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Sean McColl Aims for Paris 2024 Olympics

Team Canada's Sean McColl spoke at Joe Rockhead's this weekend describing the nature of his Olympic experience. He will aim to compete in 2024.

Last week saw Sport Climbing’s Olympic inauguration. Although many climbers found the format difficult, the event became a spectacular display of climbing and sport. While many countries would not see their athletes qualify for climbing’s Olympic stage, Canada would see two climbers in Tokyo.

Team Canada’s Alannah Yip and Sean McColl competed after over two years of uncertain circumstances. Following the event on Friday, McColl would fly to Toronto, then Vancouver, and then back to Toronto to meet with one of his original sponsors.

Joe Rockhead’s has sponsored McColl for over a decade. As the oldest climbing gym in Canada, and the second oldest in North America, Rockhead’s saw some of the most crucial moments in Canadian climbing. It would host Nationals every year, back when Nationals did not separate youth from elite athletes, and it would also host McColl’s first Nationals.

At a Rockhead’s event on August 8, McColl reflected on his experience. “Joe Rockhead’s was the first Nationals I did. I think I was 11 or 12. I remember not making Finals,” he laughed. Although he did not make Finals in his first Nationals, he would in the second year. Still smiling, albeit through a mask, McColl said that though he made Finals, he could barely start most of the boulders. He would leave the competition without a top.

“I don’t even remember if I was mad or not. I think I was just having the time of my life climbing in an Adult Open Nationals at 13.” As he matured, McColl would become the dominant competition climber in the country. Since then, no Canadian has outclimbed the 33-year-old Canadian on the International field.

Like many Olympians, McColl’s last two years of training proved challenging. “The hardest part about the COVID delay was the uncertainty. Yes, it was delayed a year, but at the same time, it could be pulled out at any moment. I can deal with injuries, I can deal with training, but to be unable to control something, that was the hardest part mentally.”

Although maintaining motivation through such a time became difficult, McColl persisted. “You focus on what you can control. I made my own cave and trained in it for the better part of a year. It was fun at times, it was not fun at other times. Overall the experience was worth it because we made it to the Olympics. It’s funny, people will ask, ‘What was your favourite part about the Olympics?’ I don’t have a perfect answer to that. The best thing I can think of right now is right after the first speed climb. I was officially stamped an Olympian. For me that was the best part about the whole trip.”

McColl noted that this run made the event real. Leading up to the event, every athlete wore masks and received daily COVID tests. Any athlete that tested positive for COVID ultimately faced disqualification. Between the contact tracing and related phone application there was a sense of anxiety. After all of this time, it would feel heartbreaking to lose it all while in Tokyo.

In the end, McColl felt generally please about the Games. “Overall, it was the experience of a lifetime. My overall goal was to become an Olympian and I felt support from the climbing community and specifically from Canada.

“For Speed, I set a PB (Personal Best). That was the best I could do in Speed. The results afterwards I couldn’t control. In bouldering, I climbed the first one pretty well, but slipped off of the last move twice. It was unfortunate. The second one, I didn’t understand super well. It was hard, I didn’t get zone. The third one, I flashed zone and had a hard time on the last move, and the fourth one was just really hard because I couldn’t reach the start holds properly.

“Two zones out of four, not the best, but again, I could have done one and I could have done three. On a slightly better day, I still have two tops. In lead climbing I knew I had to win or be number two, so it was fun. I looked at the crowd, I closed my eyes, I thought about the process of getting there, and I climbed well on the lead route. It was not enough for Finals, but I slipped near the top. I didn’t grab one of the holds perfectly, and that was it.

“Still, I was happy. I was happy that I made it to the Olympics without injuring myself, without getting COVID. Watching climbing on the Olympic stage was super inspiring. I would do it again in a heartbeat and I am actually really excited for the next three years in Paris.”

Following his recitation, McColl began to discuss Team Canada and 2024. With the qualification event in two years, there is a lot of work to be done. “I have always been a firm believer in training camps. Training camps, for me, have always been the biggest thing. I’m ranked as the number one climber in Canada right now. If I can bring up the next ranked six-to-ten climbers in Canada then they will push me up as well.”

“It comes down to training camps and talent ID. Technically, ID is the more important part. Identifying who can be good in one or two years so we can use those climbers and go to the World Cups. Realistically, in two years, we already have a pretty good idea who those people could be. It’s when you start pushing out further, the 2028 Games, that the field becomes exponentially bigger.”

As this piece goes out, Team Canada trains at the first official training camp since the beginning of the pandemic. Athletes across all provinces have come to train and progress with the country’s best.

Featured Image by Dimitris Tosidis.

Read up on how McColl prepared for this last Olympics.

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