Southlake’s Sam Watson will leave the Paris Games with another world record but without the Olympic gold medal.
The American broke the sport climbing speed world record on Thursday for the second time at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the feat came in the fight for bronze after he was eliminated in the semifinals.
The 18-year-old Watson, the heavy favorite for the gold, lost to Wu Peng of China in the semifinals with a time of 4.93 to Wu’s 4.85. He set the record time of 4.74 seconds in the third-place heat against Reza Alipour Shenazandifard of Iran, whose 4.88 seconds gave Watson the bronze.
Watson first broke the record with a time of 4.75 in an elimination heat two days ago. He had held the previous world record of 4.79 since April.
Leonardo Veddriq of Indonesia won the gold with a time of 4.75 in the final. Peng ended with 4.77 for the silver medal.
Watson’s day started with a win over New Zealand’s Julian David in the quarterfinal round, racing up the wall in 5.03 seconds to beat David’s 5.65.
Photos: Sam Watson breaks world record, wins bronze in speed climbing at 2024 Summer Olympics
Speed climbing is a a vertical race in which athletes compete side by side in a one-on-one bracket format and climb a 15-meter high wall with a 5-degree overhang while clipped into a rope hung from the top of the wall.
Sport climbing has become popular over the last 20 years, and there are more than 25 million climbers in 150 countries all over the world, according to Olympics.com. It made its Olympics debut in 2021 in Tokyo, where it was a single-medal event as the three disciplines — speed climbing, lead and bouldering — were combined into one competition. In Paris, speed climbing is its own Olympic event.
Watson would like it to become an NCAA sport — and even a UIL sport in Texas — to help it grow in the United States.
Aside from breaking his world record and winning the gold medal, Watson, a San Antonio Spurs fan, had said his other goal was to meet Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama, a 20-year-old generational talent who is playing for Team France.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Photos: Sam Watson breaks own world record in men’s speed sport climbing at 2024 Summer Olympics
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