Items14The creator’s order
  1. 1Akiyo NoguchiAkiyo NoguchiBouldering, then combined. Noguchi won four bouldering World Cup overall titles, then trained speed and lead to win bronze in the Olympic combined at Tokyo 2020, her final competition. Her late shift into three disciplines is one of the clearest examples of a specialist rebuilding for the new…0i
  2. 2Adam OndraAdam OndraLead and bouldering. Ondra won both the lead and bouldering world titles in 2014, a rare double, and another lead world title in 2019. He also made the Olympic finals in the combined format, though speed was his clear weakness, which is exactly the trade-off the separate Olympic events were later…0i
  3. 3Jakob SchubertJakob SchubertLead and combined. Schubert has won the world lead title four times (2012, 2018, 2021, 2023) plus two world combined titles, and Olympic bronze in both Tokyo and Paris. His lead endurance carries him, and his medals in two different Olympic combined formats show a climber who adapted his bouldering…0i
  4. 4Shauna CoxseyShauna CoxseyBouldering, then combined. Coxsey won the bouldering World Cup overall in 2016 and 2017, Britain's first, then added speed and lead training to qualify for the Tokyo combined event. Her move from specialist to all-rounder mirrors what the Olympic format demanded of a generation.0i
  5. 5Tomoa NarasakiTomoa NarasakiBouldering, speed and combined. Narasaki won world bouldering titles in 2016 and 2019 and the 2019 combined world title, helped by a speed technique, the "Tomoa skip", that he devised to save time on the standard wall. Few climbers have changed how a discipline is climbed while also winning in…0i
  6. 6Janja GarnbretJanja GarnbretBouldering, lead and combined. Garnbret won Olympic gold in the three-discipline combined at Tokyo 2020 and the boulder-and-lead event at Paris 2024, and in 2025 took both the lead and bouldering world titles. She is the clearest case of one climber dominating both power and endurance disciplines…0i
  7. 7Alberto GinésAlberto GinésCombined. Ginés won the first Olympic men's climbing gold in Tokyo at 18, in the three-discipline combined format, winning the speed round and finishing well in lead despite being a lead specialist rather than a boulderer. His win is the best illustration of how the multiplication scoring rewarded…0i
  8. 8Seo Chae-hyunSeo Chae-hyunLead and combined. Seo won the lead World Cup overall as a teenager in 2019 and the 2021 world lead title, then competed in the boulder-and-lead format at the Olympics. Her precise footwork on long routes made her South Korea's first big competition climbing star.0i
  9. 9Jessica PilzJessica PilzLead and combined. Pilz won the 2018 world lead title and has stayed near the top of lead competition while qualifying for the Olympic finals in both the combined and boulder-and-lead formats. She shows how a lead specialist can build enough bouldering to compete in the Olympic events.0i
  10. 10Natalia GrossmanNatalia GrossmanBouldering and lead. Grossman won the 2021 world bouldering title and the 2022 bouldering World Cup overall, and has also competed on the lead World Cup circuit. Her dynamic, coordination-heavy style suits modern route setting, which increasingly blurs the line between boulder problems and lead…0i