World Climbing Unveils 2027 International Competition Calendar

World Climbing, the international federation of sport climbing, has unveiled its international competition schedule for 2027 — its most extensive to date. The calendar features a global World Climbing Series, a record-breaking Para Climbing season, the World Climbing and Para Climbing Championships in Brno, Czechia, and continental qualification events on the road to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The 2027 World Climbing Series will travel to some of the world’s largest and most iconic cities, such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Paris.

In addition, the calendar retains longtime climbing destinations such as Innsbruck and Chamonix, and includes recent additions to the circuit, such as Bern and the Comunidad de Madrid.

A major highlight for the 2027 season will also be the return of international World Climbing competitions to Great Britain for the first time since 2022. In June 2027, Manchester will host a World Climbing Series event featuring Lead, Speed and Para Climbing Lead disciplines.

The World Climbing events will feature the following disciplines:

• Lead: The athlete starts from the ground while carrying the rope, but as they climb higher, they clip the rope into safety points attached to the wall/rock (in Para Climbing Lead, the rope is pre-rigged and anchored at the top of the wall before the climb begins)
• Speed: Two climbers race head-to-head up a standardized 15-meter vertical wall
• Boulder: Climbing short routes up to around 4.5 meters high without a rope

2027 World Climbing Series Schedule

The 2027 World Climbing Series calendar, including dates, locations and disciplines, is as follows:

• April 9—11: Tokyo, Japan (Boulder)
• April 16—18: Keqiao, China (Boulder)
• April 23—25: Shanghai, China (Lead, Speed)
• April 30—May 2: Wujiang, China (Speed)
• May 7—9: Gunsan, South Korea (Speed)
• May 28—30: Bern, Switzerland (Boulder)
• June 4—6: Manchester, Great Britain (Lead, Speed)
• June 9—13: Innsbruck, Austria (Boulder, Lead)
• July 9—11: Chamonix, France (Lead, Speed)
• July 16—17: Comunidad de Madrid, Spain (Lead)
• September 3—4: Koper, Slovakia (Lead)
• September 7—12: Los Angeles, USA (Boulder, Speed)
• September 24—26: Paris, France (Boulder)

The Road to LA28

The 20th edition of the World Climbing Championship will take place in Brno, Czechia, from August 13—22. Brno 2027 will also form part of the qualification pathway to LA28.

Olympic qualification will begin with the European Games in Istanbul, Türkiye, from June 16—27, followed by the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, from July 24 through August 8.

After that, four further continental qualifiers will take place across October and November in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and China:

• October 7—10: South Africa location TBC (Boulder, Lead, Speed)
• October 14—17: Australia location TBC (Boulder, Lead)
• October 23—24: Mount Maunganui, New Zealand (Speed)
• November 10—14: Shanghai, China (Boulder, Lead, Speed)

Sport climbing was brought into the Olympic Movement for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games (held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic), and it has since been retained for the Paris 2024 and LA28 Games.

Record-Breaking Para Climbing Season

The 2027 Para Climbing calendar is set to be its most extensive yet.

Five World Climbing Para Series events — in Manchester, Innsbruck, Los Angeles, Catania and Toulouse — will join the World Climbing Para Championship in Brno. It will therefore establish an unprecedented six top-level international Para Climbing events in the same season.

The 2027 World Climbing Para Series events calendar is as follows:

• June 2—3: Manchester, Great Britain (Lead)
• June 7—8: Innsbruck, Austria (Lead)
• September 7—12: Los Angeles, USA (Lead)
• October 2—3: Catania, Italy (Lead)
• October 29—31: Toulouse, France (Lead)

The landmark program will come in the year before Para Climbing makes its Paralympic Games debut. Para climbers in specific sport classes will get their first opportunity to qualify for LA28 at Brno 2027.

Para Climbing will also feature at a multisport event for the first time, as part of the European Para Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, from August 2—15.

World Climbing Youth Championship

The 2027 season will conclude in November with India hosting its first World Climbing Youth Championship, as Jamshedpur welcomes the next generation of climbers from November 21—28.

The event will mark the return of World Climbing competitions to India for the first time since 2016 and 2017, when the Climbing World Cup Series had events in Navi Mumbai for two consecutive seasons.