Seo Chae-hyun (20, Seoul City Hall, The North Face) has reached the eighth ridge in her quest for South Korea’s first Olympic medal in sport climbing.

With one final push, she’ll stand on a podium that feels higher than any mountain she’s ever climbed.

Seo will compete against seven other athletes for a medal in the women’s sport climbing combine (bouldering + lead) final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. ET.

The Combined Final will begin with the bouldering competition, followed by the lead competition at 7:35 p.m. The scores will be combined to determine the rankings.

South Korean women’s sport climbing standout Seo Chae-hyun finished 13th in the bouldering semifinals with 44.2 points, before scoring 72.1 points (4th place) in the lead event to finish with a total of 116.3 points and eighth overall.

Seo is ranked fourth in the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s (IFSC) women’s combined world rankings and is within striking distance of a medal.

She is ranked 18th in the world in bouldering, which requires four 4.5-meter problems, and third in lead climbing, which requires climbing a 15-meter artificial wall.

Seo didn’t have a perfect performance in the semifinals in Paris, but with the pressure off, she expects a much better performance.

“The semifinals were tough because of the pressure to make it to the final, but I think I’ll be able to forget about medals for the final and enjoy the competition without any pressure,” Seo said after the semifinals on August 8.

Her father, Korean National Sport Climbing Team head coach Seo Jong-guk, always urges his athletes to “enjoy the climb”.

Women’s climbing dominator Jana Ganbret (Slovenia) will be in top form at the event.

She is currently ranked No. 1 in the IFSC Women’s Bouldering World Rankings, No. 2 in Lead and No. 1 in Combined (Bouldering + Lead).

She was the inaugural gold medalist in the women’s sport climbing combine at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 and will be looking to make it two in a row.

In the semifinals of the event, Ganbrett scored a perfect score of 99.6 for bouldering and 96.1 for lead, both near perfect (100), for a total of 195.7 points.

That’s nearly 40 points clear of second-place Jessica Pilz (AUS – 156.9).

Based on both her past accomplishments and her current form, Ganbrett should win the title barring any major slip-ups.

Semifinalists Pilz, runner-up, and Brooke Labutu (USA – 155.8 points) are all formidable opponents, while fourth-place finisher Ai Mori (Japan – 150.1 points) is an international rival of Seo’s.

Mori, who edged out Seo to win the women’s combine gold medal at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games, is like Seo in that her weakness is in her bouldering and her strength is in her lead.

Mori finished 11th in the semifinals of the Combined Bouldering at the Paris Olympics with a score of 54.00, but in the lead she tied for first place with Ganbrett with a score of 96.1 and moved up to fourth overall.

In the final, Seo will likely compete for a medal against Mori, who is a similar type of athlete.

To do so, she’ll need to solve at least two problems in bouldering to reach the 50-point mark and finish near the top of the main event lead.

Athletes will have four bouldering problems to solve in their own way.

A top score on a problem is worth 25 points, and there are also partial scores for high zone (10 points) and low zone (5 points).

In the previous semifinals, Seo only solved one problem, and the other three were partial scores.

Assuming she succeeds in scoring a high score in the lead, bouldering’s problem-solving skills will ultimately determine the color of her medal.

When asked to name her medal favorites, Seo said, “Mori Ai and Yanya (Ganbrett) are good. I’ve made it to the finals, so I want to try with confidence, even if my hands are bleeding.” 동행복권파워볼