Piper Kelly, Samuel Watson, Jesse Grupper & Natalia Grossman qualify for Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Day one at the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 concluded on a high note earlier this week as 25-year-old Piper Kelly of the USA ended up pocketing both the women’s Speed gold medal and the Olympic quota place for Paris 2024.

Kelly, who placed third at the end of the qualification round, got faster as the competition progressed, beating Anahi Riveros of Chile in the quarter-final with 7.85 seconds, then prevailing over her teammate Sophia Curcio in the semi-final, where she clocked in at 7.69 and mathematically secured the ticket to the Paris Olympics.

In the gold medal race, Kelly climbed on her own, after Emma Hunt – also representing the USA – bumped into a false start and had to settle for silver. Relieved of all the pressure, Piper Kelly hit the finish pad at 7.52 seconds – a new personal best, three tenths better than her previous one.

"I’m completely blown away, so excited to go to Paris! The goal coming into this event was to win and to get the Olympic ticket, but I knew it was going to be tough. I had a little bit of a rough qualifier, I slipped on my first one, so I had to pull through on the second one, and then the perfect final round, getting faster each time and setting a new PB in the last race,” said Kelly after the award ceremony.

Kelly is the second US climber being awarded with an Olympic quota place in the women’s Speed event, after Hunt won it at the IFSC World Championships Bern 2023. The podium was completed by Andrea Rojas of Ecuador, who took bronze with 7.59, while Curcio slipped and failed to complete the climb, ending up in fourth position.

SPEED MEN
On Sunday the US Climbing national team secured its fourth Olympic quota place for Paris 2024, as 18-year-old Samuel Watson won gold in the men’s Speed event at the Pan American Games Santiago 2023.

Watson, who started the event by setting the fastest qualification time, beat his friend and teammate Noah Bratschi in the race for gold and for Paris. Both climbers stumbled on their way to the finish pad, and Watson eventually stopped the clock first, at 5.37, while Bratschi finished with 5.96 and the silver medal around his neck.

"I feel great,” said Watson following the podium. "I feel like this is the culmination of my entire process, that I’ve been working on for the past I-don’t-know-how-may years… since Speed Climbing as a single medal in November 2020, so it’s been a huge deal for the past three years. I’m extraordinarily proud of all my teammates, especially Noah. I know he’s worked very very hard and overcome a lot of obstacles, and I would rather not race anyone else in the final. Him, and John, Emma, Sophie, and Piper who also got a ticket as well, they’re the best people.”

Ecuador’s Carlos Granja completed the podium in third place, adding it another bronze medal to the one won by his teammate Andrea Rojas in the women’s Speed event. Granja bested Canada’s Ethan Flynn-Pitcher in a neck-and-neck final that saw the experienced athlete from Ibarra close with 5.52 against his rival’s 5.59.

MEN BOULDER & LEAD
On Monday evening Pan American Games Santiago 2023 lived another exciting night at Parque Cerrillo, where Jesse Grupper of the USA won gold in the men’s Boulder & Lead event, and secured a ticket to the Paris Olympics.

Grupper, who was ranked fourth at the end of the Boulder phase with 69.4 points, put up an incredible show on the Lead wall, cruising through the initial powerful sections, making a good use of time in the mid-part of the route, and only falling once he got the upper part of the route. The 27-year-old eventually finished with 161.5 points.

Grupper said: "It feels unreal, for sure, it’s an incredible moment for me. I’ve dreamt about this since I was a little kid, and it is so meaningful to see it through to fruition and have it actually happen. I knew that I said some points to make up for from the Boulder round. I was proud of the Boulder round, honestly, I think I’ve pulled out some moved that I don’t know if I would have been able to do a year ago, but I also wanted to fight as hard as I could on the Lead wall. Coming out, I took one move at a time, I knew that every move would matter, especially on that headwall, and I’m really glad that I was able to pull that out and make it happen.”

He then added, talking about one of the most thrilling tops of the final: "On M3 I actually forgot that timer starts at five seconds, not three, so I totally thought that I timed out. It was really shocking to find out that I actually got the top!”

In silver medal position, Sean Bailey added two solid performances, scoring 84.5 in the Boulder phase – only failing to top M4 – and 57.1 in the Lead one, where he fell at the end of an exhausting resistance section, totalising 141.6 points.

Team USA swept the men’s Boulder & Lead podium with Zach Galla taking bronze with 138.5 points – 84.4 in Boulder and 54.1 in Lead. Three Canadian climbers placed just outside of the podium: Sean McColl took fourth position with 132.6 points, Oscar Baudrand followed in fifth with 87.4, while Victor Baudrand placed sixth with 83.1.

Climbing on home soil, Benjamin Vargas of Chile concluded his event in seventh position, scoring 58.0 points. Mexico’s Thor Villegas placed eighth with 53.1.

WOMEN BOULDER & LEAD
23-year-old Natalia Grossman from Colorado built her victory on the foundation of a strong Boulder round, where she was the only climber able to top three boulders out of four, and coming very close to solving the fourth one too.

Grossman then carried her 84.3 points on to the decisive Lead phase, where she needed to reach the higher section of the wall to secure both the gold medal and the ticket to Paris 2024 – which she eventually did. Grossman won 88.1 more points and burst into tears as soon as she realised the outcome of her fantastic performance.

Grossman said: "I feel just so grateful and proud of all the work I have put in. I changed a lot in this past couple of months, in my climbing and in my life, and to see it pay off feels really good. I tend to run really warm when I’m climbing, for some reason, which is funny. So I always have fans on, and even though it was pretty cold tonight, I still had three fans to keep my hands cold. Although I’ve put some pants on for the Lead route, because it got a little chilly!”

She concluded, talking about the moments right after her Lead climb, when she mathematically secured first place: "My friend Oscar was holding his finger up, like, ‘First!’, and I almost didn’t believe it. I wanted to wait until I saw it, just because people tent to say things before they happen… it was a very surreal moment!”

Seven points behind Grossman, in silver medal position, USA’s Brooke Raboutou climbed last on the Lead wall, probably knowing she could not take first place anymore. Still, she put together the best performance of the Lead phase, taking 96.0 points and adding them to the 69.4 she previously won on the Boulder wall, for a total of 165.4.

Canada’s Alannah Yip also placed on the podium, crowning a good Pan Am Games campaign with a bronze medal. The experienced climber from Vancouver started her final round with a two-top performance on the Boulder wall, where she won 64.7 points, and followed up with a solid result on the Lead one, taking 64.0 more points and closing with 128.7.

USA’s third Boulder & Lead finalist – Anastasia Sanders – placed just outside of the medal positions, scoring 115.1 points and concluding fourth. Representing South America in the round, Alejandra Contreras of Chile and Valentina Aguado of Argentina followed Sanders, respectively in fifth and sixth position. The Chilean climber, pushed by the many local fans that gathered at Parque Bicentenario de Cerrillos in Santiago, paired a 57-point performance in Lead with the 34.5 points she gained in Boulder, totalising 91.5.

Aguado put together two similar performances – 34.8 and 54 – placing less than three points behind Contreras, at 88.8. Two more Canadian climbers placed at the bottom of the final ranking: Rebecca Frangos concluded in seventh place with 86.4 points, and Indiana Chapman finished eighth with 85.8.

The road to Paris 2024 will continue in Laval, France, where the IFSC European Qualifier will kick off in two days, on 26 October. Athletes from 19 European countries will compete in the men’s and women’s Boulder & Lead events, and the Olympic quota places will be awarded to the two gold medallists.

Semi-finals and finals will be live streamed on the IFSC YouTube channel. Geo blocking restrictions might be applied.