I recently competed in the Pan American Youth Climbing Championships. I grabbed a silver in ropes and bronze overall. There were teams from Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Columbia, Costa Rica and Mexico. USA had an awesome team and we won overall.
I recently went to the 2012 Pan American Youth Climbing Championships in Santiago, Chile. I competed in speed and sport; they did not allow Youth C to do bouldering. In sport, I did really well and took second. I tied for first with movement to the final hold, but instead of doing a super final, the tie-breaker was who climbed faster. Unfortunately, Carlos from Ecuador was 12 seconds faster.
Speed is probably my best sport – I took bronze at the last Pan American in Ecuador. I had trained a lot for speed, but never practiced on an IFSC wall with the special holds because they never use them for Youth C. Surprise! They used them at this comp and I got 10th. That was still good enough with my 2nd place in ropes to earn the bronze for overall. When the comp was over, I got to do fun things like boogie board in the only wave pool in Chile and then we flew to Peru to see Machu Picchu. It is even more incredible than it looks in the pictures! Since I am still too young to compete in Worlds, the Pan Americans are a great opportunity to travel the world, climb and hang out with climbers from different countries.