Natalia Grossman Grabs Silver Medal In Final Climbing World Cup Of 2022

Natalia Grossman competes during the women's bouldering finals at the 2022 IFSC World Cup on May 29, 2022 in Salt Lake City.

The final IFSC Climbing World Cup of 2022 could have been an Olympic preview in a couple ways: it provided an early glimpse of the new combined bouldering and lead format to be used at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, and U.S. climber Natalia Grossman ended up on the podium.

Grossman won a silver medal Saturday in Morioka, Iwate, Japan, where the 2024 Olympic format was on display for the only time this season and just the third time overall.

Grossman and host country favorite Ai Mori were the only two climbers to solve all four bouldering problems and were in a dead heat, with Grossman holding a lead of .3 points. But it was the lead round where Mori dominated to claim victory with a total of 190.9 points. Next was Grossman with 171.2. South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo took bronze with 131.8.

U.S. Olympian Brooke Raboutou narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth with 126.0 points.

With the way the 21-year-old Grossman is headed, she could be one of the top medal contenders for the U.S. in Paris. She dominated this season’s bouldering world cup circuit, winning all but one event. She is also the reigning bouldering world champion and lead silver medalist.

Bouldering and lead will be combined into one medal event at the Games while speed climbing will be broken out into its own event. The three disciplines were combined into one for climbing’s Olympic debut last year in Tokyo.

On the men’s side, Sean Bailey was the lone American to make the final Friday, finishing eighth with 76.6 points.