Sport climbing, world championships: Zurloni, speed champion, qualifies for the 2024 Olympics

Historic result for Italian sport climbing. Matteo Zurloni became world champion in tempo in Bern last night, an Olympic discipline that will be awarded medals in Paris in a year’s time. A resounding triumph, even if Zurloni’s growth has been evident in recent months.

The Olympic games

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With the gold medal, the 21-year-old from Segrate, born in Cassano d’Adda, who trains at the Big Walls gym in Milan (which will also become a federal center from September), has secured his Olympic passport for the Games. Twelve medals will be up for grabs: in speed, a separate discipline, and in the combination (bouldering plus lead), for both men and women. Sport climbing, which in Italy went from an associated discipline to a federation just a year and a half ago, is one of the youngest disciplines of the Olympic Games, having only recently been included in the Olympic program in Tokyo and then reconfirmed in Paris. It is becoming more and more common in the world, as evidenced by the list of challengers Zurloni encountered on his way, who overtook France’s Bassa Mawem in the round of 16, China’s Peng Wu in the quarter-finals and Indonesia’s Ady Muyono in the semi-finals, finishing victorious against the other Chinese Jinbao Long ex. Zurloni also set the new European record with 5.02. And now in Paris one can dream.