Gold medalist Veddriq Leonardo of Indonesia (center), silver medalist Wu Peng of China (left) and bronze medalist Sam Watson of the United States (right) pose on the podium of the men’s speed climbing event at the Paris Olympics at the Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue, northeast of Paris.
Johnathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images
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Johnathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images
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LE BOURGET, France — If you hold the world record in the fastest Olympic sport, you can technically call yourself the fastest Olympian ever, right?
If so, that title belongs to Team USA’s speed climber Sam Watson.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win the medal race.
Veddriq Leonardo from Indonesia was the fastest to scale the wall and ring the bell to win gold in the men’s speed climbing final on Thursday in Le Bourget, northeast of Paris.
His time was 4.75 seconds (0.01 seconds slower than Watson’s new world record), beating China’s Peng Wu, who won the silver medal with a time of 4.77 seconds.
Leonardo was the first person to bring home an Olympic gold medal for Indonesia in a sport other than badminton — and the country’s first at the Paris Games.
“I feel great, grateful for the competition today,” he said. “I made my dream come true.”
This came as a surprise to Watson, who has set a number of world records this week.
After taking third place, he said: “Obviously I wanted to win gold, I wanted to be on the podium, but a few millimeters went the wrong way in my second race and sometimes that’s just how things go. Congratulations to Wu and Leonardo — I’m excited about the future of speed climbing.”
Sam Watson of Team USA poses with his bronze medal next to a display showing his world record time of “4.74” seconds during the medal ceremony for Sport Climbing at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in Le Bourget, France.
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Luke Hales/Getty Images
Earlier this year, the 18-year-old from Texas set a new world record of 4.79 at the World Cup in China. Then, on Tuesday at the Paris Olympics, Leonardo matched his 4.79. Minutes later, in qualifying, Watson was even faster—by 0.04 seconds—to set a world record of 4.75.
However, in the semi-finals, he lost to Chinese climber Peng Wu by a score of 4.93-4.85. This defeat gave him more motivation: In the race for the bronze medal, Watson set another world record with a time of 4.74 seconds.
In sport climbing—a new addition to the Olympics—two sets of medals are awarded: one for lead and bouldering and one for speed, a change from sport climbing. The Olympics Open at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when a medal will be awarded to the trio.
The decision to combine all the disciplines into a single medal event was a controversial one, especially for climbers. Don’t consider speed climbing “real” because they say it requires less technique and creativity.
In lead climbing, the climber attempts to climb the wall as high as possible. Bouldering is about tackling short, technical routes.
Speed climbing is a competition to see which “Spider-Man” can reach the top of the wall the fastest, but — more importantly — it’s a competition to beat the other climber in a two-man race up a 15-meter (49.2-foot) wall.
