Sam Watson (climber)
American professional speed climber (born 2006)
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Samuel Watson (born February 27, 2006)[1] is an American professional rock climber who specializes in competition speed climbing and represents the United States at IFSC Climbing World Cups. He held the world record for the discipline at 4.64 seconds, accomplished at the 2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Bali, Indonesia. He won a bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.[2]
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| Born | February 27, 2006 Southlake, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | University of Utah | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Professional climber | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2021–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Competition speed climbing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Coached by | Albert Ok | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Career
In 2021 Watson won a silver medal at the Youth B category of the IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships in Voronezh, Russia. In 2022 he won a gold medal at the Edinburgh, Scotland IFSC Climbing World Cup, in speed, and became the youngest climber to do so.[3][4][5][6] Also in 2022, Watson won, a bronze medal at the Youth A category of the IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships in Dallas, Texas, and won first in the US National Speed Climbing Championship.[7]
In 2023, Watson set a US and Pan American speed climbing records at 5.02 seconds,[8][9] at the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Seoul, Korea.[10] At the Pan American Games that year, he won the gold medal and qualified in speed climbing for the 2024 Summer Olympics.[11]
In the leadup to the Olympics, he set a world record for the discipline at 4.798 seconds, accomplished in the 2024 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Wujiang.[12] At the Olympics, he lost to Wu Peng in the semifinal round, and took the bronze medal in the small final. Along the way, he broke his own world record twice. He set a world record of 4.74 seconds in the small final, climbing against Reza Alipour.[13]
Watson is originally from Texas,[7] and resides in Millcreek, Utah.[14]
