Immediately after she fell off of the lead climbing wall in Paris on Thursday morning, Brooke Raboutou looked into the camera and smiled wide.
The Boulder native and Fairview graduate, who sat in third following the opening bouldering round of Olympic sport climbing, very nearly reached the handhold, just a few feet from the top, that would have put her in second place heading into the finals.
She barely fell short before losing her grip and gliding down, instead settling for third heading into Saturday’s finals.
The lead climbing competition involves a series of obstacles and rope clips, and athletes have six minutes to systematically chart their paths to the top. This year, they must place in the top eight of the opening rounds in both bouldering and lead to qualify for the finals.
Raboutou will be entering the final competition with a combined score of 155.8, netting an 83.7 in bouldering and a 72.1 in lead, and well within striking distance of a silver medal. The defending gold medalist, Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, blew away the rest of the field with a 195.7, followed by Austria’s Jessica Pilz at 156.9.
Three years ago, during the COVID-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Raboutou left the first-ever Olympic sport climbing competition with fifth place in the combined competition that featured bouldering, lead climbing and speed climbing. This year, the women’s speed climbing is a separate event.
On Saturday, she’ll have a strong chance at a medal when she begins her ascent at 2:15 a.m. mountain time. Her fellow Fairview graduate, Natalia Grossman, ended her run in Paris in 11th place (108.3) after scoring just a 39.1 in the lead.
In the men’s omnium cycling, Nederland’s Grant Koontz finished 16th, netting a score of 42.
