Paris 2024 Olympics - Climbing - Women's Boulder & Lead, Semi Boulder - Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue, Le Bourget, France - August 06, 2024. Janja Garnbret of Slovenia reacts. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
PARIS (Reuters) -Fans came to watch the queen of sport climbing perform her magic at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday and Slovenia's Janja Garnbret did not disappoint as she finished top of the women's boulder semi-finals in style.
Virtually unbeaten on the world circuit, the 25-year-old has been the face of sport climbing for years with eight World Championship titles and a gold from Tokyo 2020, where the sport made its Olympic debut.
The packed stands at the sun-filled Le Bourget venue exploded into cheers and applause when the defending Olympic champion was called on to the stage as "the one and only".
She casually topped the first of the four boulders on her first attempt. Hardly breaking a sweat, Garnbret flashed a smile as she grabbed the last hold with both hands.
The second wall was even easier, seeing her 'flash' the boulder for another 'super score' of 25 points in less than a minute out of the allotted five.
"The first two problems went smooth," she said.
Asked whether she felt any pressure as the undeniable favourite to retain her title, Garnbret said she was used to being in that position but that the Olympics were special.
"This is not some World Championship or World Cup... You need to be 100% focused, you need to be ready, you need to have a good day and you need to have like a little bit of luck."
In the boulder discipline, athletes have a time limit to negotiate four walls and earn points on the highest scoring holds they manage. In the lead discipline, athletes aim to climb a 15-metre wall as high as possible in a single attempt.
The top eight scorers for the combined boulder and lead stages advance to the final.
Garnbret, the only woman to top all four boulders, earned a total 99.6 points and a huge surplus going into the lead semi-finals on Thursday.
France's Oriane Bertone placed second with 84.5 points and American Brooke Raboutou was third with 83.7 points.
In the men's speed-climbing elimination heats, 18-year-old American Sam Watson raced up the 15-metre wall in 4.75 seconds, shaving 0.04 seconds off the world record he already held and delighting the crowd.
The fans went even wilder when the host nation's Bassa Mawem -- more than twice Watson's age at 39 -- earned his spot in the final by beating Ukraine's Yaroslav Tkach by one-hundredth of a second in the final race of the day.
The Frenchman had suffered a ruptured tendon in his biceps during the qualification round at the last Olympics, forcing him to withdraw from the final.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; editing by Clare Fallon)
