 Duffy in 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | December 10, 2003 Broomfield, Colorado, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Rock Climber | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Colin Duffy (born December 10, 2003) is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. At age 17, he became the youngest climber to qualify to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. [1]
Duffy started climbing at age five before joining Team ABC in Boulder, Colorado at age eight, where he trained under Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou and was teammates with future Olympic teammate Brooke Raboutou. [2]
As a youth competition climber, Duffy won the IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships twice in 2017 and 2018 and finished second in 2019. [3] Additionally, he was a 10-time USAC Youth National Champion. [4]
Duffy won his first IFSC Climbing World Cup medal at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Cup by finishing third in lead in the Villars, Switzerland leg. [5]
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he advanced to the final round of the sport climbing competition and finished in seventh place. [6]
Duffy won his first IFSC gold medal at the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup, finishing first in the competition bouldering event at the Innsbruck leg. Two days later, Duffy won his second gold by finishing first in the men's competition lead climbing event. He is the first male athlete to win both bouldering and lead climbing in the same IFSC World Cup event. [7]
In 2019, aged 15, Duffy redpointed two 5.14c (8c+) graded sport climbing routes at the Red River Gorge, Pure Imagination and Southern Smoke, and onsighting the 5.14a (8b+) graded sport route Omaha Beach, in a single day; two days later he redpointed the 5.14a (8b+) route God's Own Stone. [8] In November 2021, he climbed his first 5.14d (9a) graded sport route, Life of Villains. Duffy has also solved a V14 (8B+) grade bouldering problem. [3]
Duffy is sponsored by Black Diamond, Evolv, and Friction Labs. [9]
| Discipline | 2022 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | 6 | 15 |
| Bouldering | 8 | 12 |
| Combined | 5 |
In the history of rock climbing, the three main sub-disciplines—bouldering, single-pitch climbing, and big wall climbing—can trace their origins to late 19th-century Europe. Bouldering started in Fontainebleau, and was advanced by Pierre Allain in the 1930s, and John Gill in the 1950s. Big wall climbing started in the Dolomites, and was spread across the Alps in the 1930s by climbers such as Emilio Comici and Riccardo Cassin, and in the 1950s by Walter Bonatti, before reaching Yosemite where it was led in the 1950s to 1970s by climbers such as Royal Robbins. Single-pitch climbing started pre-1900 in both the Lake District and in Saxony, and by the late-1970s had spread widely with climbers such as Ron Fawcett (Britain), Bernd Arnold (Germany), Patrick Berhault (France), Ron Kauk and John Bachar (USA).
Sasha DiGiulian is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing, sport climbing and bouldering. She won the silver medal at the 2011 International Federation of Sport Climbing World Championships in Arco, Italy, for Female Overall, placed Silver in Bouldering and Bronze in Duel. Sasha won multi-year PanAmerican championships and is a three-time US National Champion.
USA Climbing is the national governing body of the sport of competition climbing in the United States. As a 501(c)3 non-profit, they promote Sport Climbing which comprises three competition disciplines: bouldering, lead climbing, and speed climbing, in elite, youth and collegiate formats.
Shauna Coxsey is an English former professional rock climber. She is the most successful competition climber in the UK, having won the IFSC Bouldering World Cup Season in both 2016 and 2017. She retired after competing in the 2020 Olympics.
Ashima Shiraishi is an American rock climber. Shiraishi started climbing at the age of six at Rat Rock in Central Park, joining her father. Only a few years later, she quickly established herself as one of the top boulderers and sport climbers in the world. Her numerous accomplishments include first-place finishes in international competitions, and multiple first female and youngest ascents. Shiraishi is featured in several short documentary-style films, and is the subject of the documentary short "Return to the Red" (2012).
Brooke Raboutou is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing where she competes as part of the US National Team. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games and represents the United States at IFSC Climbing World Cups.
Kim Ja-in, more widely known in the Western world as Jain Kim, is a professional climber who specializes in competition climbing. She is mainly active in competition lead climbing and competition bouldering. She has won the Lead Climbing World Cup three times, the Lead Climbing World Championship once (2014), and the Rock Master once. She has won the Asian Championships 14 times in 15 years, 11 times in lead climbing and 3 times in bouldering.
Ethan Pringle is an American rock climber with notable ascents in sport climbing, in traditional climbing, and in bouldering. He has also been active in competition climbing, winning the American national competition lead climbing championships in both youth and adult formats, and silver at the World Youth Championships.
Janja Garnbret is a Slovenian professional rock climber who specializes in sport climbing and competition climbing, and who has won multiple competition lead climbing and competition bouldering events. In 2021, she became the first-ever female Olympic gold medalist in climbing and is widely regarded as the greatest competition climber of all time. She is also the world's first-ever female climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) graded sport climbing route.
Jakob Schubert is an Austrian professional rock climber, specializing in competition climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. He was four times World Champion and three times World Cup winner in lead climbing. In August 2021, he won bronze at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. As of the end of 2022, Schubert had won the most men's IFSC gold medals of any male competition climber in history. In addition to competition climbing, Schubert is the only climber in the world to have redpointed a 9c (5.15d) graded sport climbing route and climbed a 9A (V17) graded bouldering problem.
Akiyo Noguchi is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in competition bouldering as well as outdoor bouldering and sport climbing.
Kilian Fischhuber is a professional Austrian rock climber who specializes in bouldering, sport climbing and competition climbing, where competes in bouldering and lead climbing. From 2005 to 2011, he won five Bouldering World Cups. No other male climber was ever able to win it more than three times, or win it three times in a row. Due to his outstanding career, he was awarded the La Sportiva Competition Award in 2009, together with Chris Sharma.
Jan Hojer is a German professional rock climber specializing in sport climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. He is known for winning one World Cup and two European Championships in competition bouldering. In May 2010, he climbed Action Directe, one of the most difficult sport climbing routes in the world. From 2013 to 2015, he sent several 8C (V15) boulder problems.
Miho Nonaka is a Japanese competition climber who specializes in competition bouldering. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's combined, winning a silver medal.
Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, is an American rock climber and rock climbing coach. In competition lead climbing, she is a 4-time World Cup champion, and won the biennial World Championships in 1995. She is the third-ever woman in history to redpoint a 5.14a (8b+) graded sport climbing route. She has coached several competition climbers, including Megan Mascarenas, Margo Hayes and her daughter, Brooke Raboutou.
Oriane Bertone is a French rock climber, who specializes in competition climbing, but is also noted for her sport climbing and her bouldering.
Seo Chae-hyun, also known as Chaehyun Seo, is a South Korean professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She won the overall 2019 World Cup title in competition lead climbing in her senior debut season. In August 2021 she represented South Korea at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she was a finalist, and later that year won the IFSC World Championship in lead.
Laura Rogora is an Italian rock climber who specializes in sport climbing and in competition climbing. In 2021, she became the third-ever female climber in history to redpoint a 9b (5.15b)-graded sport climbing route, with her ascent of Erebor in Italy.
Natalia Grossman is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She represents the United States at IFSC Climbing World Cup in competition bouldering and competition lead climbing. She won gold and silver at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Championships, and has 19 podium finishes at World Cup events, including nine golds. In October 2023, Grossman qualified for the 2024 Olympic games in Paris by winning the boulder & lead combined competition at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Ievgeniia (Jenya) Serikivna Kazbekova is a Ukrainian competition climber, and a member of the 2024 Ukraine Olympic team.
