At last weekend’s IFSC Olympic Qualification Event in Toulouse, France, two members of Team USA provisionally qualified for the Olympic Games. Specifically, Americans Nathaniel Coleman and Kyra Condie were among the six men and six women who claimed invitations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
The other competitors who provisionally qualified for the Olympics with Coleman in the men’s division at Toulouse were the Czech Republic’s Adam Ondra, France’s Bassa Mawem, China’s YuFei Pan, Spain’s Alberto Ginés López, and Germany’s Jan Hojer. The competitors who provisionally qualified for the Olympics with Condie in the women’s division were Slovenia’s Mia Krampl, Italy’s Laura Rogora, France’s Julia Chanourdie, Russia’s Iuliia Kaplina, and China’s YiLing Song.
Coleman and Condie thus joined Brooke Raboutou (who qualified at the IFSC World Championships) to compose the United States’ current roster of American Olympic climbers.
“I have no words,” Condie wrote on Instagram shortly after earning her Olympic berth. “I worked so hard for this. Tokyo 2020!” Condie ultimately finished in seventh place at Toulouse, a “Combined” competition that featured multiplied rankings from speed climbing, bouldering, and lead climbing disciplines. The top athletes in the Combined ranking from the 2019 IFSC World Cup season earned a chance to compete in the Olympic qualifying event in Toulouse.
Coleman also reacted on his Instagram account, writing, “All of the pre comp nerves simmered down in the few days before the event, and I was able to appreciate the spectacular circumstances I was living through.” He finished in eighth place in the men’s division.
Several other Americans participated in the Combined in Toulouse, although they did not earn Olympic invitations. Sean Bailey placed ninth overall in the men’s division, just missing out on an Olympic berth. Margo Hayes and Ashima Shiraishi placed 11th and 22nd, respectively, in the women’s division. Canada’s Alannah Yip also took part and placed 13th in the women’s division.
With the Olympic berths of Raboutou and Condie, the United States has now filled its quota (of two invites per gender) within the women’s division. One possible American berth remains in the men’s division.
The next competitions with Olympic qualification implications will be a series of Continental Championships taking place around the world. A total of 20 athletes per gender will eventually take part in climbing at the 2020 Olympics.
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