Summer Olympics 2020, in Tokyo, is around the corner. Rock Climbing will make the first debut. The dates are from July 24 to August 9, 2020. Rock climbing will include three disciplines of competitive climbing: bouldering, lead, and speed.
For sport climbing at the 2020 Summer Olympics, forty (40) spots are open for grab. Twenty (20) men and twenty (20) women can qualify to compete climbing at the Summer Olympics. With the limitation of 40 spots, not every country can participate in rock climbing. Each country can have a maximum of 4 (2 males and 2 females) to represent their country.
The US climbing team has now been established. The final US climber was qualified at the Pan American championship last February in Los Angeles. As of March 1, 2020, the US and Japan are the only two countries that have filled the maximum qualifying spots of 4 (2 males and 2 females). We have four more Continental Championships: African, European, Oceania, and Asian from April to May 2020, for other countries to qualify. To learn more details on the qualification, please click and visit ==> Do You Qualify for the Olympics Rock Climbing 2020, in Tokyo?
Below is the Olympic US rock climbing team with brief information about them and their accomplishments: Brooke Raboutou, Nathaniel Coleman, Kyra Condie, and Colin Duffy.
Brooke Raboutou
On August 18, 2019, at the IFSC Combined World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, Brooke Raboutou qualified to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She was the first eighteen-year-old female to represent Team USA. “Raboutou finished 9th overall, her best finish of the season.” quoted by Climbing.com. Brooke qualified as a result of the max quota of two genders per country. There were four female Japanese athletes in the top seven spaces of the combined final. She was the next non-Japanese athlete not yet qualified for the Olympics.
Brooke Raboutou was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. With both parents being world-class climbers, Brooke started climbing since she started walking and climbed consistently since she was four. Her mom owns ABC Kids climbing gym, an elite climbing training facility built especially for kids. She is a well-rounded climber and has sent up to V13 on boulder and 5.14c on rope. She was the youngest person to send 5.14b outdoor at the age of 11. Click here to read 12 reasons why Brooke Raboutou Qualified for the 2020 Olympics.
Nathaniel Coleman
Nathaniel Coleman qualified for the sport climbing Olympic at the final of an Olympic qualifier in Toulouse, France on Thursday, November 28, 2019. Nathaniel finished seventh place in qualifying into Saturday’s eight-man final. According to NBC Sports article, the top six in Toulouse make the Olympics, but two of the finals qualifiers were Japanese. Japan had already maxed out its Olympic qualifiers at worlds in August. Therefore, anyone who made the final is guaranteed an Olympic spot. Nathaniel was the first twenty-two-year-old male in 2019, to represent Team USA.
Started climbing when he was nine at Momentum Indoor Climbing, Nathaniel Coleman made a name for himself in the world of indoor bouldering. He is a native of Salt Lake City, Utah. His claim to fame was the National Champion competition specializing in bouldering. Nathaniel joined the Petzl Team in 2015 and is a professional climber. Please visit the Petzl.com website to read more about Nathaniel.
Kyra Condie
Similar to Nathaniel Coleman, at age twenty-three Kyra Condie earned her 2020 Summer Olympic spot in Toulouse, France in November 2019. Kyra finished Friday’s qualifying round in eighth place in Toulouse to move to Sunday’s final. The top sixth would earn Olympic spots in the final, but again because of two-per-country maximum with two Japanese climbers made the final, Kyra and five other athletes including the ninth-place finisher made it to the Olympics. Kyra Condie was the second female to represent Team USA.
Kyra Condie was born and raised in Shoreview, Minnesota. She started climbing at the age of 10 at a birthday party at Vertical Endeavors gym in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kyra joined the team and made it to youth bouldering nationals her first year. However, at age 12, Kyra discovered that she has scoliosis. “It formed an S along the thoracic vertebrae. And at the end of the bends of the S, the bones curved in at a 52-degree angle…” stated Climbing.com. By age 13, she went in for the surgery. At the time of her operation, the angle of her spine had increased to about 74 degrees.
In 2011, Kyra competed again. She believes in the power of giving 100 percent. She won youth bouldering nationals in 2012 and the next two years. Kyra also won youth sport nationals twice. Her strength is in bouldering where she had two top-six world cup finishes in 2018. To read more about Kyra Condie, please visit Teamusa.org or Climbing.com.
Colin Duffy
Colin Duffy earned the final male 2020, Summer Olympic spot on the USA climbing team. The sixteen-year-old athlete won the gold medal on March 1, 2020, at the Pan American Championships in Los Angeles, CA. Colin was the second male to represent the US Rock Climbing Team. The US team has now maxed out with 4 qualified competitors.
From Broomfield, Colorado, Colin Duffy has been climbing since he was five years old. Colin started competing at eight. He practices four to five days a week for three hours at a time. Even though Colin is smaller than average stature, he is described as “intensely focused and determined” by Garret Setter, one of Colin’s coaches. Colin’s strength is the endurance in sport climbing which extends 50 to 70 feet off the ground.
He is an eight-time youth national championship, with five wins in sport, two in bouldering, and one in speed. Colin is also a two-time youth world champion in lead, and a two-time youth national champion. Colin is the second Olympic qualifier produced by ABC Kids Climbing Gym.
Conclusion
I am very excited to see that rock climbing is making its debut in the 2020 Summer Olympics. The four team members were well selected to represent the USA. We have a good range of tall and short climbers along with different strengths and weaknesses.
Whenever I fell off a route, I would have an excuse for me being short or vertically challenged. However, after reading the biography from the qualifiers, I should not have any excuses to try my hardest no matter how small or weak I feel. The USA team members are inspiring. Talent alone is not enough. With determination and self-disciplined, we can achieve anything we set our minds to do.
Currently, the Covid 19 (Coronavirus) has been spreading across the world rapidly. We are waiting with bated breath to let it pass and end as quickly as possible. We all hope and pray that the virus declines and dies out before July 2020.
QUICK UPDATE: 7/27/2021
The summer Olympics started on 7/23/2021. Climbing is being debuted from August 3 to August 6, 2021. Here is the article with the dates and times: Climbing: Tokyo Games.
I love to hear your thoughts about rock climbing in the Summer Olympics. Do you have what it takes to qualify? How determined are you to make your dream come true? Please leave your thoughts below.
2 thoughts on “Summer Olympics 2020 – US Rock Climbing Team”
Hi Ha,
Thanks for this article of 4 qualifiers of the USA rock climbing team and related info. I am not entirely familiar with this field, so I find it interesting and new.
It’s easy to find out those four qualifiers starting their journey of rock climbing at a very young age. Most of the time, I think it’s essential to start a sport when you are a kid. Either to train kids to focus on something or to find an exercise to make them busy. Do you have the same thoughts as I do?
I also agree that you mentioned you need to have the determination and self-disciplined to master climbing, and it might work for other things like wealth, health, weight control, etc. Anyway, thanks for sharing this interesting article.
Cheers,
Matt
Thank you, Matt, for visiting my website and leaving a comment. Rock climbing is not a totally new sport. It has been around for quite a while but under the radar and not so popular. However, it is pretty new to the Olympics. More and more people are becoming aware of the sport. I find it very exciting.
Yes, it does definitely help to start at a young age to become an excellent competitive climber. I think this holds true for many sports. I totally agree with your thoughts. However, if we climb for fun and for physical fitness like for me, I think learning at any age is great as long as you enjoy it.