Utahn qualifies in Olympic climbing debut

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Photo: Real Estate Japan

TOKYO, Japan.— Nathaniel Coleman, 24, born and raised in Salt Lake City qualified today in the brand new Olympic sport of sport climbing. Attending, Murray High School and the University of Utah, Coleman grew up honing his skills in the Wasatch mountains. 

His Team USA Teammate, 17-year-old Colin Duffy, from Colorado, is the youngest competitor in the international field. Morning rain and present heat made for slippery hand and footholds remedied by the athlete’s repetitive use of liquid chalk in the outdoor, human-made, urban stadium. 

The National Governing Body (NGB) of USA Climbing was long located in Duffy’s home state of Colorado, however, it has since made the move to Salt Lake City. 

The first event up of three was the speed. In a head-to-head run, with a capital “r” up the five degrees tilted back wall covered in holds, climbers are timed by a clock they start by leaving the ground and they stop by slapping the switch at the top. Timed to within a thousandth of a second, Coleman’s 6.51 win over his direct competitor representing Germany was enough but didn’t compare to the athlete from France’s 5.95 seconds. It did however earn a fist pump from the American as he was slowly lowered down from the belay line they’re on for this discipline.

A decade ago, speed climbing was contested up Snowbird Resort’s Cliff Lodge exterior walls whereas as recently as this spring, speed climbing competitions were hosted by USA Climbing on the existing buildings of downtown Salt Lake City. 

In Tokyo, it was on to the second of three events, bouldering. With four different zones, and four different athletes simultaneously doing what’s known as ‘solving problems’ the cheering crown, albeit small due to COVID restrictions, and the half-yells-half athletic athletetes grunting made for an action-packed debut of sport climbing.

Athletes being dominant on one of the three portions, Duffy outclimbed Coleman shined on the bouldering where athletes are given five minutes to solve problems in each zone with five-minute breaks between. The athletes are not far from the well-padded ground in this round thus not on belay. Coleman had a good bouldering session compared to many international opponents.

Captain America, as Coleman is sometimes referred to by teammates, joined the rest of the field in the third event in sport climbing, lead. The lead, in Tokyo, was held under the lights, the speed having begun in the daylight, as the ambient lights from the surrounding buildings seemed to shine added lights upon this sport’s debut Olympic moment.

The 49 ft. lead climbing wall had 43 holds. Athletes were provided six minutes of observation time to the placements which are different for each comp. Then, one at a time, athletes methodically and relatively slowly, well, relative to the aforementioned speed round, use their harness and lead line to choose and set their route. If an athlete falls, they do so dramatically, however, they safely swing down to just double the rope length past the last carabiner into which they’d clipped.

Duffy’s score of 42 plus, meaning he successfully navigated all the way up to the second to the last hold on the lead course, was enough to qualify him, overall, into third place into tomorrow’s finals. 

Coleman landed in eighth place in this qualifying round and since the top eight advances, he too will compete for a medal in the finals of the first appearance of sport climbing in the Olympic Games.

To which the female commentator for NBC said, “Having both Americans make it into the finals is the cherry on top.”

Team USA also has two women competing in Tokyo.