Krakow 2026: Hunt and Watson Make History as Speed Mixed Relay Debuts at World Climbing Series

The starting position in speed climbing is a crouch on a 15-metre vertical wall, clip engaged, arms up, waiting for the beep. In a Mixed Relay, four climbers stand on that start hold at once — two pairs, two lanes, running a relay format that has existed at the World Games and Asian Games for years but had never appeared at a World Climbing Series event until this week in Krakow.

The first world record set under that format belonged to the United States before the sun was fully overhead on the first day of competition.

Emma Hunt and Samuel Watson — two of the best American speed climbers since the discipline entered the Olympics — combined for 11.22 seconds in the Mixed Relay qualification round, establishing the mark that will stand until someone in this field or the next one beats it. They set the first world record in a competition format that had no world record when the day started.

Speed 4 and the Mixed Relay: What Is Different

The standard World Climbing Series speed event runs two climbers side-by-side on identical walls, racing to the top. The first athlete to complete the 15-metre route and trigger the finish pad stops the clock; the other is eliminated.

Speed 4 adds two more climbers. Two pairs compete simultaneously, each on a two-lane section of a four-lane wall. The first pair's fastest climber and the second pair's fastest climber advance; the others exit. The format was introduced at major multi-sport events to increase spectator density — more climbers on the wall at once, more movement, a different visual intensity than the head-to-head duel. Krakow is the first time the format has been used in a World Climbing Series event.

The Mixed Relay is a different category entirely: a team of four climbers — two men, two women — alternating on the wall in sequence, each tagging the next runner before they start. The clock runs continuously from the first climber's start to the fourth climber's finish. Hunt and Watson's relay team posted 11.22 seconds. The number exists now as a target.

Mirosław's Krakow Farewell

Aleksandra Mirosław announced her retirement from international competition earlier in the 2026 season. She will compete through the end of the year and then stop. Krakow is her final World Climbing Series event at home. She is Polish. The competition is in the Rynek Główny — the main market square of Krakow's UNESCO-listed Old Town — and the crowd that gathers for speed climbing finals in this city is not the neutral competition audience that attends events in other countries. It is her crowd.

Mirosław holds the women's speed world record at 6.03 seconds. She won Olympic gold in Tokyo and gold again in Paris. She has 14 World Cup gold medals and three World Championship titles. The case for considering her the greatest speed climber in the history of the discipline is straightforward and rarely contested.

What she does with this week is a separate question. The performance at home carries its own weight independent of any record or rank. The event's individual finals are scheduled for Sunday.

The 16-year-old Chinese climber Zhao Yicheng set the men's world record at 4.58 seconds at the Asian Beach Games in 2026, taking the mark from Sam Watson (USA), who had held it at 4.64 seconds since Paris 2024. Watson won the Olympic bronze behind two Chinese climbers at Paris; Zhao was not old enough to compete in those Games.

The rivalry between them is structurally lopsided — one has an Olympic medal, the other has the world record — which makes the individual matchup at Krakow the kind of thing the speed discipline rarely produces in a single event.

The Schedule and What Comes Next

The individual speed qualifications and early rounds determine Sunday's finalists. The Krakow event closes July 5. Whatever the results from the Mixed Relay finals and the individual events look like on Sunday, the first world record in the event's history already belongs to the Americans.

For training destinations that extend the Krakow trip beyond the competition walls, see our Krakow and Polish Jura climbing guide.