Sam Watson, an 18-year-old student at Southlake Carroll, just beat his own world record in speed climbing on his way to the quarter-finals of the sport at Paris 2024.
Watson, who grew up training at Movement gyms in Plano and Grapevine, set the world record for speed climbing previously this year. But he just beat it again.
According to Olympics.com, just moments after Indonesia's Veddriq Leonardo matched the record of 4.79 seconds in the seeding round, Watson surpassed him by 0.04 seconds during the elimination heats, setting a stunning new world record of 4.75 seconds and advancing to the final eight.
He earned his quota spot for Paris 2024 by winning gold at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago with a time of 5.37 seconds, surpassing the existing Olympic record of 5.45 seconds. Additionally, he is a three-time World Cup medallist, having won two golds and one silver, and in 2022, he became the youngest climber to win an IFSC World Cup in speed at the age of 16.
At the 2024 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Wujiang, China, he set a new world record in men's speed climbing with an impressive time of 4.798 seconds, making him only the second man in history to break the sub-5-second barrier, alongside Veddriq Leonardo.
Aside from climbing, Watson is passionate about learning new languages and has maintained a 500-day streak of Indonesian lessons and he is learning some German. "I think it's something that has been really useful, traveling on the World Cup circuit (and being) able to have an extra level of communication with other people," Watson said at the Olympics this week.
The men’s speed climbing competition will continue on Thursday, Aug. 8, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals set throughout the day.
To see the full Olympic speed climbing schedule, visit the link here.
Don't miss anything Local. Sign up for our free newsletter.
