Colorado Champions Road to Gold: Boulder athlete climbs to greatness
LOUISVILLE, Colorado (KRDO) - It's an Olympic sport you may or may not have heard of. Competition climbing made its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
In Paris 2024, two competitions will crown their own Olympic champion in sport climbing.
One will feature speed. The second one is a combined competition of boulder and lead events. And for that one, there's a Colorado climber who's one of the best in the world.
After a couple of pull-ups and some hand exercises...Collin Duffy is ready to go.
"It is a very demanding sport," says Olympic climber, Colin Duffy. "I am very careful about like not putting too much strain on my fingers."
Duffy says body maintenance is key at this level of sport climbing.
"I like quality over quantity and it's a sport you can't like, if you want good quality you cannot do it that much," says Duffy.
The Spot Climbing Gym in Louisville has become one of Duffy's training hubs.
"It's nice to have a familiar community around me when I am preparing," says Duffy.
For fun as a little kid, Duffy grabbed on. He quickly fell in love with the sport and it turned into a more competitive passion in his teenage years. The now 20-year-old, balances climbing at an elite level and his studies as an applied math major at CU Boulder.
"I'm going to be a junior next year," says Duffy. "I took the spring semester off to have more time to train and prepare which was an interesting experience being out of school for the first time. But after the Olympics, I will be going right back in the fall."
Climbing towards his second Olympics, Duffy is hanging on to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"I've been able to be part of climbing's first two Olympic Games and represent the U.S. is a dream come true," says Duffy. "I mean when I started climbing, the Olympics was not even on the table for climbing. Like I never expected it to be a part of the Olympics so the timing worked out well and it is just an honor."
Duffy was the youngest member of the USA Climbing team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and finished 7th. Angling to hopefully move up a few spots this summer.
"If I am as prepared as I can be and I put in a good fight in both the bouldering and lead portion then I'll be satisfied with whatever comes from that," says Duffy.
Call it gliding, call it climbing...Duffy is really good at the mental and physical challenges that happen on the wall.
"Climbing is also a big puzzle and I really love problem-solving and so I have been able to kind of use the skills that are involved in math on the wall," says Duffy.
Just last week, Duffy won gold at a World Cup event in France. This is the second time he's been standing atop a lead World Cup podium. And he hopes to continue that momentum in Paris.
