After a compelling four World Cup rounds on three continents, the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour concludes this weekend in Edmonton, Canada.
Action starts on Friday 28 February with the lead qualification and entire speed competition. On Saturday 1 March, the lead semi-finals and finals will be staged. The full event programme can be found here. For a timezone convertor please click here. The event concludes on Sunday and Monday with the YEG Ice Fest where a host of activities will be organised for the general public.
The event is organised by YEG Ice Fest of the Alpine Club of Canada Edmonton Section and supported by Explore Edmonton, and is held in the centre of the city. Like last year’s World Championships, the first UIAA competition to be staged in Edmonton, a sizeable crowd is expected.
The weekend will not only crown the final World Cup winners of the season but the World Tour victors (the athletes who accumulated most points in their discipline after five rounds of competition).
Nearly 80 athletes from the following member associations have registered: Canada (15), Czechia (1), France (4), Iran (4), Ireland (1), Japan (4), Liechtenstein (5), Mongolia (6), the Netherlands (2), Poland (6), South Korea (4), Spain (1), Switzerland (5), and the United States (17). A full list of registered athletes is here.
Lead Preview
Switzerland will hope to seal two World Tour titles in Edmonton.
Sina Goetz has the women’s crown wrapped up after four golds from as many competitions. Her rivals, Marianne van der Steen, Catalina Shirley, Eimir McSwiggan, Woonseon Shin and Lorena Beck are competing for both podium positions and to deny Goetz a clean sweep of gold medals.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) S Goetz (SUI) 400 pts; (2) M Van der Steen (NED) 262 pts; (3) C Shirley (USA) 230 pts
Livestream: Lead Semi-Finals – Women. Sunday 1 March, 08:00
Livestream: Lead Semi-Finals – Men. Sunday 1 March, 12:30
Benjamin Bosshard will hope to complete a Swiss double but faces tough competition notably from the French team spearheaded by Louna Ladevant, lying some 59 points behind and keen to claim a second gold medal of the season. Younggeon Lee, with a gold and two bronzes to his name, will seek to claim a medal in each of his four World Cup appearances this season. Tristan Ladevant and Jonathan Brown also have eyes on both World Cup medals and the podium.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) B Bosshard (SUI) 316 pts; (2) L Ladevant (FRA) 257 pts; (3) Y Lee (KOR) 230 pts
Livestream: Lead Finals. Sunday 1 March, 17:00
Speed: Preview
Like Switzerland, Mongolia has designs on two World Tour gold medals. The duel format will be in play this weekend.
Selenge Nyamdoo has this almost sealed the women’s title following three golds and a silver. The USA’s Catalina Shirley, two bronzes and a gold, will hope to finish the season on top of the podium as will Aneta Louzecka who became world champion in Edmonton last year.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) S Nyamdoo (MGL) 380 pts; (2) C Shirley (USA) 311 pts; (3) A Louzecka (CZE) 240 pts
Livestream: Speed Finals: Friday 28 February, 19:30
The men’s speed competition is the closest of all four events with Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar leading Mongolian teammate Kherlen Nyamdoo by just nine points. Nyamdoo has another goal, to complete a family double of gold medals with his sister Selenge. Mohammadreza Safdarian, world champion in speed in Edmonton last year, returns to the fold and a third gold medal of the season may still give him a chance of the world tour title.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) M Chuluunbaatar (MGL) 297 pts; (2) K Nyamdoo (MGL) 288 pts; (3) M Safdarian (IRN) 255 pts
A review of the final UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup of the season will be published on Monday 3 March.
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Assets for Media and Fans
Short-form content, highlights, podium posts and updates are available on the UIAA social media channels, notably Facebook and Instagram.
Event photos are available on the UIAA Flickr channel.
Live results are available from the UIAA Ice Climbing website.
A selection of ‘best of’ photos for media, prepared for the 2024-2025 season, can be found here.
Press releases will be available for all World Cup events, both previews (-3 days before) and reviews (day +1). Please subscribe to receive press releases directly to your inbox.
Please visit iceclimbing.sport for all event information, details on event programmes and timings, athlete registrations, live results and more.
UIAA ICE CLIMBING WORLD TOUR PARTNER
Photo credit: Slobodan Mišković / UIAA
