Julian David competing in Melbourne at a Paris Olympic qualification event, Photo: AAP / www.photosport.nz
Speed climbers Julian David and Sarah Tetzlaff are the first athletes to be selected for the New Zealand team for the Paris Olympics later this year.
They are also the first climbers to be selected for a New Zeland Olympic team.
Speed climbing is a form of sport climbing where athletes compete for the fastest time to the top of the climbing wall.
The competition takes place on a standardised 15m high climbing wall, and the same holds and route are used each time for consistency across competition.
Speed climber Sarah Tetzlaff Photo: AAP IMAGE/www.photosport.co.nz
David, 19, is the current Junior World Champion and won the emerging talent award at this years' Halberg Awards.
"This means a huge amount to me. I couldn't be more excited," says David.
"I've dedicated the past two years of my life to being the best athlete and speed climber I can be, because going to the Olympics is something I've dreamed of since I was seven."
"Back when I was watching the 2012 London Olympic Games, I knew then that I really wanted to be an Olympian. I didn't have any idea which sport, I just knew I wanted to be at the Olympics one day."
The pair qualified their spots for Paris by winning their divisions at the Oceania qualification tournament in Melbourne late last year.
Climbing NZ High Performance Director Rob Moore says a huge amount of work has gone into getting the athletes to this point.
"They have worked tirelessly, trusted the process and trusted me. It may be an individual sport, but we have definitely achieved this through teamwork! We have an incredible group of coaches and support staff around us and together we have all made this happen."
The speed climbing at Paris 2024 will be contested at Le Bourget Climbing Venue from August 5th to 8th.
About speed climbing
Speed climbing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020 as part of a combined formula for Climbing.
Speed climbing is very unlike the other two climbing disciplines (lead and bouldering), so was split off from the other two disciplines for Paris 2024.
Athletes in speed climbing have great longevity in the sport, with some of the best climbers in the world still winning world cups in their late 30s.
Julian David
Julian David began climbing at the 'Aims Games' where he placed third in his first attempt ever at climbing.
Soon after he joined the High Performance (HP) group that had been setup to try to get climbers to the 2020 Olympic qualifier in Sydney.
In 2022 when the newly formed High Performance Speed climbing program was established, David was the first to be nominated having won the NZ under 18 and Open men's categories.
He has gone on to break multiple records at the HPSNZ training facility in Cambridge including a 14-year-old standing vertical jump record.
Sarah Tetzlaff
Sarah Tetzlaff joined the Climbing NZ High Performance environment at the beginning of 2018 after qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games.
During the 2019 season Tetzlaff competed in many World Cup events and ended the season at the Youth World Championships, finishing 16th in the Junior Female category.
Tetzlaff has won the New Zealand national title for speed climbing multiple times and has broken New Zealand records at nearly every national and international competition she entered.