Leapfroggin' the Wall
Wednesday, June 24
Second place finisher Aaron Shamy doesn't need his feet to jump up the wall. Elena Ovchinnikova takes 'em down 1-2-3 to take her 3rd X Games Gold in speedclimbing. Audio, photos and hidden clues, oh yeah...And there are blushing Marines.

Difficulty

It's All about Brown Core
Updated: Tuesday, June 23
Katie Brown retains her status as the best female sport climber in the world. She gracefully contemplated every move with slow, lizard-like precision and pulled her slender 85 pound frame to the top of the X Games podium for the third time. Christian Core surpassed the best of the best Francois Legrand and stole the title from the World leader. Look for bloody fingernails, hear them speak, share their joy.

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The difference between speed and difficulty

It's technique versus time; strength versus speed. The two sportclimbing disciplines — difficulty and speed — will not produce similar winners.

The difficulty discipline requires agility and endurance in order to bring your body and rope to each consecutive carabiner. Climbers must have the ability to rest on just fingers or toes while deciphering the best body position and technique for each step.

Speedclimbing is about eye-hand synchronicity and flow, with your competitor at your side (though hopefully below you). The ability to put your foot where your hand just was with ever increasing speed and without losing upward momentum is the true test.

	Katie Brown

In the sportclimbing difficulty discipline, American Katie Brown is not only a two time X Games Gold Medalist, but has won every National event since she began competing in 1995. Oh yeah, and she's only 17 and now is "allowed" to take on the world. Last year, France's Liv Sansov and Belgian Muriel Sarkany took second and third, respectively, so stand back because they are sure to be looking for redemption.

In the men's division, there's an unfortunate absence of American Chris Sharma, who, with the passage of his 17th birthday, is now also allowed entrance to the "adult" world of sportclimbing. This rite of passage earlier gained him access to the World Cup circuit, and with that ticket he became the first American man to bring a World Cup win back to the U.S..

Sharma injured his knee when he fell while bouldering in Colorado last month.

The American veteran is Hans Florine. At the ripe old age of 34, Hans is the still the speed master, a quality perhaps underestimated last year by fellow American Chris Bloch. The "old" man attacked the wall with such intensity he had the crowd roaring and not only didn't tire, but seemed to pull himself upward faster and faster. Bloch was again relegated to second while Hans captured his third X Games gold. So this good natured rivalry is also sure to be Xciting.

Elena Ovchinnikova, 33, took both the '95 and '97 X Games speedclimbing titles and only missed '96 to give birth to her second child. This transplanted (to Las Vegas) Siberian will be looking to earn yet a third gold. Australian Abby Watkins settled with silver last year and Mi Sun-Go, of Korea, in a close battle took the bronze. The head-to-head attack format of speedclimbing means even the slightest mistake can lead to not gaps but bridges in the finishes. While any of these competitors can make scaling the man made 60 foot wall easy only one will do it fast enough to walk away with $5,000.

Stay tuned to The Mountain Zone to see your favorites ascend beginning with the difficulty events Monday, June 22nd followed on Tuesday by the speed events. We'll see you Monday and remember to chalk up your hands so you don't sweat all over your keyboard.

—Hans Prosl, HyperXtending for The Mountain Zone