Last week USA Climbing had the honor of welcoming the world’s best competition climbers to Salt Lake City for three IFSC World Cup Events! Paraclimbing, May 16-17 Speed & Bouldering, May 19-21 With much improved weather from 2022, around 4,000 spectators and athletes from around the globe assembled for the Salt Lake City World Cup events with more than 30 countries represented. As for the home team, Team USA once again found success as Natalia Grossman landed herself in the top spot during the women’s bouldering event. Brooke Raboutou captured the bronze, with newcomer to the circuit, Annie Sanders, taking the fourth place in her first World Cup finals event. Male bouldering competitor, Sean Bailey also advanced to finals, landing just outside of a podium position. Athletes Emma Hunt, Samuel Watson, and John Brosler also found their way to the finals round of the Speed event with Watson running just shy of a podium spot. The US Paraclimbing athletes also found success, capturing TWELVE medal positions, four of which being gold, during the Para World Cup events that took place mid-week at The Front Climbing Club in Downtown Salt Lake. Nineteen Paraclimbing athletes will now look to take that momentum along with them as they head to compete at the next Paraclimbing World Cup event in Innsbruck, AUT in June. Men CISLAW Tanner / AL1 – Bronze ZILZ Ethan / AL2 – Silver NGUYEN Elliott / RP1 – Gold ZARZUELA Brian / AU2 – Gold Women BIENDARRA Seneida / B2 – Gold BARKAN Phoebe / B3 – Silver TANKERSLEY Mary / AL2 – Bronze RUIZ Melissa / RP1 – Gold SEELENFREUND Emily / RP2 – Silver BECK Maureen / AU2 – Silver BENVENUTI Isabel / AU2 – Bronze VOREL Natalie / RP3 – Silver Catch up on the action! Did you miss some of the action from last week’s events in Salt Lake City? Don’t worry! You can catch up on all of the exciting IFSC YouTube livestreams. The events and YouTube links can be found in the list below. Paraclimbing Finals Wednesday, May 25 (Finals) / (Highlights) Boulder / Speed World Cup, May 19-21 (livestream link) For scoring and social media updates: Scoring and Results – For a full breakdown of results, download the IFSC app for iOS or Android or follow live scoring here. Social Media – Follow the IFSC’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for recap coverage and USA Climbing’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for Team USA updates and results.
USA Climbing Foundation Announces Inaugural Trustees SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (May 2, 2023) The USA Climbing Foundation is proud to announce that through an abundance of generosity and support, the following individuals have been named as inaugural members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. · Maureen Beck, Athlete Trustee · Brandon Blaser, Trustee · Kevin Bradburn, Trustee · Nathaniel Coleman, OLY, Athlete Trustee · Kevin Costanza, Trustee · Tash Elwyn, Trustee · Kate Felsen Di Pietro, Chair, USA Climbing (USAC) Board of Directors · Trace Harris, Treasurer, USAC Board of Directors and USAC Foundation Board of Trustees · Stephanie Herf, Trustee · Alex Honnold, Athlete Trustee · Jill Jacobson, Trustee · Jonathan Kessler, Trustee · Jonathan Leff, Trustee · Meagan Martin, Athlete Trustee · Johnny O’Brien, Trustee · Patti Rube, Trustee, Chair, USAC Foundation Board of Trustees · Chris Sharma, Athlete Trustee The USA Climbing Foundation plays a special role in nurturing greatness within our athletes, organization, and climbing community. Driving this effort, the USA Climbing Foundation Board of Trustees serves as an active fundraising board to benefit the national governing body of USA Climbing. Through personal philanthropic commitments and cultivating relationships with others, the Board of Trustees supports the USA Climbing Foundation’s mission of providing critical support to American climbers and programs. “I am deeply grateful for our Trustees’ commitment to growing USA Climbing through the USA Climbing Foundation,” said Marc Norman, President & CEO of USA Climbing. “Our Trustees will help make climbing accessible to all while supporting our elite athletes as they compete on the world stage and prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.” “Climbing has the power to transform one’s outlook about what is possible,” said Patti Rube, Chair of the USA Climbing Foundation Board of Trustees. “With the assistance of our Trustees and donor community, the USA Climbing Foundation seeks to support our high-performance athletes in their efforts to triumph in international competition, to reduce barriers to access, and to help bring the transformative power of climbing to as many participants as possible. We are honored to be joined by our inaugural Board of Trustees in these efforts.” The USA Climbing Foundation Board of Trustee bios are available at usaclimbing.org/foundation-trustees. To learn more about becoming a Trustee of the Foundation, please email foundation@usaclimbing.org or call (801) 618-0740. Photos in header, left to right: Olympic Silver Medalist, Nathaniel Coleman – photo provided by IFSC; Paraclimbing Gold Medalist, Benjamin Mayforth – photo provided by IFSC; Members of Kismet Rock Foundation – Photos provided by Lindsey Garland.
USA Climbing is thrilled to be teaming up with The Front climbing gyms to bring the Youth National Championships to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2023! On July 9-16th, twenty-four national champions will be crowned as young athletes compete in bouldering, lead and speed over the course of the eight-day Youth National Championships. These events will give our community their first glimpse into some of the young stars who will one day vie to compete at the 2028 Olympic Games in LA. “We at The Front are thrilled and honored to be hosting the 2023 USA Climbing Youth National Championships!” Said The Front’s Director of Routesetting, Eddie Morillas. “As a dedicated partner in the competition climbing community, we are proud to be able to showcase our state-of-the-art facilities and provide a top-notch experience for all of the young climbers who will be competing. We can’t wait to welcome all of the talented athletes and their families to our gyms, and we look forward to seeing them reach new heights and achieve their goals. This is a momentous occasion for us, and we are excited to share it with everyone involved.” In addition to partnering with The Front climbing facilities, the boulder and lead finalists will also have the unique opportunity to climb on terrain housed at USA Climbing’s very own National Training Center in Downtown Salt Lake. While the bouldering terrain is a familiar fixture for this facility, this will be the first time climber’s have had the opportunity to climb on USA Climbing’s new lead wall since its initial debut at The World Games events in 2022. Below you will find a tentative schedule for the 2023 Youth National Championship Events: Sunday July 9th – Speed Qualification/Speed Semifinals Monday July 10th – Lead/TR Qualification (FYC/MYC/FYB/MYB) / Speed Finals Tuesday July 11th – Lead/TR Qualification (FYA/MYA/FJR/MJR) Wednesday July 12th – Lead/TR Semis (FYC/MYC/FYB/MYB) / Lead/TR Finals (FYC/MYC/FYB/MYB) Thursday July 13th – Lead/TR Semis (FYA/MYA/FJR/MJR) / Lead/TR Semis (FYA/MYA/FJR/MJR) Friday July 14th – Boulder Qualification (YC/YB/YA) Saturday July 15th – Boulder Qualification (JR) Semis (YC/YB/YA) Sunday July 16th – Boulder Semis (JR) Finals (ALL) More details regarding the event schedule, livestreams, and hotel block will be shared in the coming weeks.
To the USA Climbing Community, As a Core Value and as outlined in our 2019-24 Strategic Plan USA Climbing is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion as critical to our success as an organization. We will continuously champion these principles throughout the climbing community, and will not tolerate discrimination in any form. An important step in this effort has been the establishment of best practices in regard to gender inclusion within our sport and community. The extensive work put forth by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee has provided the opportunity for us to share these best practices in hopes of furthering that core value. We thank the Committee for their efforts both on this topic but also in encouraging USA Climbing to review competition participation for non US-residents, transgender, and non-binary participants in our sport. This effort is now underway. As we move forward, I highly encourage every USA Climbing athlete, official, and community member to review this document (available Here and on the USA Climbing Code of Contact and Policies page) and take into consideration how these best practices can be utilized to kindly welcome more individuals into this amazing sport. All the best, Marc Norman President / CEO USA Climbing