Olympic History: Watch Texas Teen Scorch Speed Climbing World Record

Sam Watson, 18, scaled the 49-foot speed climbing wall in a blistering time of 4.75 seconds.

Sam Watson competes in the men's speed climbing qualification during the IFSC World Cup in Wujiang;Photo byIFSC

An 18-year-old from Texas just set a new world record for speed climbing at the 2024 Paris Olympics. American athlete Sam Watson just broke his own world record on his way to the quarter-finals of the speed climbing competition, which will conclude on Thursday.

It was a stunning response to Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo, who had matched Watson’s speed record of 4.79 seconds with an admirable performance in an Olympic seeding round Tuesday. That led Watson to up his game, climbing the 49-foot wall 0.04 seconds quicker than ever.

Leonardo was among the climbers who will continue to the quarter-finals, which will take place on Thursday. The semi-finals and finals are also slated for Thursday, according to the 2024 Olympics calendar. That’s when both Watson and Leonardo will face off against Matteo Zurloni of Italy, the reigning world champion.

World Record Also Set in Women’s Category

But the young Texan wasn’t the only climber to set a new world record in speed climbing.

Aleksandra Mirosław also “wowed the crowd,” according to an Olympics announcement on Monday. The Polish climber set a new world record time of 6.06 seconds in the women’s Speed qualifying — and it happened just moments after she had broken her previous world record.

The two-time speed world champion reached the top in 6.21 seconds in her first climb, an improvement on the 6.24-second record she had set in September 2023. As she faced off against South Africa’s Aniya Holder in the seeding run, Mirosław was greeted with huge cheers.

Speed climbing first arrived in the Olympics during the 2021 games in Tokyo. For 2024, the speed climbing category has been separated out from sport climbing (also known as lead climbing) and bouldering.