Speed climber Emma Hunt targeting world record time: "I would like to go 6.5 seconds"
The American finished runner-up to current world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw in last year's World Cup standings for women's speed climbing. She spoke to Olympics.com exclusively.
Sport Climbing
American speed climber Emma Hunt can remember the first time she topped a 15-metre wall.
“It took me over a minute to climb it,” said Hunt, who is now 20.
Now, the Georgia native is the American record holder in speed climbing, which will break away as its own discipline at Paris 2024 after sport climbing made its debut at Tokyo 2020, with the combined lead climbing and bouldering event offering a separate set of Olympic medals at the upcoming Games.
Not only does Hunt hold the U.S. record of 6.84 seconds up the 15m wall (set at a World Cup in September of 2022), she’s eying breaking the 6.5-second mark, something that’s never been done in female speed climbing.
“I would like to go 6.5,” Hunt told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview at the start of the 2023 World Cup season.
The current women’s world record is 6.53, held by Poland’s two-time world speed champion Aleksandra Miroslaw (pictured above, with Hunt).
“I would like to go faster than that,” Hunt said simply.
Emma Hunt: Speed climbing "is so addicting to me"
When it was introduced to the Olympic programme, speed climbing was billed as “the fastest race in the Games” because, quite simply, it is. Climbers, racing side-by-side, shoot up the uniform 15m route (a series of holds that make up the course) and see who can make it to the top the fastest.
Simple – and fast.
“It's just so addicting to me,” said Hunt, who has four World Cup podiums to her name and was champion at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. “The opportunity to keep going faster and keep progressing it’s just so... yeah, addicting.”
Hunt’s approach is as simple as it is fast: She aims for a clear mind at the start of a race and while she makes her way up the wall. The biggest thing for her is to be relaxed and have fun; otherwise her mind can fill up with clouds of doubt.
“Ideally, nothing is going through my head,” she said. “I think when you reach your fastest time you're just thinking so much about like, ‘Go, go, go!’ I am trying to keep it calm and remember to run a clean lap and just have fun.”
Emma Hunt on big goals - and battling her demons
Hunt finished with the silver medal in the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) 2022 World Cup season, and while she pictures herself at the Olympics in Paris just over a year from now, it isn’t lost on her how unique the sport is in terms of successes and failures.
“Determination is important because a lot of climbing in general is falling and messing up,” a frank Hunt shared. “There is definitely some moments of doubt because speed is the outlier, it’s so particular. In [other disciplines], lead climbers and boulderers can kind of relate to each other.
“In speed, not getting deterred is really important.”
Around the world, every elite speed wall looks the same: The same 15m height and the same route of holds. But for Hunt to shave down her time, she said she still has strides to make both physically and mentally. The latter can often serve as a hurdle for her.
“I think I can just be a little too critical at times,” she said. “I can be my worst enemy, because I feel like if I don't think it's good enough, I'll keep going and going until I do think it's good enough. But at a certain point, am I really helping myself, if I just keep on going?”
But that’s exactly what Hunt did from the first time she climbed a speed wall: Kept going. And how far she’ll go is yet to be seen – but blink and you might miss it.