Samuel Watson's Speed Climbing Record

Samuel Watson, who hails from Southlake, Texas, is an American speed climber. At 4.798 seconds, he owns the world record (as of July 2024) for the discipline, which he achieved in Wujiang at the 2024 IFSC Climbing World Cup.

​

Watson became the youngest climber to win a gold medal in speed at the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland. He also broke the speed climbing records for the United States and the Pan American region in 2023 at the Seoul, Korea, IFSC Climbing World Cup in 5.02 seconds. Most recently, the 18-year-old qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics in speed climbing.

​

What is Samuel Watson’s speed climbing record?

At the 2024 Wujiang World Cup, Sam Watson established two world records. In the qualification round, he smashed Indonesia's Veddriq Leonardo's previous mark of 4.90 seconds with a time of 4.85 seconds. Incredibly, he ran up the 50-foot wall in just 4.79 seconds on his second run of the day, setting yet another record.

​

In practice the previous year, Watson was already setting records. He claims that on a few of his runs in Wujiang, he climbed the fastest he has ever climbed, but because of subpar reaction times, the total times were slower. Watson ranked eighth in the world at the end of the 2023 season, per the USA Climbing

​

Watson works out four to five days a week, two on and one-off, doing strength training and climbing in turn. Watson's strength training routine is created by USA Climbing's speed team manager Matthew Maddison, and his on-the-wall routine is led by fellow speed climber Albert Ok. Apart from making use of the knowledge of his fellow competitors, Watson also consults with a sports psychologist and nutritionist.

​

Samuel Watson’s most recent results, as per theIFSC,C are as follows: