HIGH ACHIEVERS

China's fast-rising sport climbers plotting glory at Paris Olympics

With more medals up for grabs, China's sport climbers are raring to scale new heights at Paris 2024 and boost the fashionable fitness activity's profile even further at home.

After impressing at climbing's Olympic debut in Tokyo two years ago, the national team is embracing the sport's expansion at next year's Paris Games as a golden opportunity to take its soaring popularity to another level.

The quest kicked off in style on Saturday as teenager Luo Zhilu opened Team China's 2023 World Cup season with an impressive fifth-place finish in boulder — a discipline in which China has traditionally not excelled in — at the first leg of the 12-stop series in Hachioji, Japan.