Fastest Climber in the World Doesn’t Have a Coach
Iranian speed climber Reza Alipour is known as the Asiatic Cheetah and he recently won the first ever men’s climbing final at the Asian Games on Thursday ahead of the sport’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 24-year-old world record holder won the final after his Chinese opponent Zhong Qixin, 29, made a false start.
Alipour was disappointed about the way he won but was happy for the gold.
Indonesia took bronze in the men’s event, and the host country dominated the women’s final, with Aries Susanti Persembahkan, 23, winning gold and Lestari Puji, 28, winning silver.
Alipour said his childhood dream was to be the fastest climbing in the world.
It’s hard to believe that the fastest climber in the world doesn’t have a coach. “I don’t have a doctor and I don’t have a coach,” he told AFP.
“The three people to hold the world record before me were more than 1.80m tall,” he said. “So I had to make my body work differently to go beyond the other champion rock climbers.”
He trains for 10 hours a day and is hoping that climbing disciplines will be separated in the 2024 Olympics.
“I can’t expect a medal in the 2020 Games,” he says. “But I hope in the 2024 Olympics, speed climbing will be a separate event.”
In 2013 at the World Cup in Haiyang, China, he broke the world record at 6.24 seconds to win the first gold medal in speed climbing in Iranian history.
On Apr. 30, 2017, in Nanjing, China, Alipour set a new world record by climbing the 15-metre wall in 5.48 seconds, snatching the gold medal, and shattering the previous record of 5.60 seconds.
Upon setting the new world record of 5.48 seconds at the IFSC World Cup Nanjing, he was named the Usain Bolt of speed climbing.
Watch Alipour at the Asian Games below.
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