Has Japan always been dominant in competitive bouldering?

Sunday. August 19, 2018 - 1 min

I love climbing and coding - but sometimes I take breaks. During breaks, I enjoy watching IFSC (International Federation of Sports Climbing) World Cup Competitions.

These days, Japan is dominating IFSC bouldering competitions. It is common for half the bouldering field to be Japanese.

I wanted to know if this dominance was new so I gathered some data from the IFSC website. I found Japan’s dominance is new: there were 12 Japanese competitors in the semifinals in 2007, compared with 69 in 2017.

Of course, space in the semifinals is limited: the number of French competitors making the semifinals during the same period has declined from 75 in 2007 to 23 in 2017.

The countries listed above are the most represented 10 countries in IFSC bouldering semifinals from 2007-2017. 79.5% of bouldering semifinalists are from these 10 countries.