Italy's Giovanni Placci has used his strong Wujiang Lead World Cup qualifying performance to open up about a three-year plan: build elite consistency through the 2026 IFSC season, accumulate confidence and ranking points across 2027, and arrive in Los Angeles 2028 as a genuine Olympic medal threat.
The 24-year-old, ranked in the high teens on the IFSC lead world rankings, surprised several seeded climbers in Wujiang qualifying and laid out his thinking in the post-session media zone.
"I'm very happy, I'm feeling very good," Placci said. "On the wall I felt like I could show my shape. Winter training went very well, and I think I can do great things this year."
The Italian, a product of the Arco-based federation pathway that has produced multiple World Cup medallists across the past decade, has positioned 2026 explicitly as a baseline-building year.
"I want to do all the World Climbing Series this year and build some confidence for the next few years that will be very important for the Olympics," Placci said. "That's my goal I'm working toward."
The Olympics he is targeting is Los Angeles 2028, where sport climbing returns with what is expected to be a wider field of nations and a format reshuffle that may separate boulder from lead. Placci, who has historically focused on lead specialism with some combined work, would benefit from a specialised lead event in Los Angeles.
The Wujiang qualifying showing places Placci into a strong position for Saturday's semi-finals, with the Italian one of multiple climbers in the U25 bracket making serious noise at the top of the rankings. The lead World Cup field at Wujiang totals 120 men, with the cut to semi-finals taking the top 26 from qualifying.
Italy's wider 2026 lead programme is among the most competitive in Europe. The federation's Arco-based training facility, which doubles as the venue for July 2026's IFSC Youth World Championships, has been the launch pad for several of Placci's age-cohort peers. The federation's recent pivot to a clearer specialism pathway separating lead and boulder training cohorts earlier in the development arc has been credited with producing the strong U25 group now competing across the World Cup season.
The Olympic pathway through to Los Angeles 2028 will run through the IFSC season ranking and a series of qualification events that have yet to be fully scheduled by the IFSC. The format reshuffle expected for 2028 means lead specialists, who were combined into a single combined-format event in Paris 2024, may have a clearer route to medal contention without needing boulder or speed credentials.
For Placci, the immediate priority is converting Wujiang qualifying form into a semi-final climb. Italy has had a small but consistent recent record at lead World Cups, with Stefano Ghisolfi the most recognised Italian male climber across the past decade, and Placci sits as part of the current generation expected to inherit Ghisolfi's mantle as the country's lead representative.
The broader Italian climbing programme also includes Laura Rogora, who has been the country's most consistent women's lead competitor for five seasons, and a clutch of U19 prospects expected to feature at the Arco Youth Worlds in July.
Wujiang's semi-finals begin at 10:30am local time on Saturday, with the finals at 7pm. The full IFSC season schedule runs through October's season-ending event in Santiago, Chile the first IFSC World Cup ever held in Chile.