the most straightforward and fastest to complete, has been separated as its own event.

On the 6th (local time), Shin Eun-cheol, who participated in the men's speed seeding round of sport climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Le Bourget climbing venue in France, clenched his fist as he came down the course.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

In his first attempt, Shin Eun-cheol started alongside Italy’s Matteo Zurloni but slipped midway, recording a time of 6.52 seconds. In his second attempt, he completed the climb without mistakes, reaching the top in 5.25 seconds, which became his final seeding time.

Ranked 10th out of 14 in the seeding round, Shin faced Wu Peng of China, who ranked 5th with a time of 5.01 seconds, in a single-elimination match for a quarterfinal spot. Shin is ranked 29th in the IFSC men’s speed world rankings, while Wu Peng is ranked 2nd.

At the start signal, Shin surged ahead with a better start than Wu Peng but slipped in the middle of the climb. Nevertheless, he did not give up and touched the pad, finishing with a final time of 7.24 seconds, ending his competition.