Colin Duffy (born December 10, 2003) is an American professional climber. At age 16, he became the youngest climber to qualify to compete at the

2020 Summer Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

in Tokyo, and the second American male climber to do so, after winning the 2020 IFSC Pan American Championships in March 2020. In

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, Duffy won his first

IFSC Climbing World Cup The IFSC Climbing World Cup is a series of climbing competitions held annually and organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). The athletes compete in three disciplines: lead, bouldering and speed. The number of competit ...

medal, finishing third in lead at Villars, Switzerland. At the Tokyo Olympics, he advanced to the final round of the sport climbing competition and finished in seventh place. In

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, Duffy won his first IFSC gold medal, finishing first in bouldering at

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

. Two days later, Duffy won his second gold by finishing first in the men's lead competition. He is the first male athlete to win both bouldering and lead in the same IFSC World Cup event. As a youth climber, he won the

IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships The IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships are the annual World Youth Championships for competition climbing organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). The first competition was held in Basel, Switzerland ). Swiss ...

twice, in 2017 and 2018, and finished second in 2019. Duffy started climbing at age 3 before joining Team ABC in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

at age 8, where he trained under

Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou (born 8 August 1963), is an American rock climber and rock climbing coach. In competition lead climbing, she is a 4-time World Cup champion (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995), and won the biennial World Championships in 1995. Sh ...

and was teammates with future Olympic teammate

Brooke Raboutou Brooke Raboutou (born April 9, 2001) is an American professional rock climber. At age 9, she ticked a and became the youngest female to climb a . At 10, she sent a and became the youngest female to climb . At 11, she became the youngest female ...

. In 2019, Duffy, age 15 at the time, completed two routes at the

Red River Gorge The Red River Gorge is a canyon system on the Red River in east-central Kentucky. Geologically it is part of the Pottsville Escarpment. The gorge lies within the Daniel Boone National Forest and was subsequently designated the Red River Gorge G ...

, ''Pure Imagination'' and ''Southern Smoke'', in one day, while also on-sighting ''Omaha Beach'' (), before completing ''God’s Own Stone'' () two days later. He has also topped a -grade boulder. In November 2021, he climbed his first 5.14d (9a) route, ''Life of Villains.''

References

External links

Team USA profile

IFSC profile
Living people 2003 births People from Broomfield, Colorado American rock climbers Sportspeople from Colorado Sport climbers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic sport climbers of the United States {{climbing-bio-stub