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This Gqeberha sportswoman is the only one who will be representing Africa in speed climbing at the 2024 Olympics.

Quite a few new sports have been added to the Olympic Games over the years, one of which includes sport climbing, which made its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. It is split up into three disciplines: boulder, lead and speed climbing.

Well, 22-year-old Aniya Holder from Gqeberha is going to be the only sportswoman from our giant continent to compete in the speed climbing category at this year’s Olympics in Paris, France.

She will be joined by one male speed climber, as well as a male and female climber in the boulder and lead category, in representing the region.

Holder clinched her spot in the 2024 Olympics at the December 2023 International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) African Qualifier. She blazed through the 15-metre sport climbing route in 11.33 seconds, leaving her closest competitor behind by over two seconds. She said it feels “amazing” to qualify, per Daily Maverick, adding “I had trained very hard… I put a lot of work into it, just to see what I could do”.

“Having that goal and focusing on that was something I could put my mind to, and just keep going.”

There must be something in her name:

 

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Reflecting on the significance of competing in a new Olympic sport, Holder said:

“It’s very cool. It’s the first time that the three [climbing] disciplines have been separated. At the last Olympics, you had to do all three. So… each athlete had to be averagely good at everything, whereas most of the time speed climbers and boulder and lead climbers are not the same.”

Speed climbing is currently the fastest Olympic sport, according to Jay-D Muller, Holder’s coach at the Valley Crag Indoor Climbing Centre in Gqeberha, as it involves completing a standardised 15m route in as short a time as possible.

While the speed climbing community in South Africa is currently quite small, he anticipates that there will be a rise in young athletes competing in the sport over the next few years.

 

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Holder’s path to the Olympics has been fraught with challenges. When she started climbing (at 14), with a focus on bouldering and lead climbing, she suffered two major injuries in a short time. She broke her fingers in late 2021 and wrecked her elbow in early 2022, which took her off the wall “pretty much for good”.

Despite the difficulty, Holder’s couch suggested she try speed climbing because it’s a lot more straightforward and does not require such hard, compressed moves – “it’s more running up the wall” – which she quickly fell in love with and started training for immediately:

Muller described Holder as “hard ­working” and “dedicated”, adding: “She is just very driven. She puts her mind to something and then she makes it happen, and she puts in lots of work.”

Working as a route-setter for the bouldering section of the Valley Crag Indoor Climbing Centre, Holder has had to balance training with a nine-to-five job.

Since everything is self-funded, Holder is running a funding campaign for her Olympic journey on Thundafund under the tagline, “The Queen of Speed Climbing, SA, needs you”.

 

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Over the next few months, her training will involve many laps on the wall, trying to improve her speed. She will also be engaging in plyometrics and general fitness to increase her strength and power.

Go, Holder, go!

[source:dailymaverick]