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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

SCA is proud to announce our inaugural list of Nationally Categorised Athletes for 2024 based on the recently developed SCA Athlete Categorisation Framework.  

Athlete Categorisation Frameworks are developed in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Sport to provide a consistent basis, both within and across sports to: 

• Identify the athletes with the greatest potential to contribute to Australia consistently winning medals at major international events; 
• Inform the prioritisation of support to these athletes; and 
• Track their performance over time.

The confirmed 2024 list of SCA Nationally Categorised Athletes is:

• Campbell Harrison, VIC (Podium Potential)

• Oceana Mackenzie, VIC (Podium Potential)

• Dylan Parks, NSW (Emerging)

• Dylan Soin, NSW (Emerging)

• Grace Crowley, VIC (Emerging)

• Maxim Pare, WA (Emerging)

• Maya Stasiuk, VIC (Emerging)

The 2024 SCA Athlete Categorisation Framework can be found here

Congratulations to the named athletes!

The 2024 domestic season gets underway this weekend with the 2024 NSW/ACT Youth Boulder Titles. Over 150 youth athletes have registered for the one day even which is being hosted by Climbfit Kirrawee.

Athletes are vying for spots on the NSW team for the Nationals Youth Championships which will be held in  South East Queensland in April.

Good luck to all athletes competing this weekend!

Sport Climbing Australia is proud to announce the Australian Paraclimbing team.  The 2024 team will be our biggest yet with 14 athletes selected to represent Australia. The team has doubled in size from 7 athletes in 2023, an amazing achievement which can be put down to the hard work of Sian Spencer, Katie Kaminsky, Alex McInnes and Sarah Lacombe.

Returning to the team for 2024 is multiple world cup podium athlete Sarah Larcombe along with Russell Harrison, father of Olympian Campbell Harrison, Eddie Sparks, Araminta McLennan, Michael Tarulli and Jessie Baiyatarkis.

All the new members of the team attended a training camp in Sydney in November which provided them the opportunity to training in a new team environment and to learn from the experienced members of the team of what is involved in completing at the international level.

The 2024 Paraclimbing season will see events in Salt lake City, Innsbruck in Austria  and France.

We wish 2024 Paraclimbing team the very best for the season ahead.

2024 Paraclimbing Team.pdf