The first sport climbing combined final in Olympic history took place against the backdrop of a fuschia sky in Tokyo on Thursday night. The stifling heat and humidity presented an extra challenge to the athletes, but with the help of sizeable amounts of chalk, records were broken and history was made nonetheless. Even among climbing giants like the Czech Republic’s Adam Ondra, Japan’s Tomoa Narasaki and Austria’s Jakob Schubert, 18-year old Alberto Ginés López earned the sport’s first ever gold medal for Spain—a promising Olympic debut for both the young athlete and the sport itself.
Ginés López earned silver at the 2019 Lead Climbing European Championship at just 16 years old, only to place second once more later that month at the 2019 Lead Climbing World Cup.