This guide explains how to watch 2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup live streams over the first round of the competition. There are free viewing options in the US and Canada, and we also explain how you can use a VPN to watch your usual coverage if you're away from home.
• Dates: Friday, July 18 - Saturday, July 19, 2025
• FREE Streams: ISFC YouTube channel (US, Canada)
• UK: Discovery+, TNT Sports
• Europe: Discovery+, Eurosport
• Watch from anywhere: try NordVPN 100% risk-free, with up to 79% off, plus four months free and a free Amazon gift card with our exclusive deal
We're approaching the end of the 2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup, but there's still plenty to climb for, and loads of action to catch.
This week's round takes the world's best climbers to Madrid, Spain, for the penultimate lead climbing round of a thrilling competition.
The IFSC Climbing World Cup pits the world's best boulderers, speed climbers, and lead climbers against each other over 14 separate competitions held across the globe and throughout the year.
Points from each competition are tallied up, and climbers are ranked on a leaderboard that decides the eventual world champions, otherwise known as series winners.
Read on to find out how and where to watch the 2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup wherever you are in the world.
Our guide to rock climbing terms will help you keep up with any unfamiliar jargon in the commentary, and if you want to give this exciting sport a try for yourself, you can also read about getting started in climbing.
Watch the IFSC Climbing World Cup for free in the U.S. and Canada
Want to watch from the U.S. or Canada? Then you're in luck, as you'll be able to stream the entire 2025 competition for free on the IFSC YouTube channel. In addition to live coverage, you can find highlights, interviews, and other awesome content from the competition. Viewers outside of the States and Canada can also access this content, but live coverage will be blocked.
If you're lucky enough to be in the U.S. or Canada, your viewing options aren't limited either, as live coverage is also available on the Olympics channel via Olympics.com. Here, you'll have access to even more highlights, build-up, and reaction to competition.
Traveling outside the U.S or Canada? You can still watch live as usual by using a quality VPN like NordVPN, which allows you to access the streams as if you were sitting on your sofa back home. Find out more below.
Use a VPN to watch the Climbing World Cup from anywhere
If you’re traveling overseas during the 2025 World Cup, geo-blocking restrictions mean you probably won't be able to watch as you usually would back home.
That doesn't mean you have to miss out, however. All you need to do to watch as if you were back home is get yourself a VPN (Virtual Private Network) – assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs, of course. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, meaning the service can’t work out where you are. As an added bonus, the info going back and forth is also entirely encrypted.
In a competitive field, our expert colleagues at TechRadar put NordVPN at the top of the podium for VPN services. Right now, you can snag up to 79% off NordVPN, get four months extra for free and get a free Amazon gift card on top, but don't sleep on this deal - it ends on July 31.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Watch the IFSC World Cup from the UK and Europe
Thanks to a recently agreed rights deal, viewers in the United Kingdom and Europe can stream the semi-finals and finals of every 2025 IFSC World Cup events exclusively on Warner Bros Discovery’s streaming services.
In the UK and Ireland that means TNT Sports, which you can access via a subscription to Discovery+ Premium. It will cost you £30.99 per month in the UK and you’ll also get access to Champions League and Premier League football, Premiership rugby, cycling and loads more top sporting action. Alternatively, TNT Sports can be added to your Sky, BT, EE or Virgin Media TV package – costs vary by platform.
In Europe, you can watch 2025 Climbing World Cup live streams on Eurosport or via the Discovery+ platform.
And don’t forget, if you’re going to be traveling away from home during any of the Climbing World Cup events, you can use a VPN to watch your usual service as if you were back home.
About this week's event
Climbing fanatics from across the globe will be eager to catch the men's lead competition to see whether Japan's Sorato Anraku can make history and clinch his second consecutive World Cup series win.
The 18-year-old stormed to victory in the bouldering series last month and looks odds-on to do the same in the lead climbing competition. The teenager currently sits atop the lead climbing leaderboard with two gold medals under his belt, and victory this week would all but assure the coveted double series gold.
Great Britain's Toby Roberts and Japanese duo Satone Yoshida and Neo Suzuki are also in with a shot. The former is the current Olympic champion, and the latter two are the only climbers aside from Anraku to have won a round of this year's competition.
The women's lead climbing competition is a close-run affair between two relatively unknown climbers. Despite having little pedigree before this year's competition, South Korea's Chaehyun Seo and Erin McNeice of Great Britain have been ever-present atop the lead climbing table.
The pair tied for gold in an extraordinary opening round back in April and have since traded positions atop the leaderboard with two gold medals each and several podium finishes.
This year's women's bouldering competition has been a little different from previous years as two of the world's best all-around climbers are missing. USA's Natalia Grossman is recovering from knee injuries, while 47-time World Cup winner Janja Garnbret has missed all but one competition as she takes time to rest.
Neither will be competing in Madrid this week, which opens up the competition for either McNeice or Seo to snag a maiden World Cup series victory.
IFSC World Cup Schedule
Lead Qualification
- 11.30pm PT (July 17) / 2.30am EST (July 18) / 9.30am BST (July 18) Men's and women's qualification
Lead finals
- 11.30am PT (July 18) / 2.30pm EST (July 19) / 9.30pm BST (July 18) Men's and women's semi-finals
- 11.30am PT (July 19) / 2.30pm EST (July 20) / 9.30pm BST (July 19) Men's final
- 12.30pm PT (July 19) / 3.30pm EST (July 20) / 10.30pm BST (July 19) Women's final
