Summary notes created by Deciphr AI
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-wall-with-alex-honnold-sport-climbings-new-heights/id1347405249?i=1000661769105The Olympics.com podcast delves into the excitement of Paris 2024, highlighting the remarkable speed climbing event, which now surpasses the 100-meter dash as the fastest Olympic event. Featuring insights from climbing legends like Sam Watson, Brooke Rabbitou, Adam Ondra, and Alex Honnold, the episode explores the evolution and allure of sport climbing. The guests discuss the sport's growing popularity, the camaraderie within the climbing community, and the technical and mental challenges of competition. Additionally, the podcast touches on the rich history of the Palace of Versailles, the venue for equestrian events and modern pentathlon at the upcoming games.
"For the first time in Olympic history, the fastest medal event at the games won't be the hundred-meter dash in athletics. Instead, that title now belongs to speed climbing."
"In Paris, climbing will have two medals, one for Boulder and Lead, and one for Speed."
"We're going to hear a bit from Sam Watson, the speed climber, later in this episode, as well as Brooke Rabbitoh, another American who recently sealed her second Olympic berth."
"I think it's been popular for climbers to talk about the growth of climbing for the last 20 years. I've been climbing for almost 30 years and I feel like the entire time people have been talking about how climbing is getting bigger and more mainstream."
"I think for somebody watching at home, the thing to remember is that what these competitors are doing is almost impossible. Like I wouldn't be able to even get past the starting holds on a lot of the boulder problems."
"It's really good for climate competition that the speed medal has been split out from the lead and bouldering medal. The competitors are much happier about it just because speed climbers typically specialize in speed climbing, that's all they work on."
"In Tokyo, there was a little bit of skepticism in the climbing community partially around the format, the combined. The combined format. But then also just whether or not it was good for the sport to be in the Olympics."
"Welcome into the olympics.com podcast. I'm Nick McArville and it gives me great pleasure. It actually gives me goosebumps to say the Olympic Games, Paris 2024, are merely days away."
These notes provide a comprehensive overview of the key themes and ideas discussed in the podcast transcript, ensuring a detailed understanding of the topics covered.
"It's been great to see the growth of competition climbing. It's been great to see the rising standards in competition. I mean, the competitors are honestly getting younger and more talented, and it's incredible."
"Competition climbing really is at the cutting edge of climbing movement. Like, they're doing things that no climbers have ever done before because it's so hard to find movement like that outdoors."
"The movements that competition climbers do broaden what's possible outdoors because they bring a whole new set of skills to the broader climbing community."
"I grew up in California. So a lot of the Yosemite climbers and people that were climbing in southern California, so there were a few people like Peter Croft, John Backer, people like Dean Potter, Lynn Hill, sort of icons of the previous generation were the heroes that I had as I grew up."
"But really, the sport's changed a lot since then because that now feels like ancient history compared to where climbing is now."
"I think that some of the competition climbers that I personally respect the most now are actually some of the older competition climbers. So people like Adam Andre, Jakob Schubert, Alex Magos, even."
"They've been elite competitors, and they've used that skill to do all the hardest things in the world outdoors as well. And I really respect that."
"And I'm sure that he's going to wind up climbing the hardest routes in the world outdoors as well. But for now, he's just a competition phenom."
"Jakob Schubert is amazing. I mean, he's 30. I mean, he's one of the oldest competitors in the field right now. And he climbed the second hardest route in the world this year."
"It's like seeing Tom Brady or something where you're like, oh, he's 45 and he's still lacing up his cleats and getting out there and you're like, that's cool."
"Jana Grandba has been dominant in a way that's rare to see in any sport when somebody just wins consistently for many years, nonstop. Natalia Grossman, who is a qualified American Olympian, is also pretty exciting to watch."
"In some ways, I feel like the women's circuit is a little bit more fresh than the men's surrogate. A few of the male competitors have been around for a very long time, whereas I feel like some of the most successful female competitors have aged out and retired from competition."
"I think climbing has gained tons of popularity in the US, but what we don't really see climbing here in the US is that it's experienced the same boom in the rest of the world."
"The boom in climbing all over the world is really just contributing to this rising standard because there's just more talent, you know, as you suspect, as more people do a sport, you wind up finding more people who are really good at it."
"I like seeing the athletes and how hard they try and how much they've put into their journeys as athletes."
"I would volunteer to be the random guy in the slow lane next to the swimmers... just to get a sense of how hard it is to be an elite swimmer."
"The hardest part about always wanting to improve is rarely feeling satisfied."
"The physicality as well as the mental space needed to compete in both bouldering and lead is impressive."
"We want to win with everyone doing their best and we support each other."
"We are literally problem-solving every day in climbing."
"It's quite natural and even tactical to not compete against your rivals... but compete against the route."
"By my heart, I'm a rock climber... it was all about just trying to get to the top."
"If I could take one thing, it would be climbing on the rock. Because it has something even more. I think the comp climbing is a sport and I love it, but rock climbing is a sport, but there's something more. It has the spirit inside which I think is really incredible."
"For most of my climbing career I was really focusing on like pushing my limits on the rock climbing. And I think in my life I think I put even more attention towards the rock climb wing. It's really important."
"The question is what we do 1 hour before we start climbing. This is quite kind of unique because there is this warm up wall and we are having, if it's a boulder round. So we are having a bouldering section usually quite often together."
"It's kind of really tempting to. I kind of, you know, just have a training session. But you have to really remember, no, I'm here for competing."
"Maybe that the more, the more stressful, you know, are the last ten minutes before you start climbing. When we don't talk anymore."
"Nowadays it's much more common that, you know, also because of the beta sharing, we are not allowed to like talk to each other, which is kind of, I don't know, maybe also it's sad because like 1015 years ago when I started, it was just so common that we would chit chat and, like, the isolation between the boulders."
"I've learned not just from climbers, but a lot of other sports and a lot of other athletes who've sort of had a little bit of a similar story to myself, where you're sort of been at a young age and you sort of explode onto the scene."
"There's no sort of book on being a successful athlete and trying to deal with that pressure and trying to improve and manage that expectations. It really is a personal learning experience."
"My main method was to embrace the idea of sort of, you go to each event and just try to improve."
"I really value performance in practice, obviously not over performance and competition. A lot of people would tend to say that it doesn't matter to do that in practice, but I would totally say it does because it really gives you, one, that's from a confidence perspective, that knowing you can do it, it does really help."
"Pursuing a sub five in practice over the last couple months, I was like very, very big on, this is my goal, this is, I want to run a sub five time."
"If I add, say, pursuing that goal in practice, plus experience from competitions, I'll be able to combine that into exactly what I want to be towards the end of the season."
"The famous palace turned museum and now World Heritage Site has a history of horses that actually dates back to the 17th century, when french royalty would hunt on and around the Versailles grounds."
"According to Martin Onset, a tour guide for the Versailles tourist office beginning in 1680, the quote, ease and technique were now given priority when it came to horse riding."
"There's set to be countless iconic venues at Paris 2024. I'm thinking beach volleyball with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Also the Place de la Concorde, which is set to host bmx, freestyle skateboarding, pranking, and three on three basketball."
"With the opening ceremony set for July 26, the next time we'll be with you on the pod is from Paris. In two weeks time, we're going to bring you behind the scenes coverage from the grounds."