Para climbing, from world championships to the Paralympics.

Status on 21 October 2026

• 2026 Para Series: three events finished (Salt Lake City, Innsbruck, Laval); two to come, Gunsan, South Korea, 30 October to 1 November, and Fukuoka, Japan, 5 to 6 November. No series winner exists yet.
• Most recent world championships: Seoul, September 2025.
• Paralympic debut: Los Angeles 2028, with eight medal events.

How para climbing is organised

World Climbing (13 May 2025) groups para climbers into three impairment categories, each split into sport classes. The letter gives the category and the number gives the severity: a lower number means a greater impairment. Its descriptions, in summary:

World Climbing says there are 20 classes in all, 10 for men and 10 for women, and not every class runs at every event. All para events are currently Lead events climbed on top-rope, and prosthetics are optional. The full criteria are in World Climbing's para climbing classification rules (a March 2025 edition appeared in our search).

Championships and series: a short history

World Climbing says the Paraclimbing Cup series was first organised in 2010 and the Paraclimbing World Championships were first held in 2011. The championships now take place every two years, alongside the World Championships for able-bodied athletes.

One World Climbing article complicates the series date. Its LA28 article of 3 June 2025, as summarised in search, calls Salt Lake City 2025 the "inaugural" Para Climbing World Cup. That may mean the first event of that season rather than the first ever; we could not confirm the wording.

The Paralympics: LA28

World Climbing says the LA28 Organising Committee proposed para climbing in June 2024 and that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) approved it later that month; its about page gives 26 June 2024 as the date of the IPC's confirmation. On 3 June 2025 the IPC announced the programme:

• Para climbing is the 23rd sport on the LA28 Paralympic programme.
• Eight medal events, four for men and four for women, out of 560 medal events at the Games in total.
• 80 athletes, 40 men and 40 women, with no more than 10 in any medal event.

World Climbing lists the eight events:

The venue is the Long Beach Climbing Theater in Long Beach Sports Park, which also hosts the Olympic climbing events, according to World Climbing. More on LA28 is on the Olympics page.

Seoul 2025 world championships

World Climbing called Seoul 2025 the ninth Para Climbing World Championships, with world champions crowned in 19 sport classes. The dates are reported two ways: World Climbing's articles give 20 to 25 September 2025, while a search summary of other World Climbing pages gave 20 to 28 September, the closing date of the able-bodied championships.

World Climbing's closing report named these champions:

USA Climbing (25 September 2025) lists five US golds: Seneida Biendarra (women's B2), Linn Poston (women's B3), Brayden Butler (men's RP2), Melissa Ruiz (women's RP1) and Emily Seelenfreund (women's RP2). It counts 12 US medals in Seoul, up from 9 at Bern in 2023. We have not assembled the champions for all 19 classes.

The 2026 Para Series

Innsbruck. World Climbing (16 June 2026) reported 19 gold medals spread across 17 medal-winning nations. The USA topped the table with 6 golds and 12 medals, and France, Austria and Japan each won 3 golds. Gold medallists included Sho Aita and Hiromi Aoki (Japan, B1), Linn Poston (USA, women's B3), Angelino Zeller (Austria, AL1), Thierry Delarue (France, men's AL2), Brian Zarzuela (USA, men's AU2), Melissa Ruiz (USA, women's RP1), Brayden Butler (USA, men's RP2) and Antoine Keodara (France, men's RP3).

Laval. The Laval event doubled as the World Climbing Europe Para Championship, with European standings taken from the series results across 19 classes. Germany topped the European medal table with four golds, according to World Climbing (3 September 2026). Those are European rankings, which may differ from the overall Laval podiums; we did not read the overall results.

The series has two events left, so there are no 2026 Para Series overall winners. The Fukuoka event is followed by the Nations Grand Finale on 7 and 8 November, a team competition described on the 2026 World Climbing Series page.