With a silver medal around her neck and a wide smile on her face, American sport climber Brooke Raboutou finished her Olympic competition with a historic win for Team USA: Raboutou earned the U.S. its first ever women’s climbing medal in the Boulder and Lead combined event. We explore Raboutou’s journey to becoming an elite-level sport climber and her path to the podium in Paris.
Olympic Sport Climbing 101
Sport climbing was just recently approved as an Olympic Sport in 2016 and the first sport climbing Olympic medals were awarded at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In Tokyo, there was one combined sport climbing event that combined the scores of the Boulder, Lead, and Speed climbing disciplines. A schedule change was made in Paris that divided the disciplines, with Speed climbing becoming its own event and Boulder and Lead climbing remaining as the combined event.
Raboutou is a boulder specialist, an event that requires competitors to ascend a series of four short and technical climbing routes known as “problems” without the assistance of a rope system. In the lead discipline, climbers aspire to get as far up a 50 foot wall as possible within a six minute time limit with the use of ropes and a harness. In the combined competition, athletes can earn up to 100 points in each discipline for a maximum total score of 200 points.
Born to Climb
Raboutou was born in April of 2001 to two world class rock climbers. Her father, Didier Raboutou, and her mother, Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, are both World Cup climbing champions. Raboutou has been climbing for as long as she can remember, as her father would build mini climbing walls for her and her older brother to practice climbing as toddlers. Since she started climbing at an elite level at age 11, Brooke has been coached by her mother. Her brother, Shawn, is also a professional rock climber and often steps in to help with aspects of her training.
Despite such an early exposure to rock climbing, Raboutou has never felt pushed into it by her parents or lost her passion for the sport. “I started out as just a little baby climbing rocks,” Raboutou said about her unconventional childhood. “I think probably, opposite of most parents, instead of ‘stop climbing that’ it was ‘grab that, hang on that.’”
“It’s just you and the wall. It's just about me and giving myself to the boulders in front of me.”
The Mental Aspect of Climbing
Raboutou grew up climbing rock formations in Boulder, Colorado, so it’s only fitting that she excels in the bouldering discipline – which is widely seen as the most challenging and dangerous discipline. She views herself as a problem solver and says that her climbing is equally mental and physical. “My mental preparation has become one of the most important parts of my training,” she said. “I do a lot of visualization and breathing work to prepare me for the competitions.”
Despite her preparation, Raboutou was disappointed with her 5th place finish in Tokyo and had to take some time to reassess her approach to climbing. She often leaned on her father’s advice to remember, “It’s just you and the wall,” which Raboutou says “is just a reminder that it's not about anybody else. It's just about me and giving myself to the boulders in front of me."
Raboutou also emphasizes the importance of having balance in her life, where she doesn’t think about climbing all the time and can engage in other interests. She recently earned her degree in marketing from the University of San Diego and has spoken about how her studies in psychology and business have helped her to advance her mental fitness. “My learning through school has brought a lot to climbing…learning a lot [about] how the brain works and how we work as people and just understand new circumstances,” she said. “Applying that to competition and just to myself of how to deal with pressures, how to deal with new things.”
The Paris Olympics
Tokyo gold medalist Janja Garnbret of Slovenia, widely regarded as one of the greatest women rock climbers of all time, returned this year to defend her title. But Raboutou showcased her strength in bouldering and versatility in lead, finishing with a combined score of 156 to earn her silver medal.
Raboutou’s performance was special, as it took place in her father’s home country where she had spent her summer’s climbing in the countryside, and her entire paternal family was also present to cheer her on. "Being half-French and having my French family out here and just the support from the crowd, I did feel it," Raboutou said. "I know that they're so dedicated to their nationality, so it feels good to have them support me as well and to have my roots be here.”
A silver medal in Paris was a dream outcome for the young sport climber, but she won’t stay satisfied for long. “There's that addictiveness of how you can always keep going. You can always do more. Try harder, climb higher, be better, learn more technique. There's just so much to learn and it's ever evolving,” Raboutou said. She always believes in her ability to be a little better – and that’s a true champion’s mindset.
