Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
As the 2024 Summer Games and Paralympic Games get underway in France, a group of eight U.S. athletes will attempt to ascend to new heights and speeds in two sport climbing competitions. It is only the second summer games to feature competitive climbing events. But in Utah, the sport has been on the rise for decades, along with an increased focus on climbers' health, training, and treatment.
"Climbing has become more accessible through gyms and outdoor recreation programs," said Katey Blumenthal, DPT, OCS, SCS, an orthopedic physical therapist with University of Utah Health. "There are so many high-quality climbing gyms now. People don't have to travel to outdoor climbing areas to learn how to climb or hone their skills."
Almost a decade ago, Blumenthal helped pioneer the establishment of the Climber's Clinic at the U of U. "The sentiment before I started the Climber's Clinic was that clinicians didn't understand the demands of climbing," she said. "And many climbers would be frustrated hearing from clinicians who told them to just stop climbing."
Blumenthal emphasized that people who know the sport and work in rehabilitative medicine understand that the musculoskeletal system has the potential to recover and become more resilient. "You have to rest and recover as hard as you train, and that is a hard concept for very motivated people," Blumenthal said.
"I wanted to start a clinic run by clinicians who are climbers, not only to help this population thrive, but also to help educate clinicians," Blumenthal added. "We also engage in research, and we strive for our clinic to include as many different clinicians as possible, from nutritionists to physical medicine to rehabilitation physicians to surgeons and social workers."
The clinic's work has never been so critical and consequential as an increasing number of elite climbers move to Salt Lake City to train and compete. USA Climbing centralized its operations in Salt Lake in 2019 and will break ground on a national training center in the Salt Lake Valley in 2025.
The continuing growth in Utah's climbing community and local partnerships with organizations like USA Climbing and the U.S. Olympic Committee have given Blumenthal the opportunity to work with elite athletes before, during, and after competition. The training now involves a focus on both physical and mental health.
"I often think the number one affliction causing chronic musculoskeletal injuries in climbers is the mental health component," Blumenthal said. "Much of our physical therapy training now includes cognitive strategies. A big consideration in working with elite athletes is understanding the appropriate amount of load for their bodies, which can be really complicated."
Relying on the most recent research and experience with competitive climbers is a guiding principle for Climber's Clinic professionals like Blumenthal. They are passionate about the work and the athletes.
"Our goal is for climbers to get the highest level of orthopedic and sports rehabilitation that is compassionate, sports-specific, evidence-based, and interdisciplinary," Blumenthal said. "Ultimately, we want to support people pursuing what adds positive meaning and value to their lives and communities."
The quality of care offered at the clinic is very important to Blumenthal. She said it involves helping clinicians to learn and better understand sports-specific concerns with climbing that often are excluded from the core curriculum of orthopedic and sports physical therapy.
With climbing, the way that you utilize your foot placements and your hips can really affect your fingers. So, understanding the whole biomechanics of climbing and the kinetic chain influences from toes to fingers is important.
–Katey Blumenthal, DPT, OCS, SCS
Treating the hand and fingers would usually be considered a specialty and require continuing education beyond a doctorate degree in physical therapy. But "In climbing treatment, we have to be as familiar with the hand and fingers as we are with the hip and back and ankles," Blumenthal said. "With climbing, the way that you utilize your foot placements and your hips can really affect your fingers. So, understanding the whole biomechanics of climbing and the kinetic chain influences from toes to fingers is important."
A challenge for researchers at the Climber's Clinic is discovering ways to prevent injury to athletes. Blumenthal suggested that as the sport develops, changes to rules and policies might be one of the best ways to avoid serious injuries.
Those changes are already happening at the Olympic competition level. In Tokyo (2020), every athlete competed in three disciplines, including bouldering, lead, and speed. The final scores reflected combined results from all three competitions and the climbers with the lowest scores took home the first Olympic medals in sports climbing history.
This summer in Paris, there will be two separate sport climbing competitions, and each will crown Olympic medalists. One will combine competition in bouldering and lead events and the second will only feature a speed event.
Blumenthal applauded this critical change to Olympic climbing competition. "Speed climbing is a totally different type of climbing and requires totally different training," she said. "Tokyo was a really challenging year because boulder and lead climbers had to also focus on developing their speed climbing abilities."
In another decision to change policy, the International Federation of Sports Climbing (IFSC) recently raised the age at which climbers can compete in elite level bouldering to 16. "The IFSC raised the age partly due to the risk of growth plate injuries," Blumenthal said. "So, there are bigger pushes for policy and public health measures to better protect climbers."
Competitive climbing is an especially attractive sport for youths of every age and gender. About 39% of all climbers are under 18 years old, according to officials with the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. This has prompted a hard discussion within the sport to make sure these young athletes don't experience energy deficiency or battle eating disorders.
"Climbers will say this is a body mass to strength ratio sport—that the lighter you are compared to your strength, the better you are," Blumenthal said. "That can be very injurious and a challenging message."
A positive development in this effort over the last few years has been the acceptance of weightlifting to compliment climbing. "Weightlifting and building strength are key for injury risk reduction but also help build power for climbing," Blumenthal said. "Now, a lot more elite climbers are weightlifting than even five years ago."
The U of U's Climber's Clinic and clinicians like Blumenthal are pushing the sport of competitive climbing to new heights along with the young athletes competing in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. "There is this absolute love and passion for the sport beyond the competition, and it is very endearing," Blumenthal said.
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