The road to Paris doesn’t run through Chile geographically, but it does in terms of 2024 Olympic qualification. The path from Santiago to Paris is direct for 21 sports or disciplines in the 2023 Pan Am Games. Among them is climbing. Win and you’re in as the Pan Am Games gold medallists will qualify for the Olympic Games.
The 10-member Canadian sport climbing team for the Pan Am Games was announced Tuesday with speed-climbers Ethan Flynn-Pitcher and Michael Finn-Henry from Boulders Gym in Central Saanich named to the squad with Libor Hroza from Boulders the speed-team coach for the Games.
“I am going to be on the edge of my seat watching the Pan Am Games and knowing it is the second of three opportunities to qualify for the Olympics,” said Kimanda Jarzebiak, chairman of the board of Boulders Gym, and past 10-year manager of the national team.
“It’s amazing that two of the 10 athletes on the Canadian team for the Pan Am Games are from Boulders Gym and also one of the two coaches. It says a lot about Libor’s record as coach.”
The Canadians missed in their first chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics this month at the world championships in Bern, Switzerland.
“The pressure in Bern was significant,” said Jarzebiak, who provided the colour commentary for CBC when climbing made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
The final Olympic qualifying criteria will be points accumulated in world-sanctioned competitions. But punch your ticket in Santiago and you won’t have to worry about that world-ranking route to Paris.
“It’s indescribable. I somehow feel so calm despite knowing that this will be the most important competition of my life,” said Flynn-Pitcher, in a statement.
“Knowing that I could walk away from this [Pan Am Games] competition with a ticket to the Olympics … all I can do now is do my best. There’s not much else to say. I’m ready.”
The preparation includes mind as well as body.
“[Flynn-Pitcher and Finn-Henry] have been working with a sports psychologist and have made quite a bit of progress and are on good tracks,” said coach Hroza, a former world speed-climbing record holder for the Czech Republic.
“They are fine examples of the high-level athletes we have in our club at Boulders.”
The Canadian speed record-holder Finn-Henry, meanwhile, balances the Boulders Gym walls with the books as he is also a Harvard PhD candidate in mechanical engineering. Finn-Henry and Flynn-Pitcher push each other every day in training at Boulders Gym.
“This facility is a necessity and I couldn’t live without it,” Flynn-Pitcher told the Times Colonist.
“It’s a staple of my life. We have a real chance for Paris and are excited about that. But it’s a lot of work every day.”
The Canadian team to Santiago includes Canada’s two climbing Olympians from Tokyo 2020 — veterans Sean McColl of Vancouver and Alannah Yip from North Vancouver.
“Sean [McColl] is the role model for every B.C. climber,” said Jarzebiak.
“The sport would not be where it is in B.C. without him. And Alannah [Yip] followed in his footsteps.”
There will be two medal events per gender — the combined event, which includes both boulder and lead, and the speed event — at both Santiago and Paris. Speed has been added as a separate event after all three disciplines of boulder, lead, and speed were combined into one medal event when climbing made its Olympic debut at Tokyo. It is hoped bouldering will also become its own medal event at Los Angeles in 2028 to give sport climbing three medal events in the Games.
Malek Taleb of Kingston, Ont., will guide the Canadian combined climbers in Santiago and Hroza the speed climbers. The ten Canadian athletes qualified for Santiago based on their world ranking amongst athletes from the Americas. They are Finn-Henry, Flynn-Pitcher, McColl, Yip, Utah-based Canadian brothers Oscar and Victor Baudrand, Rebecca Frangos of Canmore, Alta., and Erica Velev and Dylan Le of Montreal.
The 2023 Pan Am Games, in Southern Hemisphere spring from Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 in Santiago, are a direct qualifier to the 2024 Olympics in several sports including climbing, archery, boxing, diving, gymnastics, sailing, tennis, shooting, field hockey, handball, surfing, table tennis, modern pentathlon, trampoline, water polo and equestrian.
Climbing will take place over the first four days of the Games, Oct. 21-24, at the Parque Bicentenario Cerrillos.
More than 60 Island or Island-based athletes are expected to compete in the 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games across all sports. Island athletes won 17 medals in the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games, 20 medals, including 13 gold, at the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games and 21 medals at the 2011 Guadalajara Pan Am Games.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
