From delivery man to world medallist, speed climber Erik Noya ‘started from the bottom’

Before he was standing on the world podium in speed climbing, Erik Noya was working as a delivery man for an app in Madrid. He also taught fitness clients in El Retiro, one of the largest parks in Spain's capital city.

He was a Venezuelan immigrant who had left everything behind – including his family – for a “radical change” with no certainty of continuing the sport that he loved, which had also been added to the Olympic programme ahead of Tokyo 2020.

“I came without anything,” Noya told Olympics.com about arriving in Spain, where he knew no one in the climbing community. “I think this is where we can measure the effort that we do to achieve our dreams and our goals: I started from the bottom.”

A multi-time national champion and speed climbing record holder (5.28 seconds) in Spain, he won the silver medal at the World Championships in 2021.

“It really changed my life,” the 29-year-old Noya said in Spanish. “After that medal I became a professional in speed climbing. It gave me the access to the high-performance training centre where I can be fully dedicated to the sport, so I don’t need to work in other things and I’m fully focused on training.”

Erik Noya: ‘I was afraid’

Though his parents and grandparents are Spanish, the family had relocated to Venezuela before Noya was born in 1994. He took up speed climbing at a time when the discipline was still little-known, with Venezuelan climbers being some of the “pioneers” of speed, Noya said.

Armed with nothing more than a gut feeling, Noya made the move to Madrid in 2017 and slowly began to integrate himself in the climbing world in Spain. The move was difficult on many levels, including personally and financially – and also held no guarantees for his future in the sport.

“It was very painful,” Noya said of leaving behind his family, including a grandfather he said he’d likely never see again. “When I left Venezuela, I knew I was not coming back in a long time, so it was a very complicated moment.”

Having studied to become a firefighter, Noya shifted gears to his delivery and personal fitness gigs as he integrated himself further into Spanish climbing, meeting people along the way and capturing the 2018 national speed title.

“Of course I wanted to continue with speed climbing but I needed some money to survive in my daily life,” he explained. “Little by little I started knowing people, and entered into the sport climbing circle in Spain.”

Erik Noya on Alberto Gines: ‘He is part of my family’

The 2021 World Championships were held just weeks after Tokyo 2020 in 2021, when another monumental moment happened in the sport as sport climbing made its Olympic debut. Its first-ever gold medallist?

Fellow Spaniard Alberto Gines.

Noya and Gines are close friends, and after Noya’s podium finish in speed at Worlds, the two grew even closer as Erik dedicated himself 100 percent to the sport.

“From when nobody knew who he was to when he qualified for the Games and then winning the gold medal... to me he’s always been an inspiration,” remembered Noya. “I was very lucky to see his whole process, something that still motivates me.”

“He is like a guide to me and really changed the scene of the sport in Spain.”

“The word that describes Erik is ‘motivation,’” Gines told Olympics.com last year. “There are days when I’m tired and don’t want to train anymore. Erik is there to cheer me up. He is like a brother to me.”

It’s a bond that Noya isn’t afraid of sharing just how much has impacted him, too: “We have lived so many things together... he is part of my family,” Erik said. “He is someone that will be in my life forever. I love him very much.”

Speed climbing at Paris 2024

While 2021 was the debut of climbing at the Games, 2024 will see the sport split into two, with speed climbing awarded its own set of medals in Paris.

For Noya, who crossed an ocean and changed his life with no certainty awaiting him, the Games don’t keep him up at night.

“But I dream with it,” he explained. “With the Olympic podium.”