The fourth day of climbing at Paris 2024 brought more opportunities for advancement and medals. The Women’s Combined: Semifinal (Lead) welcomed back Team USA’s Natalia Grossman and Brooke Raboutou, while the Men’s Speed: Final welcomed back Team USA’s Sam Watson.

Raboutou Advances to Women’s Combined Finals

The 20 Women’s Combined climbers who competed in the Boulder round on Tuesday (where Grossman and Raboutou finished 5th and 3rd, respectively) returned to complete their scores in the Lead round.

Grossman earned 39.1 points in the Lead round, giving her a Combined total of 108.3. Unfortunately, that gave her a ranking of 11th place, just a few spaces outside of Finals.

Raboutou earned 72.1 points in the Lead round, for a Combined total of 155.8 and a 3rd place ranking, advancing her to the Women’s Combined: Final on August 10.

Looking forward to Saturday, Raboutou said, “I just want to go out there and give everything I have, be present in the moment and determined, and no holding back.”

Watson Wins Bronze, Sets Another World Record for USA in Men’s Speed

Today offered another chance for medals in Sport Climbing, this time for the eight (8) Men’s Speed finalists. Team USA’s Sam Watson had the crowd’s full attention after setting a world record (4.75) in the Qualification round on Tuesday and telling the world, “the job’s not finished.”

In the quarterfinal, Watson was paired with New Zealand’s Julian David. Watson finished in 5.03 seconds, beating David’s time of 5.65 seconds. That sent Watson to the semifinal, racing against China’s Wu Peng. Watson lost that race by a mere 0.08 seconds, taking him out of the big final, but sending him to the small final against Iran’s Reza Alipour Shenazandifard.

There, he won the race and made history again, setting another world record 0.01 seconds faster than his last. With just 4.74 seconds on the clock, Watson secured a bronze medal, Team USA’s first Sport Climbing medal at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

“I’m very happy to be on this stage, and I have no regrets,” said Watson after the performance. “To be an Olympic medallist, to hold it in my hand with a piece of the Eiffel Tower in it – nobody can ever take that away from me.”

Tomorrow, August 9, Team USA’s Colin Duffy returns to the stage for the Men’s Combined: Final.

You can watch Sport Climbing live (or on-demand at any time after the events) on TeamUSA.com, the NBC Olympics app, and Peacock. Up-to-date schedules, as well as live results, will be available on Olympics.com.