Tokyo – Sport Climbing made its Olympic debut tonight starting with the Men’s Qualification.
Nathaniel Coleman (Salt Lake City) and
Colin Duffy (Broomfield, CO) competed in the Olympic Combined format of speed, bouldering and lead. Out of a field of 20 athletes, Duffy finished 3rd and Coleman finished 8th with both men securing positions in the top eight to advance to the Men’s Finals on Thursday, 5 August.Speed - Each athlete had two runs with their fastest time
being used to advance. Both Duffy and Coleman set new PRs on their first runs,
going 6.23 and 6.51, respectively. Their fast times earned them 6th and 10th as
the athletes moved on to bouldering.
Bouldering - The men each competed on four problems.
Duffy climbed to two tops and finished 5th and Coleman secured one top, two
zones and finished 11th. After speed and bouldering, Duffy was positioned in
5th and Coleman in 13th.
Lead - The Combined format ended with Lead. Duffy climbed
to 42+ just shy top topping the route and finished 2nd. Coleman also excelled
and climbed to 39 finishing 5th.
Their rankings for each of the three disciplines were
multiplied resulting in their top eight finishing positions and a place in
finals.
Athlete Quotes After Making Finals
“It feels amazing. I’m still in shock,” said Duffy.
“Yeah, Nathaniel and I made finals and I couldn’t be prouder of our team.”
“After bouldering, I had lost all hope of that dream
coming true,” said Coleman. “But I don’t know, somehow, that let me just climb
freely on the lead route, and it felt great. A crazy format leads to crazy
scores and I just kept moving up and I can’t believe it really happened.”
Additional quotes are below.
Results and Photos
Full results can be found here and IFSC photos can be
found here (when posted).
Next Up
Sport Climbing continues on Wednesday, 4 August with the
Women’s Qualification. Kyra Condie (Salt Lake City) and Brooke Raboutou
(Boulder, CO) will represent Team USA in an elite field of 20 athletes.
For athlete bios or more information about Olympic Sport
Climbing, please click here. Media inquiries should be directed to kelly@usaclimbing.org.
Additional quotes below
from Colin and Nathaniel.
Colin Duffy quotes
On the stress of the
Olympics and going into lead with a top spot: “I put in the back of my head and
got in my zone. It’s pretty taxing mentally. But I know how to deal with it.”
On competing alongside
athletes like Adam Ondra: “I'm honored to be able to compete with some of my
idols. Even though I've gotten the chance to compete with them earlier in the
year, it still feels pretty unreal that I'm here.”
On the humid conditions:
“It was surprisingly hard on the skin. It felt like it hurt a little bit more
than dry Colorado.”
On the impact of the
Games: “I hope that climbing in the Olympics inspires young athletes to try out
the sport.”
On his performance
today: “I have never tried harder.”
Nathaniel Coleman
quotes
On two Americans in
Finals: “Colin is a freaking animal and crushed the whole day. It was insane. I
was super happy for him the whole day through. I was happy that we at least had
one of us in the finals. And now we have two.”
On the impact of the
Games: “I hope USA Climbing gets more support and resources so that we can
continue to better our performance in international competition whether that
means World Cups or the Olympic Games.”
USA
Climbing
USA Climbing is recognized by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic
Committee as the National Governing Body for the sport of competition climbing.
The organization manages the disciplines of Bouldering, Lead and Speed climbing
as well as the Collegiate and Paraclimbing series. As a member federation of
the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), USA Climbing hosts IFSC
World Cup events and sends athletes to participate in IFSC World Cups, Youth
World Championships and the World Climbing and Paraclimbing Championships. For more information visit usaclimbing.org and follow USA Climbing on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
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