Solving the ‘problem’: climbers aim for summit of frenetic Olympic sport | Kieran Pender

Australia’s Oceana Mackenzie is among those plotting a route to the finals of the sport which is part mental puzzle, part physical challenge

Oceana Mackenzie enters the arena and faces the first “problem” she must overcome, a daunting four-and a-half metre wall studded with a seemingly-random smattering of protrusions. Bouldering, a sub-discipline of sport climbing, requires an intriguing combination of gymnastic strength and mental acuity. Mackenzie, a 22-year-old from Melbourne, must make it up the wall in as few attempts as possible.

Climbers face their problems, as each climbing course is called, blind; the arrangement of boulders on a wall is always changing, with “route setters” finding new ways to challenge the athletes. Before a heat, climbers are segregated in an isolation room so they cannot watch the attempts of earlier competitors on that day’s problems. So when Mackenzie walks onto the stage, before a jovial 6,000 crowd on a sunny Tuesday morning in an outer suburb of Paris, her first task is in the mind – drawing on years of climbing experience to determine the optimal route to the top.

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