🌏 中文版
A boulder final on stream often goes like this: an athlete throws for the top hold on the fifth attempt and finally sticks it. The scoreboard jumps from 10.0 to 24.6, the commentator shouts, and the athlete climbs three places in one go. One extra attempt costs only 0.1 points, but a top is worth 15 more than the Zone. That is bouldering after the 2025 rule change.
This is post 1 of the "Climbing Competitions and Pro Climbing" series. Post 0 covered who runs competitions and where to watch. This post is about bouldering: how many boulders per round, what counts as a start and a top, how points work, how ties are broken, and what to watch for on a broadcast. By the end, given a record of attempts, you should be able to work out an athlete's score and ranking yourself.
All rules here come from two World Climbing (formerly IFSC) documents dated January 2026: the Competition Rules, which define starts and tops, and Annex C of the Event Regulations, which sets the bouldering format and scoring. Article numbers below refer to these two documents.
A bouldering event has three rounds
Per Annex C, Table 1, World Climbing Series bouldering runs three rounds:
| Round | Boulders | Time | Advancing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualification | 5 | 5 minutes each (fixed rotation) | Top 24 |
| Semi-final | 4 | 5 minutes each (fixed rotation) | Top 8 |
| Final | 4 | Up to 4 minutes each | — |
All three rounds are on-sight: athletes may not try the boulders beforehand. If qualification has too many entrants, the field is split into two groups, each climbing its own set of boulders (Annex C §2.2).
Qualification and semi-finals use rotations: every athlete is at a different boulder at the same time, and when the clock runs out everyone moves to the next one, like changing exam rooms. The final also goes boulder by boulder, but only one athlete climbs a given boulder at a time, then goes back to isolation. Since the move to 8 finalists in 2025, several athletes are often on different boulders at once (except in the first and last rotation, when there is only one), so the broadcast rarely stops. Before the final, all finalists observe together for 2 minutes per boulder (Annex C §4.9). During observation they may not try the boulder or touch any hold except the start holds; doing so can cost a penalty attempt (Annex C, note 60).
What counts as a start and a top
Start: the athlete must have both hands and both feet on the marked start holds and be stable before the start is valid (Competition Rules §7.5). Using any other hold before getting stable is a false start, and that attempt is over.
Top: both hands on the marked finishing hold at the same time, a stable position, and clear, intentional control of the hold (§8.5). Slapping the top hold, or hanging it with one hand and dropping off, does not count. The other way to top is to finish standing on top of the boulder, which only happens when the problem is designed to be topped out.
Gym rules for starts and tops vary, and Bouldering Problem Solving compares gym conventions with competition rules.
Zone: there is a separately marked hold partway up. If the athlete controls it with their hands, or uses it to move on to a stable position on a hold further up, they get the Zone (§9.7). Even without a top, that attempt records the Zone.
The points system since 2025: 25, 10, minus 0.1
The March 2025 rule-change announcement turned bouldering into a single score. Annex C §5.1 of the 2026 Event Regulations puts it like this:
- Zone: 10 points, minus 0.1 for each attempt made before the Zone.
- Top: 25 points, minus 0.1 for each failed attempt.
- The boulder's score is whichever is higher, with a minimum of 0. It cannot go negative.
Four boulders per round, so the maximum is 100.
Scoring one boulder
| Attempt record | Calculation | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Top on the 1st attempt (flash) | 25 − 0 | 25.0 |
| Top on the 3rd attempt | 25 − 0.1 × 2 | 24.8 |
| Zone on the 1st attempt, never topped | 10 − 0 | 10.0 |
| Zone on the 2nd, top on the 5th | Top: 25 − 0.4 = 24.6, higher than the Zone's 9.9 | 24.6 |
| Six attempts, no Zone | — | 0.0 |
The announcement's own example is the first row plus a second-attempt top: a flash scores 25, a top on the second attempt scores 24.9.
Scoring a round
Add up the boulders to get the round total. A real example: in the men's boulder final at the 2025 Seoul World Championships, Anraku Sorato won with 99.2, Mejdi Schalck scored 84.5 and Lee Dohyun 84.2.
Work backwards: with four boulders, three tops (max 75) plus one Zone (10) only reaches 85, so 99.2 means all four boulders were topped, with only 8 failed attempts across the four. Silver's 84.5 falls in the "three tops plus one Zone" range.
Breaking ties
When totals are equal, Annex C §7.1 applies in order:
- Countback to the previous round: whoever ranked higher after the previous round goes ahead (not used if that round was split into groups).
- Total attempts on boulders topped: fewer is better.
- Total attempts to reach the Zones: fewer is better.
Because every failure costs 0.1, exactly equal totals are not that common, and countback usually settles it.
The pre-2025 system: tops first, then Zones, then attempts
Before 2025 there was no bouldering "score". Under the 2024 rules §8.19, the ranking went:
- Number of tops, more is better;
- Number of boulders with the Zone, more is better;
- Total attempts for those tops, fewer is better;
- Total attempts for those Zones, fewer is better.
The biggest difference is the weight of an attempt. Under the old system, if two athletes had the same tops and Zones, one extra attempt meant losing outright. Under the new system, an extra attempt costs only 0.1 points.
The number of qualifiers changed too: the 2024 rules took 20 to the boulder semi-final and 6 to the final (§8.6). Since 2025 it matches lead: 24 in the semi-final, 8 in the final.
Paris 2024 Olympic bouldering used a different system: each boulder had a low and a high Zone, worth 5 and 10 points. That was an Olympic-only format, covered in post 4 so the two don't get mixed up.
What to watch for on a broadcast
A top is worth far more than a Zone. One top is 25 points; two Zones together are only 20. So as long as there is time, athletes almost always keep going for the top instead of settling for the Zone. Topping on the tenth attempt (24.1) still beats a first-attempt Zone (10) by a mile.
A flash is worth less than before, but still worth something. A first-attempt top and a second-attempt top differ by just 0.1, so athletes are more willing to try a riskier method on their first go. But when several athletes have the same number of tops, the ranking comes down to those 0.1s. When you read the scoreboard, look at the whole number first (how many tops and Zones), then the decimals (how many extra attempts).
The 4 minutes in the final. Each final boulder has at most 4 minutes, and resting under the wall, cleaning shoes and reading the problem all come out of that time. As time runs short, athletes speed up and skip rests, and often stick the top in the last few seconds.
Running order. Semi-finals and finals use "Rank Descending" order (Annex C, Table 1): the best-ranked athlete from the previous round goes last. Before being called, athletes must stay in the warm-up area (Annex C §4.2), and the Call Zone must be set up so they can't see boulders they haven't tried yet (Annex C §4.3). So they cannot watch the athletes before them; at most they hear the crowd. The last athlete out carries the weight of having ranked first in the previous round, and is under the most pressure.
Watch the start. Occasionally an athlete sets off before their feet are settled, the judge calls a false start, and the attempt is wasted, adding one more to the count.
Practice: five scenarios
Answers are under each question. Think first, then check.
1. Athlete A gets the Zone on the 2nd attempt and tops on the 4th. What is the score?
Answer
24.7. The top calculation is 25 minus 3 failed attempts × 0.1 = 24.7; the Zone calculation is 10 minus 1 × 0.1 = 9.9. Take the higher, 24.7.
2. In a four-boulder final, athlete B flashes boulder 1, tops boulder 2 on the 3rd attempt, gets the Zone on boulder 3 on the 1st attempt without topping, and gets nothing on boulder 4 (5 attempts). What is the total?
Answer
25.0 + 24.8 + 10.0 + 0 = 59.8. With no Zone on boulder 4, the number of attempts doesn't matter: it is 0, never negative.
3. Athlete C tops two boulders (each on the 1st attempt) and scores nothing on the other two; athlete D gets only the Zone on all four (each on the 1st attempt). Who ranks higher?
Answer
C has 50.0, D has 40.0, so C is ahead. One top is 25 points, worth two and a half Zones, so the athlete with more tops usually ranks higher.
4. Two athletes both score 74.6 in the semi-final. Who takes 8th place and the last spot in the final?
Answer
First, count back to the previous round (qualification): whoever ranked higher there goes ahead. If qualification was split into two groups, countback doesn't apply, so compare total attempts on tops, then total attempts on Zones.
5. A friend says: "A flash is only worth 0.1 more now, so you might as well climb the first attempt any old way." How do you reply?
Answer
When tops are level, 0.1 points is the gap between places. At the Seoul World Championships, silver and bronze were just 0.3 apart. And the first attempt is when you are freshest; waste it and every later attempt is more tired. A more accurate version: the new system makes athletes more willing to take risks on the first attempt, not free to climb carelessly.
Next
Bouldering is about how many problems you solve; lead is about how high you get. How are athletes who don't top ranked? What is the "+" after a result? Why does time decide ties in the final? That is post 2: how lead is scored.
References
- World Climbing Competition Rules v3 (2026-01, PDF)
- World Climbing Event Regulations v3 (2026-01, PDF), Annex C: Boulder
- New rule changes take effect for IFSC World Cup Series 2025 (World Climbing, 2025-03-05)
- IFSC Rules 2024 v1.01 (PDF)
- Anraku wins world title in more last-gasp gold drama (World Climbing, 2025-09)