Matt Groom 🎙️ and Alex Honnold 🧗 | IFSC Lounge 

I still believe that the I f S p when they broadcast should allow Matt groom and his announcer to have their names shown on the broadcast. They deserve recognition.

It's nice to hear from Alex! I love his blunt honesty and sense of humour. With his unique perspective of climbing, his comments were entertainening and insightful!

Somewhat unsurprising to me that Alex does not have Olympic level falling technique lmao

Team metals. 4 categories: speed, lead , boulder, and combined. Add the points and vola, a team medals. Just like gymnastics

I could listen to Alex talk all day. His candor and humour is refreshing. When the Olympics come I'll search his commentary.

I like the combined format. It should be applied to more sports, like tennis and table-tennis.

Love listening to Matt commentate and Alex has been my favorite commentator who joined him. Hilarious

I can imagine Alex as a coach and telling his people to basically stop sucking, its only 7C, just go up it. 😂 That and eating raw bell peppers as he coaches. Seeds falling off his lips as he tells them to stop being gumbies. 🤣

i hope all the positive reaction to his first commentary doesn't make Alex any more self conscious in future.. we want Alex freewheeling, just casually being himself!

Didn’t think my little video would be the basis for an entire interview!! ❤❤❤❤

For me i didnt like the fact that speed climbing was mixed with the rest of the climbing events so at first I didn't like speed climbing, but afterward i watched a speed climbing competition on its own and it was great.

In formula 1 they do not discuss track or strategy with other teams. Keep in mind its the same 20 tracks they have driven on before. HOWEVER, during the race, the mics between pit and driver are open. So rival teams can listen in (as can fans) what they are discussing. They'll sometimes speak in code ie. "were going to execute strategy 1" but often issues with cars, tire condition, track conditions etc is all public.

Looking forward to the OQS part 2 meet. Both Miho & Futabo will prolly finish in the qualifying group but only one JPN spot left. I don't think that's fair but rules is rules I guess.

I don’t know how much you all read the comments, but just wanted to share some thoughts. I think there has been this debate for a while that indoor climbers aren’t real climbers. Then we found out that they are extremely talented, and if and when they do get out on rocks they do great. So now we move onto, what is a “climber?” I think anyone who prioritizes ascending anything… a tree, a skyscraper, an indoor gym wall, as a main passion… is a climber. They climb. Distinction is whats important. I’m not as ice climber, so I don’t call myself one. I’m not an arborist, so I don’t call myself a tree climber. I ascend mountains in a single and multi-pitch setting. I rock climb on mountains. I’m a rock climber. There are numerous gym climbers who are talented, and would crush the outdoors! But they just have no desire, and the gym is it for them… They are 100% climbers! I would call them indoor comp climbers. They have to rock climb… to be rock climbers… I’m not talking about access issues. I’m talking about distinction. I became homeless and lived out of a van for 4 years to climb in western NC… because I wanted to be a rock climber. Indoor gym climbers are still climbers, period. And they are extremely talented. If they love outdoor climbing and pursue it, I would call them rock climbers. If they don’t, I wouldn’t.

And also last thing(see other comment)… it takes a lot of bravery to climb outside that isn’t required in regulated gyms. Decking on ledges, falling on slab, gear popping, run outs, the heights... Indoor climbers are climbers, period. To call yourself a rock climber, requires the bravery to go out and rock climb… distinction is so important. Don’t take the bravery away from rock climbers, wanting to be called a climber, if you don’t rock climb. You’re a climber if you passionately climb anything. To be a rock climber, you have to… rock climb. Honnold said it himself…”that’s the god damn warrior spirit.”

So nice to hear 'the' Alex Honnold, talk about how impressed he was, as impressed as I am watching comps on web, it would grow 10+ folds in person. Matt Groom says Alex was the wide-eyed person, bombarded by new sensations of seeing it all in person, height of walls, distances jumped, athletes surprising themselves, the comp environment, making us feel what he felt. All that is lost watching on the web and something most of us will never experience. But 2nd best thing was listening to Alex's wonder, sharing and describing it so honestly with great excitement, bringing unusual thoughts and perspectives not common in commentating, but so unique coming from him. This was a wonderful window into that comp world, it added so much more for when watching the next competitions. Thank you both for this great interview!

The cross over between events can be interesting, but that isnt what the Olypmics is about. The winners of each event should be the best at that event.

Great interview guys! Hope y'all can do more work together in the future! Fingers crossed for commentating the Olympics!

Woohoo! Can’t wait. The best duo!

19:11 I agree, I really do. But does AH really think it's that easy to be make money on social media? Surely he knows it's not just about smiling on a video and posting it on Instagram. C'mon.

3 separate disciplines doesn’t make sense. The current format is the right one

yes more Alex Honnold will be awesome

Fastest Olympian, how so? Speed climbers do 15m in 4.8ish seconds but sprinters do 100m sub 10s. Not knocking speed climbing but surely Alex is just wrong there

can the IFSC please stop cooperating with Honnold? He is the worst possible rolemodel they could have chosen for the sport! I think it is a shame that he commented the SLC WC and i think the IFSC should distance itself from any person that is open about free soloing, because as THE climbing organisation they should be a rolemodel for our sport. There are people dieing there (someone i know recently) and Honnold is pushing free soloing as something that a climber just does... To clarifty: i dont have something against honnold as a person he can do whatever he wants, but i think he should not be put in a public spotlight at all.