Sarah Tetzlaff (born 2000) is a competition climber from New Zealand, specialising in speed climbing, and a member of the 2024 New Zealand Olympic Team. She won her place at the Olympics by winning the Oceania qualifier, held in November 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. [1]
Tetzlaff was born in 2000 in Lower Hutt. [2] She gave up gymnastics as an 11-year-old, [3] in part because of the drive to push on through injuries. She tried circus performance [4] but eventually settled on climbing, a shared interest with her younger brother. [3] By age 13 she was competing in speed, but her fear of heights sometimes left her frozen at the top of the wall for many minutes. [5] While finishing at Wellington Girls' College, at age 17, she went to Germany for an exchange month.
For years Tetzlaff had to train in other countries, as the nearest speed wall to New Zealand was thousands of km away in New Caledonia. [3] In 2018 she moved from Wellington to Tauranga, [3] where she uses a speed wall in Blake Park at Mount Maunganui. [5]
Tetzlaff entered the 2017 Oceania Youth Championship in Nouméa, signed up for the qualification event for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics "on a whim", [4] and medalled in all three of speed, boulder, and lead, taking gold in speed and boulder. [6] That result took her to the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she took 21st place in sport climbing at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, a combined event featuring all three disciplines. [3]
Even before the 2018 Youth Olympics, she stated: "my sights are set on the 2024 Paris Olympics". [4] When she won the Oceania qualifier in 2023, she and teammate Julian David became the first two New Zealanders to gain a place in the 2024 Olympics, and they will be the first New Zealanders to compete in climbing at the Olympics. [7] Her time in the final qualifying race, 8.54 seconds, was a personal best but well behind the times of the top contenders at the Olympics. [3] Her goal is to continue improving her times to reach the world standard by 2028 and 2032. [5]
In a world cup in Chamonix prior to the Olympics, she set another personal best and an Oceania record with a time of 8.40. [6]
Tetzlaff is a part-time master's student in environmental science, at the University of Waikato, focusing on the shallow water near the shores of Lake Tarawera. [3] [5] Her master's research won the 2023 Waikato Regional Council Prize in Water Science. [8]
Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains to small boulders. Climbing is done for locomotion, sporting recreation, for competition, and is also done in trades that rely on ascension, such as rescue and military operations. Climbing is done indoors and outdoors, on natural surfaces, and on artificial surfaces
Sport climbing is a type of free climbing in rock climbing where the lead climber clips into pre-drilled permanent bolts for their protection while ascending a route. Sport climbing differs from the riskier traditional climbing where the lead climber has to insert temporary protection equipment while ascending.
Wellington Girls' College was founded in 1883 in Wellington, New Zealand. At that time it was called Wellington Girls' High School. Wellington Girls' College is a year 9 to 13 state secondary school, located in Thorndon in central Wellington.
Competition climbing is a form of regulated rock climbing competition held indoors on purpose-built artificial climbing walls. The three competition climbing disciplines are lead climbing, bouldering, and speed climbing. The result of multiple disciplines can be used in a "combined" format to determine an all-round winner. Competition climbing is sometimes called "sport climbing", which is the name given to pre-bolted lead climbing.
Speed climbing is a climbing discipline in which speed is the ultimate goal. Speed climbing is done on rocks, walls and poles and is only recommended for highly skilled and experienced climbers.
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.
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.
Competition climbing made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Two events were held, one each for men and women. The format controversially consisted of one combined event with three disciplines: lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering. The medals were determined based on best performance across all three disciplines. This format was previously tested at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. The Olympic code for sports climbing is CLB.
New Zealand participated at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 6 October to 18 October 2018.
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.
Iuliia Vladimirovna Kaplina is a Russian competition climber who has won multiple competition speed climbing events and set multiple world records. She was the world record holder in women's speed climbing until 6 August 2021, setting the record at the 2020 European Championships in Moscow (6.964).
Futaba Ito is a Japanese professional rock climber, sport climber and boulderer. She participates in both bouldering and lead climbing competitions. She won the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in lead and bouldering events in 2016, as well as Bouldering Japan Cup in 2017. She participated in combined and speed events at the 2018 Asian Games.
Petra Klingler is a Swiss rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. Known as a versatile climber, she competes in a wide range of competitive events, including competition bouldering, competition speed climbing, competition lead climbing, and also competition ice climbing.
Zoe Hobbs is a New Zealand track and field sprinter competing in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. She is the Oceanian indoor record holder for the 60 m and the Oceanian record holder for the 100 m.
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.
Oceana Mackenzie is an Australian rock climber and competition climber who specializes in competition bouldering. She competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics, coming 19th, and has qualified to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Competition climbing at the 2024 Summer Olympics is scheduled to run from 5 to 10 August at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue in Saint-Denis, returning to the program for the second time since the sport's official debut three years earlier in Tokyo 2020. The total number of medal events will double from two in the previous edition because the boulder-and-lead tandem has been separated from the speed format. Furthermore, the number of climbers will increase from 40 to 68.
In qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics, a total of 68 climbers, with an equal distribution between men and women, will compete across two separate competition climbing disciplines at these Games for the first time, namely: a unique competition bouldering-and-competition lead climbing combined event, and a separate competition speed climbing event.
Erin McNeice is a British rock climber who specialises in competition climbing. She has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Aniya Holder is a South African rock climber who specializes in competition climbing, particularly speed climbing. As of 2024, Holder is the reigning female African Continental Champion in women's speed climbing, and she is representing South Africa in that discipline at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
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