Chris Cosser's Olympic Dream

Chris Cosser has made it to Tokyo by winning the Africa Championship. His best discipline is Speed where he did 6.87 although having just trained it more or less for two hours a week for six months. Until 2018, when he finished high school, he just climbed three times a year. (c) City Rock

"Once school finished I started to climbing 5 times a week at CityROCK Johannesburg where I really started to push my training as the Olympic goal became a focus. Since then I’ve been working toward the dream and kept trying to grow in the sport. Training in South Africa is difficult as the facility’s don’t currently cater for high-end training. I’ve spent a few months travelling around Europe both for competitions and training. In those months I truly understood what’s required to close the gap between Africa and the rest of the world. Now my objective is to do just that. The Olympics is the next set.

Speed is quite a cool one for me because it is homologated around the world which makes it even for everyone training it. Unlike the other 2 disciplines, South Africa is very far behind in terms of ability but with speed we are competitive, is it exposures or talent? For my personal speed training, I’ve just put hours in on the wall and have watched other athletes to see how they have trained speed."

The 20-year-old is hoping to move to Innsbruck in order to prepare for the Olympics. Last year, he participated in eleven Euro competitions placed #57 at his best among the seniors and #30 in the Speed World Championship among the juniors. "I’m also realistic about my goals for the OG." In any case, Cosser seems to be a talented Speed climber that should have chances to become Top-6 in Speed.