Young guard leads Korea into split sport climbing at Paris Olympics

Korea will send three sport climbers to Paris, with Seo Chae-hyun, Lee Do-hyun and Shin Eun-cheol locking in their spots after the second leg of the Olympic Qualifier Series in Budapest, Hungary.

Seo Chae-hyun competes in the women's lead competition at the National Sports Festival in Mokpo, South Jeolla on Oct. 14, 2023. [YONHAP]

The sport climbing spotlight at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics found 17-year-old Korean climber Seo Chae-hyun, who secured a spot in the eight-person women’s final as the second-highest ranked athlete.

It was the sport’s inaugural year at the senior Games after starting out as a Youth Olympics event.

Seo topped the qualifying table in lead, the last of the three climbing disciplines, after finishing fifth in boulder and 17th in speed — despite setting a new personal record. But she left the Games empty-handed, ending the finals in last place, coming second in lead, seventh in bouldering and eighth in speed.

The decision to combine speed, bouldering and lead climbing into a single medal category at the Tokyo Olympics was a controversial one. Boulder and lead climbing are highly technical disciplines and require a different mindset compared to their speed counterpart.

But the Paris Olympics will split sport climbing into two medal categories — speed and boulder and lead combined — for both men and women. And it’ll be Seo’s best shot yet to leave the Olympics with a medal in hand.

Korea will send three sport climbers to Paris, with Seo, Lee Do-hyun and Shin Eun-cheol locking in their spots after the second leg of the Olympic Qualifier Series in Budapest, Hungary.

Seo, 20, and Lee, 21, will represent Korea in the women’s and men’s boulder and lead combined contests while Shin will be the delegation’s sole speed climber.

Lee won the men’s boulder and lead competition with a total of 95 points across both legs of the series, placing first in Shanghai, China and second in Budapest.

Lee Do-hyun competes in the finals of the men's boulder and lead combined contest at the Hangzhou Asian Games held at the Yangsan Climbing Center in Shaoxing, China on Oct. 6, 2023. [NEWS1]

It will be his first time on the Olympic stage, but he has established himself as a top contender on the international stage, winning multiple climbing World Cup medals and a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

He won his first World Cup gold in June 2023 in Prague, the Czech Republic at 20 years old, beating Czech veteran Adam Ondra.

Seo placed fourth overall across the two-part qualifier series, earning a total of 81 points. She placed second at the first leg in Shanghai and finished in fifth place in Budapest.

Seo Chae-hyun competes in the women's boulder contest at Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo, Japan. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

She’s added to her international honors since her Olympic debut in Tokyo. A month after the Games, she won the women’s lead competition at the 2021 climbing world championships in Moscow, Russia. She followed that by earning bronze in women’s lead at the biennial tournament in 2023 and a silver medal in women’s boulder and lead combined at the Hangzhou Asian Games. She finished second overall in women’s lead in the 2022 World Cup season but in seventh place in 2023.

Shin, 25, will be Korea’s sole representative in speed climbing after narrowly clinching a spot in the men’s contest. He finished the two-part qualifier series in 11th place but earned his spot through reallocation after higher-placed climbers were ineligible to compete. Each country can have a maximum of two athletes in each contest.

Sport climbing in Paris runs from Aug. 5 to Aug. 10 at Le Bourget Climbing Venue in Paris, beginning with men’s boulder and women’s speed on Aug. 5.

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]