Biography
At just 18 years old, Alberto Ginés López was already making waves in sport climbing before Tokyo 2020. Becoming the sport's first Olympic gold medallist sealed his reputation as one of the world’s ‘most exciting up and coming rock climbers’ - although he may now be beyond merely up-and-coming.
Such was his own disbelief in Tokyo that he didn't even celebrate victory, not quite trusting that the scoreboard was correct. He had won the speed event but finished last in the bouldering, before fourth-place in lead gave him a gold medal that took a while to sink in.
"I wasn't sure if I had won so I didn't want to make a fool of myself," he told El País afterwards.
Born in Cáceres, Spain, Lopez began climbing with his parents from a very young age and eventually, with the help of a coach, started to take it very seriously.
In 2016 at 13 years old, upon the announcement that sport climbing would be debuting at the Olympic Game, López moved to Barcelona to focus on training for it.
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Alberto GINES LOPEZ
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