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, April 18 - Sunday, April 20, 2025
• FREE Streams: ISFC YouTube channel (US, Canada)
• UK: Discovery+, TNT Sports
• Europe: Discovery+, Eurosport
• Watch from anywhere: try NordVPN 100% risk-free
After a six-month absence, the annual IFSC Climbing World Cup is finally back. This year's competition 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.
This year's competition promises to be a corker, featuring a fresh set of young and hungry climbers ready to take the competition by storm.
Japanese prodigy Sorato Anraku will be eager to defend his men's bouldering crown and challenge British Olympic champion Toby Roberts in men's lead climbing – an event Roberts ran away with last year.
Slovenian titan Janja Garnbret will be keen to regain her place atop the women's lead climbing podium after Austrian Jessica Pilz snatched a narrow victory in the final event of last year's World Cup.
Garnbret has an astonishing 32 IFSC World Cup golds to her name, over half coming in the lead competition.
The first World Cup event of 2025 is a bouldering competition, which takes place in Shaoxing, China. It starts on Friday, April 18, though time differences mean that viewers in the US and Canada will be tuning in on Thursday evening.
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.
IFSC World Cup Schedule
Qualification
- 6pm PT (April 17) / 9pm EST (April 17) / 2am BST (April 18) Women's qualification
- 1am PT (April 18) / 4am EST (April 18) / 9am BST (April 18) Men's qualification
Women's semi-finals and final
- 9pm PT (April 18) / 12am EST (April 18) / 5am BST (April 19) Women's semi-finals
- 4am PT (April 1) / 7am EST (April 19) / 12pm BST (April 19) Women's final
Men's semi-finals and final
- 9pm PT (April 19) / 12am EST (April 19) / 5am BST (April 20) Men's semi-finals
- 4am PT (April 1) / 7am EST (April 19) / 12PM BST (April 19) Men's final
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, the knowledgeable people at TechRadar put NordVPN at the top of the podium.
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.
