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Alannah Yip Competes in Olympics, an Inspiration to Canadian Climbers

As one of Canada's first two Olympic climbers ever, she's already motivated young competitors everywhere to aim high

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for all Olympic climbers, from dealing with the delay of the Games and trying to train for the most-watched competition of the year, to staying focused and dealing with the pressure of representing their country. And Canada’s Alannah Yip not only qualified for the Olympics, but had us all cheering as she climbed her way to an impressive 14th place.

In today’s qualifiers (read full report here), Yip finished 16th in bouldering, 12th in lead and sixth in speed with a new personal best time of 7.99 seconds. She’s been competing in International events for over a decade, and has always been an inspiration to Canadian climbers. Now an Olympian, even more young competition climbers have the opportunity to experience what an absolute crusher and leader Yip is.

Yesterday we published an interview with Yip, that you can read here, in which she talked about the day she qualified for Tokyo at the PanAm Championships in LA: “I was extremely nervous and stressed on the first and second days of competition at PanAms which led to me not climbing my best. On the day of finals, however, I was very calm – probably calmer than I’ve ever been at a big competition. Speed didn’t go very well for me, but I stayed positive and was only looking ahead to my stronger disciplines. In bouldering and lead I was very focused, so much so that when I fell on my lead route and lowered to the ground, I was still thinking about the move I fell on until Becca Frangos ran over to tell me I had qualified. After that, I was overwhelmed with relief and happiness.”

We want to send a huge congratulations to Yip on her Olympic climbing and can’t wait to see where she takes her climbing next. Men’s finals take place tomorrow and women’s on Aug. 6, visit here to see how you can watch them.

Alannah Yip

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