Spanish teener López wins first Olympic climbing gold

TOkyo—nerves once were Alberto Ginés López’s biggest obstacle on the climbing wall. Didn’t matter if he was in the finals or well down the standings, the fear of climbing in front of other people left him locked up.

The Spanish teenager not only overcame those jitters, he conquered the world’s best climbers on the sport’s biggest stage.

At ease in front of a worldwide audience, Ginés López won the first Olympic gold medal in sport climbing, riding a victory in the speed discipline to the top of the podium Thursday at the Tokyo Games.

“My head hasn’t worked so well to start the season, but I was working with a specialist, and I think now it’s working better,” Ginés López said.

That’s an understatement. Ginés López struggled when climbing in front of even 100 people when he was younger and still had stage fright into this World Cup season. The 18-yearold sought help from a coach to soothe himself on the wall, and it’s paid off.

He qualified sixth in Tokyo and quickly put himself into the lead by winning the speed event. He then showed off his all-around skills by finishing seventh in lead and fourth in bouldering. He had 30 points—the finishes are multiplied together—to edge Nathaniel Coleman of the United States by two.

“Two years ago, I was quite bad on speed and I worked a lot on it with my team,” Ginés López said. “Here I was bit lucky but was able to win it.”

Coleman came to Tokyo hoping to make the finals in the sport’s first Olympics. The 24-year-old from Salt Lake City did more than that, winning bouldering by topping three of the four “problems.” He also was fifth in lead and sixth in speed, finishing just short of gold.

“Getting into finals, it didn’t feel for real for a long time,” he said. “I put a lot of effort in resetting my mind and believe a good performance was possible.”

Jakob Schubert of Austria had the climb of the night, becoming the first man or woman to reach the top of the 15-meter lead wall in three days of competition. His climb moved him into the bronze medal spot and knocked Czech climber Adam Ondra off the podium.

“It kind of came out of nowhere,” Schubert said. “Out of speed and boulder, I was in such a bad position. I knew even with a first place in lead, there was only a small chance to medal. Everything went so fast after that.”

Climbing made the transition from chill outdoor vibe to competitive sport in the 1990s and took a huge step forward in 2007 with the formation of the International Federation of Sport Climbing.

The World Cup circuit expanded the sport’s popularity, as did the increase in recreational gyms around the world.

Climbing exploded the last several years with the social media prowess of the top climbers, a TV deal with ESPN and the success of Free Solo, a documentary of Alex Honnold’s rope-free climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan.