Jesse Grupper secures an Olympic spot

Jesse Grupper won the Boulder & Lead in the Pan American Games in Santiago, meaning he secured his ticket to the Paris Olympics. The Lead expert was #4 in Boulder getting 69.4 points, which left the 27-year-old roughly 15 points behind Sean McColl, Sean Bailey and Zach Galla. "On M3 I actually forgot that [the] timer starts at five seconds, not three, so I totally thought that I timed out. It was really shocking to find out that I actually got the top!"

In his favoured discipline Lead he was dominant, making it to the third last hold with 92.1 points compared to the runner up Sean Bailey with 57.1 points. Third was Zach Galla another three points behind. Complete results (c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

Grupper said to IFSC: "It feels unreal, for sure, it’s an incredible moment for me. I’ve dreamt about this since I was a little kid, and it is so meaningful to see it through to fruition and have it actually happen. I knew that I had some points to make up for from the Boulder round. I was proud of the Boulder round, honestly, I think I’ve pulled out some moves that I don’t know if I would have been able to do a year ago, but I also wanted to fight as hard as I could on the Lead wall. Coming out, I took it one move at a time, I knew that every move would matter, especially on that headwall, and I’m really glad that I was able to pull that out and make it happen."