Paris 2024 sport climbing: Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo wins Speed gold as Sam Watson breaks world record for bronze
Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo scaled to victory to win the inaugural men’s Speed gold in the sport climbing at Paris 2024, as USA’s Sam Watson broke his own world record to take home the bronze.
A day after Aleksandra Mirosław won women’s Speed gold, Leonardo joined the Polish superstar in making history at the Olympic Games, also winning Indonesia their first gold at Paris 2024.
The thrilling nature of this elimination round saw Watson miss out on the final after losing to Wu Peng in the semis, only to then claim the bronze after a world-record climb of 4.74 seconds beat Reza Alipour.
Leonardo almost matched that time with a 4.75 to win gold, just 0.02 seconds faster than Wu of the People’s Republic of China, who finished with silver.
"I feel so amazing. This was always my drean, and today I made my dream cone true," said a visibly elated Leonardo. "All of Indonesia is proud of this gold medal."
After qualifying on Tuesday, just eight climbers remained in the pursuit for the first-ever men’s Speed gold medal at the Olympics.
Sport climbing had consisted of one combined event at Tokyo 2020, but this time around Speed was kept separate from Boulder & Lead.
That allowed Speed specialists to take centre stage, with Watson up first and knocking out Julian David with a time of 5.03 to 5.65.
A scintillating second quarter-final saw world number two Wu knock out reigning world champion and world number one Matteo Zurloni by just 0.002 seconds – 4.995 vs 4.997.
Leonardo, a previous world record holder, then went quickest (4.88) in the quarters when sending the home hope Bassa Mawem (5.26) packing, with the Frenchman also retiring from the sport after this event.
Alipour, another former world record holder, then produced a great display to complete the semi-final line-up when beating Amir Maimuratov.
Veddriq Leonardo of Team Indonesia finishes ahead of Wu Peng of Team People's Republic of China
Fighting for a place in the gold medal race, Watson versus Wu looked too difficult to call ahead of their showdown.
Watson had snuck ahead, but Wu took advantage of the slightest of stumbles from the American to reach the final with a 4.85 to Watson’s 4.93.
Their times were sublime, and a sign of how quickly Speed climbing has improved in recent years, and in the second semi-final both competitors went even quicker.
Leonardo – the overall Speed World Cup winner in 2021, 2022 and 2023 – secured a 4.78 personal best to edge out Alipour (4.84).
And it then got even quicker. In the scrap for bronze, Watson put behind his disappointment to clinch a new world record of 4.74, just 0.01 seconds faster than his previous best set on Tuesday, to beat Alipour.
The showpiece then fittingly saw the quickest race of the entire finals, with Leonardo slapping the board just 0.02 seconds before rival Wu to become the first Indonesian to stand on the top podium at Paris 2024.
Sport climbing: Men’s speed podium at Paris 2024
Gold: Veddriq Leonardo (Indonesia)
Silver: Wu Peng (People's Republic of China)
Bronze: Sam Watson (USA)