World Climbing Series is a competition climbing event series held during the year at various locations around the world, organized by World Climbing. At each event, the athletes compete in three disciplines: lead, bouldering, and speed. The number of events varies from year to year, and the winners for each discipline are decided by the points accumulated in the year.
Previously called the IFSC Climbing World Cup, the first season was held in 1989 and included only lead competition climbing events. Speed climbing was introduced in 1998, and bouldering in 1999. For 18 seasons, from 1989 to 2006, World Cups were held under the auspices of the International Council for Competition Climbing which was part of the UIAA; they were called UIAA Climbing World Cups. Since 2007, they have been held under the auspices of World Climbing, known as the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) until 2025.
The competition was renamed from IFSC World Cup to World Climbing Series in December 2025, as part of IFSC's rebranding to World Climbing.
Athlete eligibility Each country has a base quota of two athletes per gender per discipline for each event, plus a variable quota of up to four athletes based on the number of athletes ranked in the top 40 in a category. There is also a host country quota, with a maximum of six athletes per gender per discipline for each event. Before 2015, any athlete ranked in the top 10 was guaranteed a spot and did not count toward the quota.
Scoring system
Individual disciplines At the end of each World Climbing Series competition, a trophy is awarded to the winner, the top three athletes are awarded gold, bronze, and silver medals, and the top six athletes are awarded prize money. The top 80 competitors of individual World Cup competitions are eligible to accrue points. Tied competitors are awarded the average of the points allocated for the tied rank positions, rounded down to two decimal places. Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points 1000 805 690 610 545 495 455 415 380 350 325 300 280 260 240 Ranking 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Points 220 205 185 170 155 145 130 120 105 95 84 73 63 56 48 Ranking 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44-45 46 Points 42 37 33 30 27 24 21 19 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 Ranking 47-48 49-50 51-53 54-56 57-59 60-63 64-68 69-74 75-80 Points 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For each discipline (lead, bouldering and speed), the points awarded to each athlete are added together throughout the World Cup series in order to determine an overall World Climbing Series ranking. If an athlete participates in all competitions in a discipline, their worst result is discarded (provided that World Climbing organizes at least 6 competitions for that season). At the end of the season, the athlete with highest ranking in each discipline will be considered to be the overall winner of the World Climbing Series, and will be awarded a trophy. The athletes ranking second and third will be awarded a plate.
National team ranking At the end of each competition, a national team ranking is determined, for each discipline, by adding the ranking points of the three highest ranked individual team members. For each discipline (lead, bouldering and speed), the points awarded to each team are added together throughout the World Climbing Series in order to determine the overall team ranking. If a team participates in all competitions in a discipline, its worst result is discarded (provided that World Climbing organizes at least six competitions for that season). At the end of the season, the team with highest overall ranking is awarded a trophy.
Combined ranking + Janja Garnbret's results in 2017 Discipline Overallscore Overallranking Lead 665 1 Bouldering 470 2 Speed 0 — Combined 1135 1
For each season, results obtained by each athlete across events and across disciplines (Lead, Bouldering and Speed) are considered to determine a combined ranking. At the end of the season, prizes are awarded to the top three athletes. The combined title was first introduced in 1998, together with the first speed event.Before 1998, the World Cup consisted only of lead climbing competitions. In 1998, for the first time a speed event was introduced, which was held in Beauregard (Italy). A combined title was also awarded. However, only 3 women and 2 men competed in both disciplines and hence met the requirements to be ranked for the combined title. Bouldering was introduced in the following year.
From 1998 to 2017, the combined score for each athlete was obtained by adding together the overall World Cup scores obtained by that athlete in at least two different disciplines. For instance, in 2017 Janja Garnbret won the combined title with a combined score of 1135 points, which was the sum of the overall scores she obtained in Lead and Bouldering. Since she competed in no Speed event, her score in that discipline was zero.
+ Jakob Schubert's results in 2018 Discipline Selectedevent Rankings General Relative Lead Villars 1 1 Arco 1 1 Bouldering Meringen 4 3 Munich 3 2 Speed Wujiang 27 2 Xiamen 26 4 Product of relative rankings 48
Since 2018, more complex rules were applied to determine the combined score. Only athletes participating in at least two competitions in each discipline (i.e. 2 in Bouldering, 2 in Lead, and 2 in Speed) were eligible for the combined title. For each World Cup event, rankings were adjusted by discarding non-eligible athletes. Since they were relative to a selected subset of athletes (the eligible ones), these adjusted rankings were called relative rankings, as opposed to the general rankings applied to the whole set of participants. If an eligible athlete participated in more than two competitions in a discipline, only the best two results in that discipline were considered. For each eligible athlete, the relative rankings obtained in the selected six events were multiplied together to determine a combined score. Athletes were ranked according to their combined score in ascending order. Namely, the athlete with the lowest score was awarded the combined title. For instance, in 2018 Jakob Schubert won the Combined World Cup with a score of 48 points, determined as shown in the table.
In 2019, individual combined events were introduced in the World Cup series, where participants are required to compete in all disciplines (Bouldering, Lead and Speed) and medals are awarded based on their combined results. Nevertheless, at the end of the season, combined World Cup rankings will be determined as well, with the same method applied in 2018, based on results across disciplines obtained by each athlete in six selected events.
Men's results Complete rankings starting from the 1991 season are available on the IFSC web site.
Lead Year Winner Second Third 1989 Simon Nadin Jerry Moffatt 1990 François Legrand 1991 François Legrand (2) Yuji Hirayama 1992 François Legrand (3) Jean-Baptiste Tribout 1993 François Legrand (4) François Petit Yuji Hirayama 1994 François Legrand Jean-Baptiste Tribout 1995 François Petit François Legrand 1996 François Petit Cristian Brenna 1997 François Legrand (5) François Petit 1998 Yuji Hirayama Cristian Brenna 1999 François Petit (2) François Legrand 2000 Yuji Hirayama (2) Alexandre Chabot Cristian Brenna 2001 Alexandre Chabot Tomáš Mrázek 2002 Alexandre Chabot (2) Tomáš Mrázek 2003 Alexandre Chabot (3) Ramón Julián 2004 Tomáš Mrázek Alexandre Chabot 2005 2006 Patxi Usobiaga David Lama Tomáš Mrázek 2007 Patxi Usobiaga (2) Ramón Julián Tomáš Mrázek 2008 Tomáš Mrázek Ramón Julián 2009 Adam Ondra Patxi Usobiaga Sachi Amma 2010 Ramón Julián Jakob Schubert Adam Ondra 2011 Jakob Schubert Ramón Julián Sachi Amma 2012 Sachi Amma Ramón Julián Jakob Schubert 2013 Sachi Amma (2) Jakob Schubert Ramón Julián 2014 Jakob Schubert (2) Sean McColl Adam Ondra 2015 Adam Ondra (2) Jakob Schubert 2016 Domen Škofic Jakob Schubert Romain Desgranges 2017 Romain Desgranges Stefano Ghisolfi 2018 Jakob Schubert (3) Stefano Ghisolfi Romain Desgranges Domen Škofic 2019 Adam Ondra (3) Alberto Ginés López Sean McColl 2021 Stefano Ghisolfi Sean Bailey Masahiro Higuchi 2022 Luka Potočar Taisei Homma Jesse Grupper 2023 Sorato Anraku Alexander Megos Taisei Homma 2024 Toby Roberts Shion Omata Sorato Anraku 2025 Alberto Ginés López Sorato Anraku Satone Yoshida
Bouldering Year Winner Second Third 1999 Christian Core Jérôme Meyer 2000 2001 Jérôme Meyer 2002 Christian Core (2) Jérôme Meyer (2) Malcolm Smith — — 2003 Jérôme Meyer (3) 2004 Kilian Fischhuber Jérôme Meyer 2005 Kilian Fischhuber Jérôme Meyer 2006 Jérôme Meyer (4) Kilian Fischhuber 2007 Kilian Fischhuber (2) Dmitri Sarafutdinov 2008 Kilian Fischhuber (3) David Lama Dmitri Sarafutdinov 2009 Kilian Fischhuber (4) 2010 Adam Ondra Kilian Fischhuber 2011 Kilian Fischhuber (5) Dmitri Sarafutdinov 2012 Kilian Fischhuber Jakob Schubert 2013 Dmitri Sarafutdinov Jakob Schubert Sean McColl 2014 Jan Hojer Dmitri Sarafutdinov 2015 Chon Jong-won Jan Hojer Adam Ondra 2016 Tomoa Narasaki Kokoro Fujii Alexey Rubtsov 2017 Chon Jong-won (2) Tomoa Narasaki Alexey Rubtsov 2018 Jernej Kruder Tomoa Narasaki Rei Sugimoto 2019 Tomoa Narasaki (2) Adam Ondra Yoshiyuki Ogata 2021 Yoshiyuki Ogata Kokoro Fujii Adam Ondra 2022 Yoshiyuki Ogata (2) Tomoa Narasaki Kokoro Fujii 2023 Sorato Anraku Lee Do-hyun Tomoa Narasaki 2024 Sorato Anraku (2) Meichi Narasaki Tomoa Narasaki 2025 Sorato Anraku (3) Mejdi Schalck Sohta Amagasa
Speed Year Winner Second Third 1998 Andrey Vedenmeer Vladimir Netsvetaev Alexey Kozlov 1999 Vladislav Baranov Vladimir Zakharov 2000 Andrey Vedenmeer (2) Iakov Soubbotine Vladimir Zakharov 2001 Maksym Styenkovyy Alexander Chaoulsky Alexander Peshekhonov 2002 Alexander Peshekhonov Maksym Styenkovyy Sergey Sinitsyn 2003 (2) Alexander Peshekhonov Iakov Soubbotine 2004 Sergey Sinitsyn Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky Alexander Peshekhonov 2005 Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky Sergey Sinitsyn 2006 Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky (2) Sergey Sinitsyn Alexander Peshekhonov 2007 Sergey Sinitsyn (2) Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky Alexander Kosterin 2008 Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky (3) Sergey Sinitsyn Zhong Qixin 2009 Sergey Sinitsyn (3) Sergey Abdrakhmanov Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky 2010 Stanislav Kokorin Evgeny Vaitcekhovsky 2011 Łukasz Świrk Sergey Sinitsyn Sergey Abdrakhmanov 2012 Stanislav Kokorin (2) Danyil Boldyrev Yaroslav Gontaryk 2013 Stanislav Kokorin (3) Zhong Qixin 2014 Danyil Boldyrev Marcin Dzieński 2015 Zhong Qixin Danyil Boldyrev 2016 Marcin Dzieński Reza Alipour Aleksander Shikov 2017 Vladislav Deulin Reza Alipour Ludovico Fossali 2018 Bassa Mawem Danyil Boldyrev Dmitry Timofeev 2019 Bassa Mawem (2) Vladislav Deulin 2021 Veddriq Leonardo Kiromal Katibin Marcin Dzieński 2022 Veddriq Leonardo (2) Kiromal Katibin Long Jinbao 2023 Veddriq Leonardo (3) Wu Peng Samuel Watson 2024 Samuel Watson Matteo Zurloni Xinshang Wang 2025 Kiromal Katibin Samuel Watson Ryo Omasa
Combined Year Winner Second Third 1998 — 1999 François Petit 2000 Alexandre Chabot 2001 Alexandre Chabot (2) Kilian Fischhuber 2002 Maksym Styenkovyy Kilian Fischhuber 2003 Evgeny Ovchinnikov 2004 Kilian Fischhuber 2005 (2) Kilian Fischhuber Dmitri Sarafutdinov 2006 Tomáš Mrázek David Lama Kilian Fischhuber 2007 Tomáš Mrázek Kilian Fischhuber 2008 David Lama Tomáš Mrázek 2009 Adam Ondra Sachi Amma 2010 Adam Ondra (2) Jakob Schubert Sachi Amma 2011 Jakob Schubert Sean McColl 2012 Jakob Schubert (2) Sean McColl Sachi Amma 2013 Jakob Schubert (3) Sean McColl Sachi Amma 2014 Sean McColl Adam Ondra Domen Škofic 2015 Adam Ondra (3) Sean McColl Domen Škofic 2016 Sean McColl (2) Jakob Schubert Kokoro Fujii 2017 Tomoa Narasaki Chon Jong-won Kokoro Fujii 2018 Jakob Schubert (4) Tomoa Narasaki Kokoro Fujii 2019 Tomoa Narasaki (2) Adam Ondra Jakob Schubert
Women's results Complete rankings starting from the 1991 season are available on the IFSC web site.
Lead