High-octane new Olympics sport speed climbing inflicts horrific injuries on athletes' bodies - including leaving their hands looking like CHEESE GRATERS READ MORE: Female Olympian beaten by gender row boxer Lin Yu-ting protests By James Cirrone For Dailymail.Com Published: 01:34 BST, 8 August 2024 | Updated: 01:35 BST, 8 August 2024 e-mail View comments One of the most intense sports in the world has made its first-ever debut as a solo event at the 2024 Paris Olympics . Speed climbing sees two climbers compete at once, with one athlete on the left side of the wall (Lane A) and the other on the right (Lane B).
Once the buzzer sounds, they rocket up the 49-foot wall as fast as humanly possible. Poland 's Aleksandra Miroslaw took the gold in women's speed climbing Wednesday, scaling to the top in a stunning 6.1 seconds as hundreds of adoring fans cheered and held up Polish flags.
But with the new attention this sport is getting, coaches and athletes who have been doing it for years are warning about the 'gruesome' damage professional speed climbers do to their extremities, their hands often looking as though they went through a cheese grater. Albert Ok, a longtime speed climbing coach, said it often gets so bad that he needs to 'prescribe' superglue to his pupils to keep their finger nails from getting ripped clean off. Gold medalist Aleksandra Miroslaw of Team Poland poses on the podium during the Medal Ceremony after the Women's Speed on Wednesday Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland.