As the discipline has become more established, times have gotten faster. But Mirosław has set the pace for most of her career, breaking the world record on 10 occasions, including twice in the early rounds of the Olympic speed climbing competition on Monday.
Her latest world record of 6.06 seconds – 0.04 faster than her winning time against Deng in the final – is almost a whole second quicker than her first record set at the Tokyo Olympics. A sub-six time must now be within her sights, even though the primary goal with speed climbing is to beat the person racing next to you.
“I just focused on myself, on my next round, and before every round it was like that, just run,” said Mirosław. “Whatever happened, just run.”
The 30-year-old ended up facing – and defeating – Polish teammate Ola Kałucka in the semifinals on Wednesday, winning by a slim margin of 0.15 seconds.
Kałucka ended up with a bronze medal after beating Indonesia’s Rajiah Sallsabillah in the third-place race, or “small final” as it’s called here.
Having qualified for Paris ahead of her twin sister, the 22-year-old Kałucka said that she is thankful for climbing’s expanded format in Paris, essentially creating an extra medal event.
“The audience likes speed climbing, I think,” she said. “Lead climbing and bouldering, it’s completely different to speed climbing. I’m so grateful that we are separating our disciplines. It’s a completely different activity.”
In lead, after six minutes looking at their climb, athletes have another six minutes to get as high as they can up a 15-meter wall while clipping their rope to checkpoints. Bouldering, meanwhile, takes place on a 4.5-meter wall, with athletes tasked with solving four “problems” against a time limit having not seen the wall in advance.