In December 2020, the IFSC moved the 21–22 May Boulder World Cup from Munich, Germany to Salt Lake City, United States, and rescheduled the already existing Boulder & Speed World Cup in Salt Lake City from 11 to 13 June to 28–30 May, in order to minimize travel for athletes and staff.

[2] In March, the federation also moved the Seoul, South Korea and Wujiang, China World Cups from April and May to October because of ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions in the respective countries.

[7][8] The following week, the IFSC also cancelled the Boulder and Speed World Cup in Seoul, originally scheduled for May and pushed back to October, due to rising COVID-19 cases in South Korea.

The cancellation of the Jakarta and Seoul World Cups mean the bouldering and speed seasons concluded in June in Innsbruck and Villars in July, respectively.

In her absence, Grossman won the gold, followed by Bertone, who again finished second, while Ondra repeated as the men's Boulder winner.

[14] On the men's side, Stefano Ghisolfi took the Lead season title, having won the event in Briançon in addition to two second places at the World Cups in Innsbruck and Chamonix, while Sean Bailey's two wins in Villars and Chamonix earned him second place in the overall Lead season ranking.

Austrian broadcaster Osterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) issued an apology during the Innsbruck World Cup, after showing slow-motion, close-up footage that zoomed on the chalk handprints on Johanna Färber's bottom on the event's live feed on YouTube.

Färber later posted a message on her Instagram, calling the incident "disrespectful and upsetting"[15] [16] The overall ranking is determined based upon points, which athletes are awarded for finishing in the top 30 of each individual event.