News

Sport Climbing Australia invites expressions of interest from lead climbing facilities to host the 2025 Youth Lead National Championships. If your facility is interested, please contact us by a return email to mercedes@sportclimbingaustralia.org.au by Friday, 24th January, to receive additional information and details regarding the opportunity.

Hosting the 2025 Youth Lead Climbing Championships is a unique opportunity for your facility to showcase its capabilities on a national stage. Here’s why you should consider applying:

National Recognition
Gain visibility as a premier climbing destination by hosting one of Australia’s most prestigious youth climbing events. Your facility will be in the spotlight, attracting attention from athletes, coaches, and spectators across the country.

Community Engagement
Hosting the championships allows you to foster a stronger connection with the climbing community and inspire the next generation of climbers. You’ll have the chance to contribute to the development of youth climbing in Australia.

Hosting the Youth Lead Climbing Championships is not only an honour but also a strategic investment in your facility’s growth and reputation. Take advantage of this opportunity to make a lasting impact on Australia’s climbing community!

Sport Climbing Australia invites expressions of interest from Boulder climbing facilities to host the 2025 Youth Boulder National Championships. If your facility is interested, please contact us by a return email to mercedes@sportclimbingaustralia.org.au by Friday, 24th January, to receive additional information and details regarding the opportunity.

Hosting the 2025 Youth Boulder Climbing Championships is a unique opportunity for your facility to showcase its capabilities on a national stage. Here’s why you should consider applying:

National Recognition
Gain visibility as a premier climbing destination by hosting one of Australia’s most prestigious youth climbing events. Your facility will be in the spotlight, attracting attention from athletes, coaches, and spectators across the country.

Community Engagement
Hosting the championships allows you to foster a stronger connection with the climbing community and inspire the next generation of climbers. You’ll have the chance to contribute to the development of youth climbing in Australia.

Hosting the Youth Boulder Climbing Championships is not only an honour but also a strategic investment in your facility’s growth and reputation. Take advantage of this opportunity to make a lasting impact on Australia’s climbing community!

Sport Climbing Australia is pleased to announce athlete categorisation for 2025, from emerging through to podium level in the Olympic program.

Athlete categorisation is used to identify athletes with the identified potential to achieve current or future Olympic podium success and support the achievement of the aims of the SCA High Performance program.  

Categorisation levels reflect the timeframe around which an athlete is likely to achieve podium success based on the patterns of progression of athletes within the sport. 

Athlete Categorisation for our Para Climbing athletes will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Sport Climbing Australia are thrilled to announce Irene Torrealba as the inaugural SCA National Youth Coach after being named in the second Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Gen32 Coach Program.

AIS Gen32 was created in 2022 to enhance the depth and diversity within Australia’s high performance coaching ranks ahead of the home Games in Brisbane and provides emerging or early-career coaches with a two-year paid internship in the nation’s top sporting programs.

“Coaching is a key focus in the remaining eight years to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games because you can’t have world-class athletes without world-class coaches,” Executive General Manager of AIS Performance Matti Clements said.

“The AIS Gen32 Coach Program is a partnership with our national sporting organisations and National Institute Network, with 29 coaches having a career-changing experience over the first two years of the program.

“It’s pleasing to see more than half of the upcoming group are women, with the AIS committed to working with sport to address the gender imbalance in high performance coaching roles by Brisbane 2032.”

“We’re thrilled to have been chosen by the AIS to be involved in the Gen32 Coach Program and look forward to seeing Irene develop across the next two years,” said SCA National Performance Pathway Lead, Ian Melvin. “Ire will step into the new role of National Youth Coach and will work closely with the National Head Coach once that recruitment process is complete.”

The 2025-26 AIS Gen32 Coach Program will run from January 2025 to December 2026. For more information visit www.ais.gov.au/people-development/national-generation-2032-coach-program

Ground breaking high performance investment to support Sport Climbing Australia towards LA2028

The 2024 international competition season has cemented Oceania Mackenzie in Australia’s competition climbing history with multiple historic achievements. Sport Climbing Australia is proud to acknowledge these contributions to the elevating sport climbing’s stature in Australia and is excited about Mackenzie’s future, pushing Australian competition climbing success even further.

Oce’s first remarkable result in 2024 came in May at the Salt Lake City Boulder World Cup where she placed 4th - excruciatingly close to achieving an elusive world cup medal. However, this finals performance meant that Mackenzie had matched the previous record of most Boulder World Cup finals by an Australian of three Boulder World Cup Finals first accomplished by James Kassay.

The following months of competition culminated in Oce’s second Olympic Games in Paris. In front of the largest audience our sport garners with all the pressure of the big stage Oce delivered a remarkable performance making Olympic finals and finishing in 7th place. This represented an incredible improvement from the previous Games and is a stark demonstration in the improvement Oce has been working so hard on.

Following the Olympic Games, Oce decided to continue the competition season with both Lead and Boulder world cup events. In September, at the Koper Lead World Cup Oce made history again making it to finals and finishing in 4th place. This performance was the first time ever an Australian had made finals at a Lead World Cup.

Two weeks after the Koper Lead World Cup Oce then achieved a huge milestone, delivering her first podium finish at a Boulder World Cup in Prague. After a notable semi-finals performance where she was one of only two athletes to complete the second boulder, Oce went into finals in second place. Making this final now broke the record for most Boulder World Cup finals making Oce the most successful Australian competition climber in Bouldering. A hard fought two tops and three zone’s in the final round landed Oce in third place for the bronze medal, winning Australia’s first ever World Cup medal in an able bodied category.

Oce’s season wrapped up with a Boulder and Lead World Cup event in Seoul. Oce was in contention for 2024 Boulder World Cup Season overall podium. After an incredible qualifying round which placed her in first place going into semi-finals, Oce came short of making finals by only one zone. Her 7th place finish in the Boulder World Cup was enough for a 2nd place 2024 Boulder World Cup season ranking - another historic achievement for Australian Sport Climbing.

The Australian climbing community is incredibly proud of all Oceania Mackenzie’s achievements this past year and can’t wait for the 2025 season to start.

Photo by Dimitris Tosidis

The 2024 Paris Olympics saw Australia's top competition climbers, Oceania Mackenzie and Campbell Harrison, compete in the Lead & Boulder combined discipline. Both athletes delivered solid performances, with Oceania advancing to finals and Campbell finishing his Olympic run in semifinals.

Oceania Mackenzie made a outstanding impact during the competition. In semifinals, she secured 4th place in the Boulder round, positioning herself well for the Lead climbing segment. Her performance in the Lead Semis earned her 6th place overall, which qualified her for the Olympic Finals.

In the Finals, Oceania placed 3rd in the Boulder round, and 7th overall after Lead. Her results highlight her consistency and competitiveness on the international stage. This was Oceania's second Olympics after Tokyo where she came in 19th. This marks a significant improvement from her 19th place finish at the Tokyo Olympics just three years ago, underscoring her rapid progress and rising status in the sport.

IFSC/Lena Drapella 2024

Campbell Harrison's Olympic journey concluded in the semifinals. He placed 13th in Lead Semis, where he stuck the crux that shut down many others. Campbell finished 19th overall in the Boulder & Lead discipline. This was Campbell's Olympic debut and we look forward to what comes next for him. 

IFSC/Jan Virt 2024

The 2024 Olympics provided both Oceania and Campbell with valuable experience and exposure at the highest level of competition. Their performances reflect the growth of sport climbing in Australia, with both athletes demonstrating skill and determination throughout the event. Well done and congratulations to them both!

You can catch replays and highlights of their Olympic performances on 9Now and Olympics.com.

Position Description Volunteer SCA WYCH 2024

Just 109 days before the start of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup Series 2024 are kicking off in Keqiao, China, with the first Boulder World Cup competition on Chinese territory since Wujiang 2019.
 
Scheduled over three days – from 8 to 10 April – Keqiao 2024 is meant to be the first half of a double-header that will also include the World Cup Wujiang 2024, featuring Lead and Speed competitions and scheduled from 12 to 14 April.
 
Of the 16 climbers that have already qualified for Paris 2024 in the two Boulder & Lead event, 10 are registered to compete in Keqiao, including Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Janja Garnbret and bronze medallist Jakob Schubert of Austria.

SCA can confirm the athletes competing the first two rounds of the 2024 IFSC World Cup season starting in China on 8th April.

IFSC World Cup 1 – Keqiao, CHN (Boulder), 8 – 10 April

Oceana Mackenzie
Maya Stasiuk
Emily Scott
Campbell Harrison
Dylan Parks

IFSC World Cup 2 – Wujiang, CHN (Lead), 11 – 14 April

Maya Stasiuk
Emily Scott
Roxy Perry
Campbell Harrison
Dylan Parks

The team will be accompanied by SCA National team coaches Irene Torrealba and Khosro Hashemzadeh.

Good luck to the team!

Don’t forget to watch all the action and support your Australian athletes via the IFSC youtube channel here