The Paris 2024 Olympic Games were a success and globally established the inestimable value of Sport Climbing, which is now preparing for its great annual event of international importance: the 37th edition of Rock Master, scheduled for Saturday, September 14th.
The “Home of Climbing” of Arco will host the crème de la crème of the discipline: 7 female and 7 male athletes have already grabbed the first available spots out of the 16 totals (8 women and 8 men) that will form the scoreboard for the incomparable Rock Master-branded KO Boulder and Duel Lead challenges.
On the women’s side, there is Austria’s Jessica Pilz, fresh from the bronze medal at the Olympics and who already has two Rock Master trophies (2021 and 2022) on her trophy case and is a gold medallist at the World Lead Championships. Also competing with the Haag (AUT) native will be the Italians Laura Rogora and Camilla Moroni. The two colleagues and teammates of the Italian finance police team are the present and the future of Sport Climbing, with Rogora preferring the Lead speciality (European silver and world bronze and Italian champion) and Moroni the Boulder (five times Italian champion and first Italian to stand on the world podium, silver).
Ready to make her debut at Rock Master is Austria’s Mattea Pötzi, who has proven her crystal-clear talent since the youth categories. It will also be the first time for the German Lucia Dörffel, class of 2000, who represented Germany at the Olympics Games and already a leading player in Arco at the World Youth Championships, while she knows the race in the shadow of Mount Colodri well Slovenian Vita Lukan (2021 winner) who, after European and World Youth Champion titles in Lead, a gold and two bronze medals in the World Cup, is preparing for a new adventure. Coming from the other side of the world, literally, for Rock Master Oceania “Oceana” Mackenzie: the Australian climber, class of 2002, will be at the start of the 37th edition already boasting two Olympic Games appearances in her young career (7th in Paris 2024 and 19th in Tokyo 2021).
In the men’s fight for the coveted Rock Master Trophy, Adam Ondra, the Alien of Sport Climbing, a living legend who freed the first 9c route in the world and put his signature on the Rock Master roll of honour 7 times, is unfailingly a special observed. For Italy, the talents of Stefano Ghisolfi, an authentic pillar of the Italian climbing movement and main exponent of the Lead, with a World Cup, 15 podiums in WC and 9 Italian titles to his credit, Michael Piccolruaz, “the Lord of Boulder” who has come close to winning Rock Master twice (in 2021 and 2022) and will be hungry for success, and finally Filip Schenk, promise of the Italian Boulder already third in the Lead Duel of 2022. From abroad will be fierce young and talented Luka Potočar (SLO), the first men's world medallist in Slovenia's history (Lead silver), Hannes Van Duysen (BEL), the 2021, 2022 and 2023 World Youth Champion and already silver and bronze medallist in the WC, and Yannik Flohé (GER) world champion in the combined Lead and Boulder in Moscow 2021.
Of the 14 competitors confirmed so far, an impressive 10 boast at least one participation in the Olympic Games and they are Laura Rogora, Camilla Moroni, Jessica Pilz, Oceania Mackenzie, Adam Ondra, Michael Piccolruaz, Luka Potočar, Lucia Dörffel, Hannes Van Duysen and Yannik Flohé, yet another confirmation that Rock Master knows how to attract the best of the international Sport Climbing scene.
On Saturday, September 14th, the women will be the first to face each other with the KO Boulder starting at 3 p.m., followed by the men's challenges. From 9 p.m. qualifications for the Lead Duel will take place and from 10 p.m. the spectacular finals with live TV coverage on Rai Sport. Before, after and during, the rich program of entertainment and animation, with Impavida Brewery and Cantiere 26 partners of the event.
As curiosity grows to find out who will fill the two remaining spots for the 37th Rock Master, the organizing committee Rock Master 20.20 and Garda Trentino are sending work forward to ensure a successful edition, with free admission to Arco's renovated Climbing Stadium.
INFO: Rock Master
Rock Master na HORYDOLY
2023 Adam Ondra 7x vyhrál Rock Master
2023 Rock Master Calling for Climbers Top Athletes, Top Duels in Arco
2021 Síň slávy Rock Master pro Adama Ondru
2021 Rock Master Trophy 2021
2021 Rock Master KO boulder 2021
2019 Adam Ondra dolezl druhý na Rock Master 2019
2012 Arco Rock Legends 2012
Booking.com