Olympic rock climbers train at Portland Rock Gym prior to Paris
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Over the last decade or so, the Olympics has pushed to add more sports that are relevant in today’s culture. One that made its first appearance in Tokyo and is back for a second go-round in rock climbing.
The past few days a handful of American Olympians in the sport gathered at the Portland Rock Gym to do one last training camp before they reconvene in Paris.
“The head coach for Team USA reached out to us and asked us if they could come do a training camp on our wall. The Titan Wall is the same wall that’s going to be used in the Olympics in Paris in about a month,” said Nick Gagliardi, who is the head route setter at the Portland Rock Gym. “He wanted a chance to bring them out here, get to play on the wall, get to play on some holds that they might see at the Olympics that they might have here in Portland. Get them to have fun with one another and just get to play and build some confidence.”
The confidence part is key, as it becomes very obvious even just glancing at someone climbing that strength is just a part of the equation to be successful in the sport.
“Climbing is— especially competitive climbing— is almost just as much physical as it is mental. I work a lot on my mental training. That has shifted me for what it looks like. It used to be mental training and now it’s more wellbeing and mental health,” said rock climber Brooke Rabatou.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the sport, like people asking if the climbers can summit Everest or if they can free solo like the movie of the same name featuring the famous Alex Honnold, but there is something about the sport you may not expect.
“A lot of people think that we’ve practiced the boulders before when we’ve actually never seen them before,” said Rabatou. “We’re going in with—if it’s the final round—we’ll have a two-minute preview of the boulders and then you go out, and you just have to execute in a four or five minute round. No getting to try it before or even look at it with coaches or anything.”
The sport is only growing in popularity and will assuredly grow once again once it gets another Olympic spotlight.
The vet of the bunch, Colin Duffy, who is headed back to his second straight Olympics, had some parting words of advice for young climbers.
“I think kids should focus on making climbing a lifelong sport, something that they can really enjoy and not start to hate climbing by over training. Don’t put any pressure at a young age. Just experiment with movement and enjoy that climbing is a part of your childhood,” said Duffy.