A Time-Motion and Error Analysis of Speed Climbing in the 2019 IFSC Speed Climbing World Cup Final Rounds

Speed climbing has become an Olympic event. However, there have been limited studies on the athletic performance of elite speed climbers under the current IFSC rule. Thus, this study aims to perform a statistical analysis of the performance of elite speed climbers and compare the different sex of the 2019 IFSC Speed Climbing World Cup. The 384 times climbing result in total climbing time, the time of four phases, and the start reaction time were calculated. In addition, the statistical data of men and women’s total error rate in the final round, the error rate in each final round, as well as the body position and the phase when errors occurred were gathered. Several results were not found in previous studies. Firstly, there is no statistical significance between starting reaction and climbing time of male and female. Secondly, there was no significant correlation between phases of the route for male athletes. While there was a statistical correlation between adjacent stages for women, the time of women in each stage was significantly correlated with the previous stage (p < 0.05). The error rate of both men and women in the medal competition stage reached a high rate of ~50%. While the error rate of men in each phase of route has no significant difference, While the error rate of women in the fourth phase was significantly different from the first three parts (p < 0.05), gender-specific training procedures should be developed for elite athletes. Future research should test the psychological state and pressure of speed athletes in the competition.