After Day One of the Olympic sport climbing competition, Fairview graduates Brooke Raboutou and Natalia Grossman both put themselves in prime position to make the finals. They placed in the top five of the bouldering portion.
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning here, Raboutou twisted and ascended all the way to third place during the semifinals, collecting a final score of 83.7, just 0.8 behind France’s Oriane Bertone. Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, the defending gold medalist, blew away the competition with a 99.6 mark.
Grossman didn’t lag too far behind in the pecking order, as her score of 69.2 was good enough to earn her fifth place. Only the top eight competitors move onto the final.
Bouldering involves a difficult climbing style defined by obstacles and handholds that may be distanced farther than normal, very small, large or oddly angled. The wall design makes the ascent much more challenging and forces climbers to strategize with uncomfortable body positions. Points or partial points are awarded by the climber’s ability to reach the top of the wall.
Raboutou conquered the first two boulders with relative ease, but faced a stiff challenge from the third. She couldn’t solve that problem, earning just a 9.8 on that boulder, but rebounded nicely for a quick finish and 24.6 mark on wall four.
Grossman, meanwhile, failed to top out on the first and third problems, but earned just enough difficulty points to edge out Austria’s Jessica Pilz by 0.04 points.
The next section of the combined semifinal, lead, will take place on Thursday at 2 a.m. mountain time. Lead climbing encompasses endurance, as the objective for each athlete is to make it as high as she can on a tall, difficult climb.
Whoever makes the top eight in both events will advance to the final on Saturday. Colin Duffy, who lives in Broomfield and attended Peak to Peak Charter School, finished 11th in the men’s boulder semifinal by scoring a 33.8.
