Tokyo | 5 August – The first Men’s Olympic Sport Climbing medals were awarded tonight in the Combined format of speed, bouldering and lead. Out of a field of eight finalists, Nathaniel Coleman (Salt Lake City) won silver and Colin Duffy (Broomfield, CO) finished in 7th. The gold medal went to Alberto Gines Lopez (Spain) and the bronze went to Jakob Schubert (Austria).

Speed 

Based on Tuesday’s Qualifications, Duffy was seeded 3rd and Coleman 8th. Duffy had a false start in his first round and eventually finished 5th with a fastest run of 6.35. Coleman had several clean rounds setting two new PRs with times of 6.45 and 6.21. Their results earned Duffy 5th and Coleman 6th as the athletes moved on to bouldering.

Bouldering 

The men each competed on three problems. Coleman secured two tops, one zone and finished 1st. Duffy climbed to one top and two zones and finished 4th. After speed and bouldering, Coleman was in 3rd and Colin 5th heading into lead.

Lead

Duffy climbed to 40 and finished 3rd. Coleman also climbed well, making it to 34+ and finishing 5th.

Their rankings for each of the three disciplines were multiplied resulting in 30 points for Coleman and 60 points for Duffy.

Athlete Quotes After Finals

Coleman quotes:

On his mindset and expectations, “Getting into finals, it didn’t feel for real for a long time. I put a lot of effort in resetting my mind and believe a good performance was possible. I never dared to acknowledge the dream that I could medal at the Olympics. Just making finals was like my Hail Mary goal.”

On bouldering, “I could not believe how well bouldering went. It was — whew.”

On the finale, “It was a fortune final in the fact that the audience got to see how much the route setting can affect the competition. The lead route was perfectly set. There was one man to top it, at the very, very last. That’s the pinnacle of excitement in lead climbing competition.”

Duffy quotes:

On the medalists, “They earned it. They climbed amazingly, and everyone in this field is world class and such strong athletes, so just to be in the finals is amazing.”

On the false start in speed, “Probably a little bit of the nerves and just excitement, but time goes so slow when you’re in competition, it felt like a really slow start.”

On the lead route, “I mean, really hard lead route. Probably the two best competition lead climbers of all time that beat me, and I put up a good fight and I’m happy with that. I think some of the clipping like at the top there, my right arm was like maybe a little more tired than it needed to be, but I’m pretty satisfied with that performance.”

Reflections after the event, “It feels great. It did not go the way I wanted. But it leaves me hungry for more in the future. I mean, I’m only 17, so I have a lot of time. I’m upset, but I’m still happy. Like, as time goes on, I’ll be able to appreciate what today was.”

And Paris 2024, “Yes. That’s definitely, Olympic wise, the next goal and hopefully I’ll do better the next time.”

Results and Photos

Full results can be found here. Article photo courtesy Daniel Gajda and more IFSC photos can be found here.

Next Up

Sport Climbing concludes Friday, 6 August with the Women’s Final. Brooke Raboutou (Boulder, CO) will represent Team USA in the final field of eight athletes.

For athlete bios or more information about Olympic Sport Climbing, please click here. Media inquiries should be directed to kelly@usaclimbing.org.