🌏 中文版
The first four posts covered the competitions you see on a broadcast. This one asks a different question: if you are in Taiwan and want to compete yourself, what can you enter? If your child climbs well and works up from gym comps, what gates will they hit?
This is post 5 of the "Climbing Competitions and Pro Climbing" series, and it moves from far to near. First the Asian competition system, then the competitions in Taiwan, who each one suits, and how the national team is picked. Then the 2026 Asian Games, where Taiwan earned places but no climber competed, and finally the anti-doping and health screening rules to know before competing internationally. By the end, you should be able to name the kind of competition you could enter first, and the gates between there and the national team.
Information about Taiwan is scattered across the federation's competition system, government announcements and news reports. This post reflects the situation as of 2026-10. Many sources below are in Mandarin.
Competitions in Asia
There are four main kinds of competition in Asia. The first three are run by World Climbing's (formerly IFSC) Asian council; the Asian Games is a multi-sport event in which climbing is one sport:
| Competition | What it is | Taiwanese athletes |
|---|---|---|
| Asian Cup (now World Climbing Asia Series) | The Asian circuit | Lee Hung-ying won women's boulder at the 2019 Hong Kong stop; one 2026 stop is in Gunsan, Korea, 31 Oct–1 Nov |
| Asian Championships | The continental championship | Held in Meishan, China in 2026, also a qualifier for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games |
| Asian Youth Championships | U17 and U19 categories | Held in Guiyang in 2026 (in Mandarin), with 16 countries and regions |
| Asian Games | A multi-sport games every four years | See below |
Taiwan's notable results in Asia can be checked in World Climbing's official results:
- Lee Hung-ying: her official results include the women's speed title at the 2023 Riyadh Asian Cup and several Asian Championships boulder bronzes. In the women's combined at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games she placed ninth with 76.53 points and missed the final (WOWSIGHT report, in Mandarin).
- Fan Chih-en: men's Youth A boulder champion at the 2024 Asian Youth Championships in Jamshedpur, India (official results).
The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games: what was contested
Climbing at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games ran from 29 September to 3 October, with 75 athletes from 13 nations. Unlike Hangzhou 2023, there was no combined: three disciplines for men and women separately, six golds in all, and speed on four lanes (World Climbing day 1 report).
Japan topped the medal table with 2 golds, 3 silvers and 1 bronze; China won 2 golds, and South Korea and Indonesia one each. Chinese Taipei was not among the 13 nations.
Competitions in Taiwan
First, the National Games have no climbing
Many people assume climbing is already in Taiwan's National Games. It isn't. Article 6 of the 2025 (ROC year 114) National Games rules (in Mandarin) lists the mandatory and optional sports, and sport climbing is not among them. Nor is it in the 2024 (year 113) National Sports Festival rules (in Mandarin). The National High School Games currently don't include climbing either. That is inferred from the youth championship rules, which say the championship loses its admission-pathway status if the High School Games add sport climbing, implying it hasn't been added yet.
Mainland China's National Games do include climbing, so don't mix the two up when reading the news.
The actual routes into competition in Taiwan are the ones below.
Gym comps: a first competition
The easiest place to start is a competition run by a gym. Take TUP Climbing's "2026 Rocket Cup Flash Lead Competition" (in Mandarin): three hours on a weekday evening, an entry fee of NT$350 plus gym entry, and two categories, 5.10 and 5.11. Anyone who has redpointed 5.11a on lead must enter 5.11; anyone who can on-sight 5.11d or harder on lead, or has redpointed V5 or harder bouldering, can't enter at all.
The advantage of comps like this is that they group climbers by ability, and the format often imitates a real competition: the Rocket Cup's qualification is two flash routes, with a demonstration, and the final is on-sight. For a first competition, it is a way to learn what route reading and a single attempt feel like.
CTAA national championships: the formal adult competition
The national championships are organised by the Chinese Taipei Alpine Association, supervised by the Ministry of Sports, and hosted by private climbing gyms. Take the 2026 National Bouldering Championships (in Mandarin) as an example:
- 17–18 October 2026 at Dapro climbing gym in Taichung, hosted by the Taichung City Sports Federation climbing committee and Dapro.
- Open to ROC nationals and foreigners, members or not; entry is NT$1,200 for members and NT$1,800 for non-members.
- Only men's and women's open divisions, set to adult standard; the rules remind youth athletes to judge whether they are ready.
- Competition rules follow World Climbing's 2026 rules, i.e. the points system from post 1. A semi-final is held only if 36 or more athletes enter; below that, there are just qualification and a final.
National-team points: the rules state that only open-division athletes from valid CTAA group members earn national-team points under the CTAA's national-team selection guidelines. Another clause in the same rules says open-division athletes who are CTAA members or members of an affiliated club earn points, so the two clauses don't quite match. What they agree on is that non-members' results don't count. If you want the national-team route, the safest option is to enter through a CTAA group member (such as a climbing club), and you can ask the CTAA sport climbing department before entering. The full text of the selection guidelines and points rules isn't public; the competition rules only cite them by name.
There are national lead championships too, for example the 2025 National Lead and Bouldering Championships. All CTAA competition entries go through the CTAA competition system (in Mandarin).
National youth championships: student divisions and sports admission
The most important competition for students is the National Youth Sport Climbing Championships. The draft rules for the 2026–27 school year (in Mandarin) put it on 14–15 November 2026 at TUP Zhonghe, in lead, with divisions by school year: high school, junior-high years 8–9, a combined primary year 6 / junior-high year 7 division, primary years 4–5, and primary years 1–3 (which climbs on top rope throughout).
The draw is school admission. The 2025–26 championships were approved by the Ministry of Education as a qualifying event for the sports-talent admission pathway. Under the rules, high-school and junior-high results can be used to apply, with the placing threshold depending on field size: for example, top eight if there are 16 or more entrants. The rules also say divisions other than high school and junior high don't qualify. Year-7 students compete in the "primary year 6 / junior-high year 7" division, and the rules don't say whether that counts as junior high, so ask the CTAA before entering.
The rules also state that if the secondary-school league or the National High School Games add sport climbing in the same school year, this championship loses its admission-pathway status.
Other competitions
- University championships: the 2026–27 university climbing championships (in Mandarin) are organised by the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation and hosted by the CTAA, on 14–15 November 2026 at TUP Zhonghe.
- City and county games: some local games include climbing, for example the 2026 Taoyuan City Games Mayor's Cup bouldering championships (in Mandarin), held 19–20 June 2026 at PASSION climbing gym in Taoyuan.
Choosing your first competition
| Your situation | Enter first |
|---|---|
| About a year of climbing, want to try competing | A gym comp, grouped by ability |
| Already above the gym comp's category limits, want a formal format | CTAA national championships, open division |
| Junior-high or high-school student, thinking about admission | National youth championships; check that year's admission rules first |
| Aiming for the national team | Enter the open division through a CTAA group member and build national-team points |
To prepare your movement and fitness before competing, see the Climbing Movement and Climbing Training series.
How the national team is picked
Selection happens at two levels:
- CTAA selection: open-division national championship results earn national-team points under the CTAA guidelines. The youth championship rules also say outstanding athletes are selected for the Asian Youth Championships team under the national-team points rules (2026–27 draft rules).
- Review for multi-sport games: under the regulations on national-team coach and athlete selection, training and participation (in Mandarin), Olympic and Asian Games teams are selected by the national federation and then sent to the National Sports Training Center for review. For the 2026 Asian Games, the Ministry of Sports' explanation (in Mandarin) says the review took place at the Asian Games training and support meeting.
How national-team points are calculated and how many events count depends on the CTAA's national-team selection guidelines, whose full text isn't public. Athletes who want this route should ask the CTAA sport climbing department directly.
The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games: places earned, no one sent
This was the most-discussed event in Taiwanese climbing in 2026. Both sides' accounts are below.
What happened
- In World Climbing's Asian Games qualified athletes list (as of 15 May 2026), three Taiwanese athletes held places: Yao Ting-chen in women's boulder and Fan Chih-en in men's lead (both via the Meishan Asian Championships), and Lin Chia-hsiang in men's boulder (a reallocated host-nation place, via his 2025 World Championships result).
- On 26 June 2026, a project review meeting for the Asian Games decided not to send them.
- In the end, no Taiwanese climber competed.
The Ministry of Sports' account (Liberty Times report, 2026-07-10, in Mandarin)
- For each Asian Games sport, participating countries decide their own entries within the quota, based on domestic development and international competitiveness.
- The Asian Games participation standard is "top 8 at the most recent Olympics, or top 4 at the previous Asian Games or the most recent Universiade, World, Asian or World Youth championships."
- After the Asian council notified Taiwan on 14 April of its three places, the CTAA sent the athletes' recent results to the National Sports Training Center for the training and support meeting. On 26 June the meeting reviewed the three athletes' recent international results and, balancing team value against fairness across sports, decided not to send them.
- The Asian Games is a high-intensity multi-sport event, not a vehicle for training or gaining experience; the ministry separately funded athletes to compete at the 2024 and 2026 Asian Championships.
The athletes' and coaches' account
- PTS report (2026-07-13) (in Mandarin): Yao said she only gradually learned of the decision after the entry deadline had passed, and was stunned. The coaches pointed out that since 2025, Asian Games climbing places have had to be earned at designated international events and are tied to the individual. Wu Yen-yi, a coach with the Taipei City Extreme Sports Association, said the Meishan Asian Championships was itself the Asian Games qualifier, so once the athletes qualified, they believed they had earned their Asian Games places.
- NOWnews report (2026-07-13) (in Mandarin): Yao earned her place as the eighth-ranked qualifier in women's boulder at Meishan. With no corporate sponsor for two years, she paid for training camps abroad and international competitions herself, more than NT$1 million in total. She said what she regretted most was "not even having a chance to make my own case."
What followed: when the Asian Games team was announced on 14 July, Minister of Sports Lee Yang said that the selection rules had been sent to every federation when the Asian Games plan launched in 2024, and that changing them on the eve of the Games would not be fair. After the Games, he said, the ministry would invite federations, coaches and athletes to revisit the selection rules sport by sport (PTS, CNA, both in Mandarin). A news search on 2026-10-19 found no published outcome of that review yet.
The dispute is really about two things. One is whether places that athletes earn at international qualifiers should be reviewed again at home under a different standard. The other is the timing of the decision and how it was communicated. The ministry's standard is public, and the athletes' places were officially announced; in this case the two didn't line up.
Two things to know before competing internationally
Anti-doping
World Climbing is a signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code and delegates some testing to the International Testing Agency (ITA). Athletes in the testing pool must file whereabouts: one 60-minute slot each day between 5:00 and 23:00 when testers can find them. Three whereabouts failures or missed tests within 12 months is a violation that can mean a two-year ban.
Most national-championship climbers won't deal with whereabouts, but once you start competing abroad, check the ingredients of cold medicines and supplements first.
REDs health screening
World Climbing was the first international federation to introduce comprehensive rules on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) (2024 news). Under the 2026 REDs Health Screening Rules, every athlete registering for World Climbing Series events and (Youth) World Championships must complete the required medical data.
What REDs is and why BMI alone isn't enough is covered in Nutrition, RED-S and Recovery.
Practice: four scenarios
The answer is under each question. Think first, then check.
1. You have been climbing for just over a year. You can redpoint 5.10 at the gym but haven't done a 5.11a. You want to try competing. What do you enter first?
Answer
A gym comp. In the Rocket Cup, only climbers who have redpointed 5.11a or harder must enter the 5.11 category, so you can enter 5.10. The CTAA national championships' open division is set to adult standard, which is too hard at this level.
2. You aren't a CTAA member. Can you enter the 2026 national bouldering championships? Will your result count for national-team points?
Answer
You can enter, for NT$1,800 as a non-member. But your result won't count for national-team points: the rules state that only open-division athletes from valid CTAA group members earn them.
3. Your child is in primary year 5 and wins the national youth championships. Can that result be used for sports-based admission?
Answer
No. The rules say only high-school and junior-high results qualify; primary divisions don't. Once your child is in junior high, they can apply under that year's placing thresholds.
4. An athlete earns an Asian Games place at the Asian Championships. Why might they still not go?
Answer
The international place is only the first gate. For multi-sport games like the Asian Games, the federation still has to nominate the athlete, and the National Sports Training Center and the training and support meeting review whether to send a team, based on the ministry's participation standard and a cost-benefit assessment. That is what happened at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games: three athletes who earned places did not compete.
Next
Japan often tops the Asian medal table. Why is Japan so strong? More gyms, better routesetting, or the system? Which explanations have data behind them, and which are just commentators' views? That is post 6: why Japan is strong.
References
- World Climbing Asia Series (Wikipedia)
- Asian Climbing Championship concludes in Meishan (China.org.cn, 2026-04-15)
- 2026 Asian Youth Climbing Championships close in Guiyang (China Daily, 2026-08-26, in Mandarin)
- Sport climbing at the 2026 Asian Games (Wikipedia)
- Today at the Asian Games: Day 1 (World Climbing)
- Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 qualified athletes as of 15 May 2026 (World Climbing, PDF)
- World Climbing official results: Lee Hung-ying, Fan Chih-en
- Lee Hung-ying ninth in sport climbing, misses Asian Games final (WOWSIGHT, 2023-10-07, in Mandarin)
- 2025 (year 114) National Games competition rules (PDF, in Mandarin)
- 2024 (year 113) National Sports Festival competition rules (in Mandarin)
- 2026 TUP Rocket Cup Flash Lead Competition (TUP Climbing, in Mandarin)
- 2026 National Bouldering Championships rules (CTAA competition system, in Mandarin)
- 2025 National Lead and Bouldering Championships (CTAA competition system, in Mandarin)
- 2026–27 National Youth Sport Climbing Championships draft rules (CTAA competition system, in Mandarin)
- 2025–26 National Youth Sport Climbing Championships rules (CTAA competition system, in Mandarin)
- 2026–27 University Climbing Championships rules (reposted by NTNU Office of Physical Education, in Mandarin)
- 2026 Taoyuan City Games Mayor's Cup Bouldering Championships (Taoyuan Department of Sports, in Mandarin)
- Regulations on national-team coach and athlete selection, training and participation (Laws & Regulations Database, in Mandarin)
- Sport climbing: qualified but can't go to the Asian Games? Ministry of Sports explains (Liberty Times, 2026-07-10, in Mandarin)
- Nagoya Asian Games team announced; Lee Yang responds to surfing and climbing disputes (PTS News, 2026-07-14, in Mandarin)
- Asian Games team of 482 athletes in 34 sports; Lee Yang promises post-Games review of selection rules (CNA, 2026-07-14, in Mandarin)
- Climber earns Asian Games place but can't compete; Yao Ting-chen says she learned after the entry deadline (PTS News, 2026-07-13, in Mandarin)
- Over NT$1 million self-funded: Yao Ting-chen stunned at missing the Asian Games (NOWnews, 2026-07-13, in Mandarin)
- Anti-Doping (World Climbing)
- Registered Testing Pool / Whereabouts (World Climbing)
- New competition policy places IFSC at forefront of fight against REDs (World Climbing, 2024-02-07)
- REDs Health Screening Rules v2.1 (World Climbing, 2026-02, PDF)