Senior · Performance
Biography
When I was a kid I moved around a lot. My dad was in the foreign service so I spent the first four years of my life in Kenya and the USA, after that we moved to Vancouver. I competed in gymnastics from ages 4-8 and won a provincial title at age 6 and I have basically been a high performance athlete ever since. When I was 9, we moved to Victoria, where I live now. I spent the next few years bouncing around to different sports, including platform diving, volleyball, basketball, parkour and most significantly, track, before eventually landing on climbing when I was 16 during covid. My first competition season for climbing was 2022, during which I won nationals and qualified for youth worlds. After that, I stopped all my other sports and never looked back. Currently I am on the open team and compete on the world cup circuit. I am also studying business at the University of Victoria.
Achievements
- RBC Training Ground Future Olympian
- Multiple Youth National Record Holder
- 2022 Junior National Champion
- 2023 Junior National Bronze Medalist
- 2x North American Cup silver medalist
- Top 60 world ranking in 2025
In their words
How did you get into climbing?
I started climbing quite late at age 16. My dad did a fair bit of climbing when he was younger and so he decided to sign me up for a local youth program at a gym in Victoria. However, at this time my primary focus was track and field. Fortunately for us, Libor Hroza, the national team speed coach happened to be the manager of this gym. He quickly saw my talent for the sport and I joined his team. I went to one bouldering competition before fully specializing in speed and I have never looked back.
What do you enjoy doing outside of training?
In the little free time I have outside of climbing I enjoy basically anything outdoors. My favouraite activities are surfing, hiking, camping, swimming, cliff jumping among others. In addition, in my youth I got quite into parkour. I still enjoy keeping up my flipping skills on the ground. Unfortunately I don't get to do these activities very often becuase they interfere with training. My training crew and I try to plan trips at least a couple times a year to do these activites.
What drives you to compete and excel in climbing?
I have had the goal of being an Olympian for my entire life. Since I was 5 years old in gymnastics I knew I would be an olympian. It took my a while to land on a sport that I loved enough to take it that far but now that I have found climbing, I work everyday towards that goal. In addition, I genuenly love the process. Yes, it requires sacrifices but I love the athlete lifestyle and the opportunities that I have because of it. These two things are what motivate me.
More athletes
Meet the full team 
Senior · Performance (Lead) / Development (Boulder)
Kindar McNamee
Senior · Performance
Matthew Rodriguez
Senior · Development / Youth · U19